Estimator’s Piping MAN-HOUR TOOL (Third Edition)
Third Edition — Revised & Expanded. Includes reader access to the PMHT Web & Mobile Digital Suite.
Underbid a piping job and you absorb the overruns; overbid it and you lose the work. This book gives estimators a reliable, field-based method to calculate man-hours for the erection of aboveground carbon steel process piping designed to ASME B31.3, and then adjust them to the real conditions of each job.
From standard hours to the real hours of your job
A new chapter shows how to adjust standard hours with field factors and a management factor:
- Site: greenfield or brownfield, by congestion, work permits, and coordination with operations.
- Location: from industrial hubs to remote, hard-to-reach sites.
- Temperature and wind: their effect on crew productivity outdoors.
- Work height: added hours as piping elevation increases.
- Prefabrication: field hours saved by shop-welded joints and shop-to-site distance.
- Management factor: contractor experience, quality of engineering information, labor and union environment, and ground conditions.
The worked examples were solved again with this method, comparing step by step full field erection against erection with shop prefabrication, so you can see the savings in numbers.
New valve production tables
Weights and erection man-hours up to NPS 24 and Class 1500 for gate, globe, check, and ball valves; wafer butterfly and dual plate check valves; butt-weld end valves (with a practical guide to welding a valve without damaging it); PSVs per API 526; and control valves. Includes valve water content for hydrotest planning.
New chapter: final bolt tightening
Ten new man-hour tables for the hours most often left out of the estimate, covering manual torque wrench, impact (slugging) wrench, hydraulic torque, and hydraulic tensioning.
Also in the book
Man-hour tables for pipe, fittings, flanges, and branch connections; pipe-attached supports; flanged joint assembly per ASME PCC-1; surface preparation and painting; and SMAW consumables. Long tables use alternating row shading for easier reading.
The PMHT Digital Suite
- ASME, DIN/EN, and GB/CN standards, NPS 1/2" to 24".
- Import Material Take-Off spreadsheets (.xlsx / .csv) with automatic schedule mapping.
- Instant man-hours by component, size, schedule, and site conditions, with adjustable productivity factors.
- Pipe weights and hydrotest loads for pipe rack and support design.
- Export itemized PDF reports and CSV/Excel files ready for proposals.
- Works on PC, Mac, tablet, or smartphone, with full offline use on the jobsite.
Ideal for cost engineers, piping estimators, project controls staff, proposal specialists, field superintendents, mechanical contractors, and EPC firms.
Activation instructions and access codes for the digital suite are printed inside the book.
📱 Try the PMHT app free for 5 days: no credit card, no book purchase required.