How Do You Quote a 500,000 Square Foot Scan-to-BIM Job?

An email comes in asking for a quote on high accuracy 3D laser scanning and scan-to-BIM. Interior and exterior, registered point cloud converted into a Revit model. The sizes floated were 50,000, 100,000, 200,000 and 500,000 square feet. That is the kind of inquiry a lot of us get once or twice a year, and it is the kind that is easy to get badly wrong in either direction.

Here is how I would think about it before putting a number on paper.

Square footage is the wrong unit. Field time on a terrestrial scanner tracks setups, not area. A 100,000 square foot distribution warehouse with clear sightlines might take 60 setups. A 40,000 square foot hospital floor with hundreds of small rooms, corridors and door swings might take 400. Same argument on the modeling side: hours track object count and the messiness of the as-built conditions, not the floor plate. Ask for drawings, even outdated ones, and ask for a room count before you quote anything.

Accuracy and LOD are two separate questions, and both belong in the contract. For the scan, the USIBD Level of Accuracy specification gives everyone shared language, and LOA20 versus LOA30 is a real difference in control, registration effort and equipment. For the model, Level of Development drives the quote more than anything else on the page. LOD 200 architectural is a different business than LOD 300 with MEP above the ceiling. Get the system scope in writing: architectural only, or structural, or mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection too. MEP is where budgets go to die.

Site conditions drive the day rate. Occupied or vacant. Ceiling tiles opened or not, and who opens them. Lift access for high bays. Badging, escorts, safety orientation, COI limits, night or weekend work, prevailing wage. Exterior means a survey control network and probably drone work for roofs and site, and if the deliverable has to land on state plane coordinates you need a licensed surveyor on the team, not a scanner operator with a handheld GPS.

Then structure the price so it survives scope creep. I would price field capture as a day rate with a stated setup range, registration and deliverable prep as its own line, and modeling per square foot banded by LOD and by system scope. On anything over 100,000 square feet I would propose a paid pilot zone first: scan and model 10,000 square feet, get sign off on the model standard, then price the rest from real production data instead of a guess.

Questions for the room:

Do you quote large scan-to-BIM per square foot, per day, per deliverable, or some hybrid? What are the questions you ask a client on an inquiry like this? And for those of you who have delivered at 200,000 square feet and up, where did you get burned the first time?

Topics covered in this discussion include: scan-to-BIM, terrestrial laser scanning, Revit, USIBD Level of Accuracy, BIM Level of Development, point cloud registration, MEP modeling, survey control, as-built documentation

How do you price a large space scan? Share your approach in the comments below.