In LEED NC, when given a price from a subcontractor, we're able to use a 45% default for the actual material cost in order to exclude labor from that price. I do not see anything in LEED EBOM Reference Guide, CIRs, or Addenda with any related language to the 45% default. We have a schedule of values for all of the items in a small tenant improvement project. A couple of the items - the ones that we're claiming sustainable attributes for - we do have actual costs of the materials from those sub contractors. I am only needing to estimate material costs for a few other items in order to make a complete submission.

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David Posada

Integrated Design & LEED Specialist

SERA Architects

LEEDuser Expert

1361 thumbs up

Fri, 06/24/2011 - 20:58

The lack of guidance on whether we're allowed to use the 45% default value for material cost could be an unintentional omission (to quote the movie Harold and Maude: "consistency is not really a human trait"). The CI Reference guide uses the 45% default, so it seems reasonable to use here. Still, you might get questioned by a reviewer, so it might be worth asking the sub or vendor to estimate the percent of material cost in case you need that as back-up. The only reason I could imagine not allowing the 45% default value might be the argument that facility alterations under EBOM can involve fewer trades and be less typical than the full scope of a CI or NC job, and thus wouldn't "average out" as consistently, but that seems like a stretch. Stranger things have happened, though!

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