Estimator's Piping Man-hours Tool  

Second Edition, Revised and Expanded  

A Practical Guide to Calculating Man-Hours for Carbon Steel Process Piping Installations  

Bid process piping installation with field-proven productivity rates and a digital calculator that applies the same criteria as the book.

Written by a chemical engineer and former construction company president with more than 40 years of experience leading EPC projects (refineries, petrochemical plants, gas pipelines, and thermal power plants), this manual brings together the calculation models, man-hour tables, and correction factors you need to estimate carbon steel process piping fabrication and installation accurately and protect your contract margin.

WHAT'S INSIDE THE BOOK

• 15 field-validated man-hour tables: cutting, beveling, welding, and erection of carbon steel piping.
• Pipe-attached supports: fabrication and installation man-hours for wear pads, lugs, trunnions, shoes, and similar attachments, calculated from the piping dry weight.
• Standard estimating conditions: analysis of prefabrication strategy and adjustment factors.
• Flange assembly per ASME PCC-1: parallelism, rotational, and gap tolerances, with practical guidelines for flange alignment.
• Industrial valves: man-hours for flanged gate valves, butt-weld end valves, wafer, control, and safety/relief valves.
• Surface preparation and consumables: blasting and painting rates per square meter and weld filler metal consumption.
• Complete worked examples: from the isometric drawing all the way to the final bid.

INCLUDES ACCESS TO THE PMHT APP (WEB AND MOBILE)

Every reader can activate a free trial of Piping Man Hours Tool (PMHT), the author's app that turns the book's data into an interactive estimator:

• Multi-standard: carbon steel components per ASME (B31.3, B36.10M, B16.5, B16.9) from NPS 1/2" to 24", European DIN/EN (DN 15–600 / PN), and Chinese GB/CN (DN / MPa).
• Pipe, fittings, flanges, and 7 valve types, with diameter-inches (D.I.), MH/D.I. productivity, and pipe cut/scrap allowance.
• Man-hours by craft (pipefitters, welders, grinders, riggers, and helpers) plus a shop/field split based on prefabrication percentage.
• Field factors: site (brownfield and congestion), location (rotations and offshore), temperature, wind, and work elevation up to 50 m, with the combined factor capped at 2.50× (AACE 25R-03).
• Dry and hydrotest weights for sizing pipe supports and racks.
• MTO import from Excel or CSV using a downloadable template: no more line-by-line data entry.
• PDF, Excel, and CSV reports with summary, itemized MTO, crafts, and support loads.
• Runs on PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Android, installs as an app, and keeps a project history with backup.

Activation instructions and the reader code are inside the book, on the page with the QR code. After the trial, an optional lifetime license is available.

WHO IT'S FOR

Cost estimators, piping engineers, mechanical contractors, construction managers, and supervisors in oil and gas, mining, power, and industrial construction.