How Do You Price General Conditions?

General conditions are the GC's cost of running the job site that no trade's scope covers. The definition is in what general conditions are; this post prices them. GSA's estimating policy lists what field requirements and office overhead and profit include, from "Management, supervision, and field engineering" and "Temporary construction" to "Maintenance and housekeeping", and says they "can be estimated as a percentage allowance or by using detailed cost build-up" (GSA P-120).

A percentage is fine for a budget before the design is done. For a bid, build them up: most general conditions cost is time, so the schedule is the quantity. Two jobs of the same value can carry very different general conditions if one runs 30 weeks and the other 50.

1. Start from the bid schedule: mobilization, the major phases and substantial completion. See how to read a construction schedule.
2. Staff the job: for each person, the weeks on site and their share of time. Price at the loaded weekly cost of each person, not the base salary.
3. Price temporary facilities by the month: site office, toilets, temporary power and water, fencing, and their removal.
4. Price site services by the unit: dumpsters by the pull, progressive cleaning by the week, final cleaning as a lump sum.
5. Price equipment the GC provides for everyone (a telehandler, a hoist) by the month it is needed.
6. Add insurance, bonds and permits only where the contract puts them on the GC and they are not in your markups.
7. Check each item against the subcontract scopes, so temporary power, hoisting or cleanup is not in both places.
8. Total it, split time-based from fixed, and work out the weekly cost of the last weeks of the job.

The no-double-counting rule is old. The federal cost principles say no cost may be charged indirectly "if other costs incurred for the same purpose, in like circumstances, have been included as a direct cost" (FAR 31.203(b)). On a bid, the same logic keeps a cost in one place: general conditions, a sub's scope or your overhead, never two.

The job is fictional: a three-story office with a 40-week schedule. The superintendent is on site from a week before mobilization to a week after substantial completion; the assistant superintendent covers the busy weeks 10 to 34; the project manager spends half their time on the job.

Staff add up to $184,800 + $84,000 + $93,600 + $75,000 = $437,400; temporary facilities to $12,500 + $6,000 + $16,200 = $34,700; site services to $32,400 + $19,500 + $14,000 = $65,900. With $31,200 of equipment and $18,000 of insurance, the total is $587,200, or $14,680 per week of schedule ($587,200 ÷ 40). The time-based part is $587,200 − $19,500 − $14,000 − $18,000 = $535,700.

That is the number to use when a delay is priced, not the $14,680 average: the end of a job is leaner than its middle. A delay in the middle, with the assistant superintendent and the telehandler still on site, costs more per week than either.

• Staffing every person for the full schedule, or only for the construction weeks and not preconstruction and closeout.
• Pricing staff at base salary instead of their loaded cost (taxes, insurance, benefits and a vehicle).
• Forgetting the removal of temporary facilities and the last month's rent.
• Carrying temporary power or cleanup that the electrical or a finish sub already carries.
• Using an average weekly rate to price a delay that happens at a different stage of the job.

Home-office overhead and profit come after general conditions; see how much overhead and profit a GC should carry. How general conditions fit into the whole bid is in how to build an estimate from sub bids, and the rest of the GC's path in the general contractor's guide.

In Conflo's Estimate, general conditions have their own tab. Each row is a category, description, quantity, unit and rate, priced per week, per month, each or as a lump sum, and grouped into supervision and staff, temporary facilities, site services, equipment, insurance and permits, and other, with a subtotal for each group and a general conditions total.

The markups then show direct cost, general conditions and their sum as cost, before contingency, fee and the rest are applied in the order you set. The estimate is visible only to the general contractor.

General conditions are mostly the cost of time. Price each person and each rental for the weeks or months it is on the job, keep fixed items apart, and check nothing is also in a sub's scope.

Then work out the weekly cost at the end of the job. When the schedule moves, that is the number you will need.

See how the estimate works in Conflo

1. P-120, Public Buildings Service Cost and Schedule Management Policy Requirements (PBS 1000.6B, November 7, 2022), 3.5 GSA Cost Estimate Elements — U.S. General Services Administration (via WBDG). Read October 22, 2026.
2. FAR 31.203, Indirect costs — Acquisition.gov, U.S. General Services Administration. Read October 22, 2026.