Div 06 · Cost Consulting
What the work should cost, from the one party not selling it.
A number you cannot test is a number you accept on trust. One front-loaded schedule of values can outrun a year of advisory fees before anyone notices.
Nearly every number a project shows you was produced by someone with a stake in it — the contractor's bid, the estimate built inside the GC's margin, the change order priced after the leverage shifted. Cost consulting is the independent check: what the work should cost, whether the number in front of you matches it, and what to ask for when it doesn't — in writing, before the money commits. We hold no construction contract and no procurement stake; the answer is the entire product.
Written recommendations within two business days · Nothing to prepare · Mutual NDA from the first conversation
Division
Div 06
Phase
Planning → Construction
Issued for
Owner review
Sheet
S-106
The record behind the judgment
$280M+
In capital projects delivered
20 yrs
Design and construction, both sides of the table
Zero
Unplanned outages, live data-center upgrade
Secret
Active U.S. DoD clearance
What cost consulting covers
A defensible number has a lifecycle, and the service follows it. In planning, that means a feasibility budget built from the project you actually intend to build — hard costs, soft costs, escalation, contingency — so the land decision and the loan rest on something that survives contact with bids. Through design, estimates get reviewed at each milestone, so scope drift shows up as a number while it can still be designed out instead of as a bid-day surprise. At procurement, bids get leveled: scope, exclusions, allowances, alternates, and unit prices normalized line by line, so you compare offers instead of formatting. And during construction, change orders and pay applications get checked against the contract's own pricing before money moves.
The deliverable is the same at every phase: a written opinion of what the work should cost, where the number in front of you differs, and what to ask for. You stay the decision-maker on every dollar — our job is to make sure you're deciding against a benchmark instead of a blank.
Where owners lose money on the numbers
The patterns repeat. An owner negotiates with a single bidder and no should-cost benchmark, so the only reference for the price is the price. Bids get "compared" on the bottom line while one carries an allowance the other excludes entirely. Unit prices and allowances are set generously at contract signing, then quietly become the pricing basis for every change that follows. A schedule of values gets front-loaded, and the retainage protecting the finish trades is thinner than it looks. And change orders arrive priced mid-project, when the cost of saying no is a stopped job — which is exactly what the price reflects. None of this requires bad faith; it is what happens when every number in the room belongs to someone else.
What we deliberately don't do
Aldermont holds no construction contract, performs no procurement, and takes no fee tied to the numbers we review — deliberately. We are not a bidder's estimator of record and not a takeoff service; the licensed GC owns their means, their methods, and their price. What we hold is the owner's question — does that price match the work? — and we answer it in writing whether the answer is yes or no. The owner decides. We advise.
Asked about this service
What does a construction cost consultant do?
A cost consultant builds and defends the owner's side of the numbers: feasibility and planning budgets, estimate reviews as the design develops, bid leveling at procurement, and pricing scrutiny of change orders and pay applications during construction. The common thread is independence — a consultant who holds no construction contract has no reason to make a number look better or worse than it is. The deliverable is a written opinion of what the work should cost and how the number in front of you compares.
How do I know if a contractor's bid is fair?
Not from the bottom line — two bids are rarely pricing the same job until someone normalizes scope, exclusions, allowances, alternates, and unit prices line by line. That leveling is half the answer; the other half is a should-cost benchmark built independently of the bids, so the market's number gets tested against the work's number. In a single-bid negotiation the benchmark is the only leverage you have, which is why it is worth building before you sit down.
What's the difference between a cost consultant and an estimator?
An estimator prices work on behalf of the party performing it — the number carries their employer's interest in winning the job and protecting the margin, which is a legitimate job that isn't yours. A cost consultant works for the party paying: we review estimates rather than produce competing ones, and we have no bid to win. On larger projects the two coexist by design — the contractor estimates, and the owner's consultant checks.
Can you review a change order price?
Yes — a disputed change order is the most common way owners first call us. The review runs in a fixed order: origin first (owner decision, unforeseen condition, or design gap — the origin decides who pays), then entitlement under the contract, then quantities and pricing against the contract's own unit prices and markups. The recommendation reaches you in writing before you sign anything. If you'd rather start small, the $350 project review is built for exactly this — and it's credited in full against your first invoice if you engage us.
Two ways in
Start where the risk is lowest.
Orientation call · 20 minutes · no fee
Find out whether you need us at all.
Fifteen minutes on your project, five on a straight answer: whether an advisor is worth your money at this stage, what it would take, and what it would cost. No documents, no preparation. If the answer is that you don't need one yet, you'll get that answer too — it's the cheapest thing we can tell you.
Project review · 60 minutes · $350, credited if you engage
Bring the project. Leave with recommendations.
A working session on your actual documents — the parcel you're weighing, the drawing set, the budget, the permit path you can't see through. Written recommendations land within two business days, in your hands to act on with or without us. If you engage us, the fee comes off your first invoice in full.
What to prepare: nothing.
Send whatever is already on your desk — a site address, a PDF set, a bid, a change order, a letter you don't like the tone of. Or send nothing and just talk. Working out which of it actually matters is the job you're hiring, not homework you owe us first.
Related field notes