Suspended slab soffit
$92/m² formed face
Props, bearers, joists and ply to the underside of the slab. Set out to the project engineer’s drawings.
Formwork subcontractor · Welshpool WA
Formwork rates for Perth jobs, published.
Suspended slabs, columns, cores and blade walls for head contractors across the metro — priced per square metre of formed face, on this page, tonight.
18 carpenters, two leading hands, our own props and ply — 650 m² of deck a pour, and a priced schedule of rates back within two working days of drawings.
Schedule of rates
Rates are per square metre of formed face, supply and fix, our props and our ply. Level one builds the deck; every level after it re-uses that deck and bills at 88 per cent of the level-one rate.
Blade & retaining walls
$118/m² formed face
Single- and double-sided wall forms with walers, ties and braces. Both faces counted where both are formed.
Columns
$135/m² formed face
Square, rectangular and blade columns, clamped and plumbed, stripped and re-set on the level above.
Core & lift-shaft walls
$148/m² formed face
Shaft boxes, kickers and landings. The dearest face we form, because the access is the job.
Repeat levels
88% of the level-one rate
Applied automatically from level two up, on every element. It is in the estimate, not in a negotiation.
Concrete, reo, pump, crane
Not ours to price
Supplied by others at their rate. We will not guess somebody else’s number into your tender.
Every formwork subbie in Perth quotes on request. Here are the rates, and here is the repeat-level discount you would otherwise have to negotiate for.
How we count formed face
- Suspended slab soffit
- Measured on plan, to the inside of the edge form. Drops and upstands are measured with the wall they belong to.
- Blade & retaining walls
- Each face that is formed. A double-sided wall counts twice; a wall poured against a shored face counts once.
- Columns
- Perimeter times the formed height, per level, whatever the shape.
- Core & lift-shaft walls
- Inside and outside faces where both are formed, plus the kicker.
Measured differently in your bill of quantities? Send it as measured. We price to your schedule rather than argue about the method.
The Formed-Face Estimate
A four-level deck is priced below to start you off. Change any of it underneath — and every level count you did not pick stays priced at the same size.
Suspended slab soffit drawn at level one 3 repeat levels ghosted above
Total, formwork
$217,672
2,600 m² of formed face over 4 levels
Effective rate
$83.72/m²
Level one alone prices at $92.00/m²
Every extra level lowers the effective rate and raises the total. On this deck the rate has fallen $8.28/m² from the level-one rate, and the total has risen every step of the way. Give one subbie all four levels; split them across four and you pay the level-one rate four times.
Element
The bay drawn above gets denser as the deck grows. The rate per square metre does not move with the size of the deck — only the total does. A 100 m² pour and a 2,500 m² pour are the same rate at the same number of levels.
What the other level counts cost, same deck, same element
Why an estimator rings us second, not fifth
You are pricing a job tonight and three subbies have not called back. Here is what we do differently.
A rate before the phone call
The schedule is on the page. Put our number in your tender, then ring us to firm it up — not the other way round.
Our own props and ply
18 carpenters, two leading hands, and a yard in Welshpool holding our own props, bearers and form ply. No hire schedule turning up as a variation.
The repetition is priced, not promised
Level two onward bills at 88 per cent. It is in the arithmetic above, it is in the subcontract, and it does not need to be argued for at week six.
We work to your tender date
Tell us when yours shuts and we sort the queue by that date. If we cannot make it we say so the same day rather than go quiet.
- Send the structural drawings or your schedule Marked-up PDFs are fine. A slab plan and a typical section is usually enough for a rate.
- We price the formed face A priced schedule of rates back within two working days, on the same rates you can see above.
- We hold a crew slot Named leading hand, deck size a pour, and the strip-and-re-set cycle we are pricing to.
- Set out and pour To the project engineer’s drawings, with the head contractor’s surveyor on the set-out.
What head contractors say
“First subbie I have priced off a published rate. The tender number and the subcontract number were the same figure, which almost never happens.”
“Four suspended levels, no lost days on the strip cycle. Their leading hand ran the re-set while we were still pouring the one below.”
“They told us the crane and the pump were not in their rate before we asked. Saved a fight at the first progress claim.”
Demonstration copy for a fictional business. On a real build these come from the client’s own referees and their reviews feed — and they are never marked up as structured data on a page that is not real.
Where the crews work
Yard in Welshpool. Suburb-level only on this page — the suburbs are real, the business is not.
Welshpool yard
Suburbs we form in
Inner ring: crews most weeks. Outer ring: priced with a travel line, stated up front.
Questions estimators actually ask
Will you take a single level, or only multi-level jobs?
We will take one level. It prices at the level-one rate, because there is no deck to re-use, and the estimate above shows you exactly what the repeat discount would have been if the job carried on upward. We would rather you saw that number than found out about it on the next tender.
Why is level two cheaper than level one?
Because the deck is already built. The props, bearers, joists and ply are on site, the crew is up the learning curve, and the set-out is a repeat of a bay they have already formed. That is worth 12 per cent, so levels after the first bill at 88 per cent of the level-one rate. It is applied in the estimate above without anybody having to ask.
Do you supply the props and the ply, or do we?
We do. Our yard holds our own props, bearers and form ply, and the rate above is supply and fix. If your job needs a proprietary system we do not hold, we will tell you before we price it rather than after.
How fast can you turn a rate around at tender?
A priced schedule of rates within two working days of receiving structural drawings. Put the tender date in the enquiry form and we sort the queue by it. If your date is tighter than two days, ring the number at the top and say so — we will tell you the same day whether we can do it properly.
Can you price off a bill of quantities instead of drawings?
Yes. Send the measured schedule and we will return it priced line by line at the rates on this page, with the repeat-level factor applied to the levels above the first. We would still want a typical section before we commit to a programme.
What size deck can your crews turn over?
Around 650 square metres of deck a pour with the full crew, on a normal strip-and-re-set cycle. Bigger decks are split into pour zones and we will show you the zones we are pricing to, not just the total.
Send us the job
The tender date field is the one nobody else gives you. Fill it in and we sort our pricing queue by it.
Got it — you are in the queue by date.
A priced schedule of rates comes back within two working days of us having structural drawings, and we will ring before that if anything in the measure looks off.
- Tender shuts
- —
- Project suburb
- —
- We will call
- —
Demonstration only — nothing was sent and nobody will call. On a live build this posts to the client’s CRM and raises a task against the tender date.