Cost Estimating

Know what your project costs before you're committed to building it.

Committing to a building project without a reliable cost picture is one of the most common ways construction projects get into trouble. Preliminary budgets based on rough assumptions, square footage rules of thumb, or optimistic early estimates can carry a project through months of design work before the real number surfaces — usually at tender, when the owner is fully committed, the design fees are spent, and changing course is genuinely painful. Getting the cost right early isn't a luxury. It's the decision that protects every decision that follows.

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WHY VIGILANT

WHAT WE DO

Vigilant provides construction cost estimates at every stage of design — not just at tender. From early concept through construction documentation, we produce cost positions that reflect where the project actually stands at that moment. An owner working with Vigilant knows their budget position at every major milestone, not just when the bids come back.

Our estimates are produced by dedicated cost professionals whose sole mandate is accuracy. They carry current knowledge of material costs, labour rates, and contractor margins specific to Atlantic Canadian construction — in both Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. A cost position built from national databases or out-of-region benchmarks will not reflect what a building actually costs to construct in this market.

Because our estimating, architectural, and civil teams work together from the start, our cost positions cover the full project scope — site, civil works, and building construction priced together, not in separate documents the owner has to reconcile.

Our cost estimating practice predates our design practice. We were producing construction cost estimates for owners before we drew our first building — which means cost accuracy has been central to this firm since before it was an architecture firm at all. That history is not incidental. It is why Vigilant is structured the way it is, and why every service we deliver is built around giving owners an honest picture of what their project will cost, from the first conversation to the final account.