Guides and Articles
Quantity Surveyors: Construction Costs, Estimates and Project Changes
Explore quantity surveying, including estimates, cost planning, tender comparisons and the financial effect of construction changes and completed work.
Quantity surveyors work with construction costs. Their subject is the financial description and management of building work, rather than the measurement of property boundaries. Quantities, project information and cost records help explain how a construction proposal develops and how changes affect it.
Estimating and Cost Planning
An estimate expresses a view of cost based on the information available. Cost planning develops that picture as a project becomes more detailed. An early building concept and a later package of detailed project information provide different bases for the discussion.
RICS identifies quantity surveying as a construction cost role distinct from other surveying specialisms. A project’s physical design and its cost description are connected, but they answer different questions.
Quantities and Different Types of Work
A construction project contains different work elements: the supporting structure, exterior enclosure, internal spaces and building services, for example. Quantification describes the work in a form that supports cost analysis. A change to one element may affect more than the price of one isolated item.
For instance, a revised interior arrangement can change the description of several work packages. Understanding that relationship gives a cost discussion more substance than comparing only the project’s overall total.
Tender Comparisons and Project Changes
A tender is an offer concerning proposed work. Comparing tenders involves understanding what each includes, rather than treating different totals as automatically comparable. A missing work item and a differently priced equivalent item are different findings.
During a project, a proposed change raises another cost question. The original estimate, the agreed work and the changed proposal describe different points in the project’s history. Cost reporting connects those points so the client can understand what has changed and why.
Completed Work and the Project Record
Valuing completed construction work concerns progress within the project. It is different from estimating the market value of the finished property. A real estate appraiser addresses that property-value subject.
Land surveying supplies another different output: boundaries and measured site information. Engineering addresses technical assemblies, while quantity surveying relates the project description to construction cost.
Quantity Surveying Questions
Does quantity surveying establish a land boundary?
No. The construction cost role and land measurement are different professional subjects.
Is the lowest tender always directly comparable with the others?
Different inclusions or work descriptions can produce different totals. Understanding the underlying work is part of a meaningful comparison.
Is an early estimate a guarantee of the final cost?
An estimate reflects its information and stage. Later design development and project changes can alter the cost picture.