RSMeans Data Online Reviews

Great data, excellent product database, great Square Foot model, I have the full blown professional version which comes with unit prices, assembly prices and square foot models for all types of buildings for all divisions for all locations throughout the USA. By zip code, you can set the labor type - union or open shop ...

Too costly - I paid $$$$ for the full blown version and it is missing some components. Such as LED light fixtures SF costs. Columns are hard to adjust. The layout of the website is not user friendly. To create a SF Model is not user friendly at first. It needs to be more intuitive, and easier to follow. The first thing you have to do is name the project in order to generate any kind of data out of the SF model - well the Name Cell is way down the bottom of the web page - and not up near the top - so if you select the type of building you want and size etc -- it will not generate a SF model .... I have been using RS Means for over 10 years - I started using it in 2004 and they had CD versions then they came out with one license agreements for a server type version - then it was named Costworks - I truly loved the CD version of RS Means Costworks - The best part of having CD is if you lose internet you are not out of business like I was the other week!!! For over 8 hours I had no power in my house therefore no internet and using a Hot Spot does not do the trick when you are searching a database with over 30,000 items....

Depth of the cost data is impressive.
Ability to "modify" and customize into "assemblies" is powerful.
Software keeps a "running tab".

Customization seems very proprietary and cumbersome.
Experience is required to learn the language and "assignments" of materials to categories and assemblies.
Pricing adjustments seem to require being in Excel at which point, that specific work is not "saved" to the program.

The database of materials and labor is second to none in my opinion and I like that the program includes the square foot estimator and life cycle cost tools.

The ease of use when developing estimates and square foot models is lacking, and could use some revisions to allow for more functionality. It would be nice if in the square foot model you could adjust the quantity without having to swap an assembly, and it would be good to also have the ability to delete multiple line items at a time when revising the model to best fit the building application. Additionally, it would be helpful if you could define more of the characteristics of a building (i.e. wall construction vs finish, roof construction, roof material, window type, etc.). Within the estimate area it would be helpful if all of the different sections (CSI format, Uniformat for Commercial New Construction, and Uniformat for Facilities Maintenance and Repair) all exported with the same columns and data. Most of my clients like to have their data in a specific format that is not RSMeans export so creating a template is difficult and can be time consuming.

It makes my estimating easier and faster. It would be impossible to estimate a project without RS Means. Its also gives me an advantage to check subcontractors quotes. In addition, I can bid projects in different areas around the country, which has open vast business opportunities in the construction industry that I would not be able to accomplish before I had the program.

I wish program had virtual "Cortana" like Microsoft. Sometimes I need to find an item and I don't know how to ask RS Means what the item is and all I get for a response is that there is no line item. Also, I wish they had more items to chose from and good example is ceramic tile such as: 12" x 24", 18" x 18", 24" x 24". These items are becoming more prevelent. RSMeans needs to keep up with HGTV as items are changing with the times.

Overall, its interface is user friendly for the most part.

Its several lag on load time when scrolling. That the database lacks almost anything that is specialty or modern technology. Pricing is a joke at best and forces me to struggle with almost every proposal (FYI, I have been using this product since it was just a book). The annual cost increases are always a sticker shock. I understand as a product grows in popularity and comprehensiveness that there is a need for cost increase for the logistics of it alone, but the price increases seem to jump by leaps and bounds. This can be very hard to encumber, especially when used for a contract that is not as lucrative but requires your software.

We use RSMeans a lot for the purpose of completing cost reasonableness reviews for change orders and other construction costs. The software works very well for this purpose and we feel like we get reliable data to base our decision making process on.

Sometimes when estimating RSMeans software can be difficult to used simply because materials or assemblies aren't defined in the same way they are commonly referred to in the industry. For instance there should be an assembly for a NFPA 13R fire sprinkler system.

1) I like that we can tweak the individual components within the SF model.

2) I like being able to take an existing model I've created in past years and update it with current (or whatever year is relevant) costs to create an estimate for a different year version.

1) Historically, the cost of this tool has skyrocketed much faster than inflation every year.

2) Sometimes we make square foot models and the output doesn’t include costs for what I would assume are key parts of the building. We’ve had issues in the past with roof structure not being a part of the model but recently I generated a model that didn’t have costs for interior partitions, even though it most definitely should have. Is there a way for them to tell us which models exclude certain costs? Sometimes these are difficult to catch in our reviews.

There isn't a single aspect we like about this software.

The software is unreliable! It has costed our company several hours of lost productivity. If you call customer support for a technical issue it takes several days to get an issue resolved. They say they'll call back and they don't. They say you can log in in 15 minutes and you can't. They sell this software to Customers who require contractors to use it, but when the customer requests a quote, the contractor can't provide it because the software is down. I think Gordian needs to realize the contractors are their customer too! We pay thousands of dollars to use a software that is unreliable!

The ease of using and the quaterly updates.

Obvously everthing is not in the data base. So I may have to estimate and get close to use a line item.

The name and cost date compiled by R S Means is known nation (or world) wide as a respected source of cost data. It is easy to use and estimators everywhere can generate a consistent estimates.

Means needs to increase their intuitional/industrial cost data.

I liked the ease of picking up the software functionality for gathering reasonable quotes for new and renovations to buildings, streets and treatment plants.

At times I found that the software was lacking in overall speed when loading requested search items. I was able to minimize this issue by refining my search request as best I could but for new users attempting to compare all items of a requested search it will slow down RS Means, and you would have to wait until the system loads the various items. This was mainly an issue when I had over 700 results for a single search.