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Estimating & Bidding

Overhead

In Plain English

The indirect costs of running the business and managing the project that are spread across all work.

Definition

Overhead refers to the indirect costs of running a construction business or project that cannot be directly charged to a specific work item. It includes both field overhead (general conditions) and home office overhead such as executive salaries, rent, and marketing. Contractors recover overhead through markups applied to direct costs.

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