World widely too many jobs in construction field. Quantity surveying is one of major job in construction field. In this blog we discuss about quantity survivor and regarding other parts of connecting with quantity surveying.

What does meant by “quantity surveying?”

Quantity surveying is the action or profession of a person who estimates the cost of the materials and labour necessary for a construction job.

Who is a “quantity surveyor”?

Quantity surveying doing by quantity surveyor.

A Quantity Surveyor is a construction professional whose main expertise is primarily to carry out an estimate, project cost control and quantity take-off.  His duties also include commercial, risk and contract management to ensure that the party he works for gets the best value for money and to allow for a smooth project flow from inception to completion.

Quantity surveyor is not limited to construction field. He can work in

How can you be QS?



 

Who are the separate workers work with QS?

So many jobs & positions connect with the QS, in construction field. These named as “building team”.

The Building Team

The Employer - The employer, who is called the client or building owner, is the organization or person who commission the construction project and who pays the cost of the work. Much of the success of a building contract will depend on the employer. To ensure satisfactory outcome, he should select a competent consultant and cooperate effectively with him.  The employer should, as far as possible, refrain from requesting changes to the original design as the work proceeds. Such variations often results in delays and disorganization of the work can give rise to increased costs and claims from the contractor.  It is most important that the employer shall honour the certificates issued by the consultant within the period inserted in the appendix to the form of contract. Contractors should be timely paid to prevent cash flow problems.         Finally, it should be borne in mind that most employers want what they need, when they want it, and at a price they can afford.

The Consultant 

- The consultant is regarded as the leader of the building team. The consultant receives the commission to design and supervise the erection of the building.  Consultant will certainly need assistance from other specialists, for example, structural engineers may be required to design the structural frame, mechanical and electrical to design the M & E services, and quantity surveyors to advice on contractual and cost aspects and prepare bills of quantities and other contract documentation.

The consultant is usually wholly and entirely responsible for the preparation of the contract, including the formulation of designs for the project. He is virtually in sole control of the project until the contract is signed. He should make it clear to all tenderers that he is acting on behalf of the employer. Once work has started on the site, he is responsible for ensuring that the contractor carries out the whole of the work in accordance with the contract and to the consultant’s reasonable satisfaction.  Consultant is normally the only member of the building team with an overall view of the project, and his functions usually include liaison with the employer, representatives of local authorities, and with other consultants and specialists. Liaison with the contractor will start at an earlier or later stage depending on the type of the contract.

The consultant’s first task, after appointment, is to discuss with the employer his building requirements. This often emerges as a list of needs, commonly referred to as “the brief”. When both site details and the principal building requirements are known, preliminary designs can be prepared. At this stage, the consultant will begin to select his team. 

In preparing preliminary schemes it is generally necessary to consider the comparative costs of alternative proposals, and a quantity surveyor should be appointed. 

The consultant’s procedure then follows often on the following lines:

1.      Preparation of preliminary schemes, including estimates, as part of a feasibility study.

2.      After approval by the employer, preparation of sketch plans and approximate estimates.

3.      Preparation of structural and services schemes either by consultants or specialist sub- contractors.

4.      Preparation of cost plans in consultation with the quantity surveyor.

5.      Preparation of working drawings and invitations for tenders from specialist suppliers and sub- contractors, if these items are to be dealt with as prime cost sums.

6.      Preparation of bills of quantities with quantity surveyor.

7.      Suitable contractors will be invited to bid. To enable them to reach a firm decision, they will be informed of the general nature of the work, the date when bills will be available, and the dates for submission of bids and completion of works.

8.      Formal invitation to bid with full documentation.

9.      Receipt of bids, evaluation of bids, advice to employer on selection of contractor and preparation of contract document.

10.  Supervision of construction work.

11.  Certifying payments to the contractor throughout the contract.

12.  Issuing variation orders and other consultant’s instructions as necessary.

13.  Directing how provisional sums are to be spent.

14.  Securing and remedying of defects at the end of defects liability period.

15.  Certifying the final account.

 

The consultant acts as expert adviser and agent for the employer. The contractor is justified in treating every order received from the consultant as a direct order from the employer.

The Quantity Surveyor

- Construction cost, construction management and construction communications are all key problem areas for an employer who has commissioned an important building or engineering project. A quantity surveyor is professionally trained, qualified and experienced in dealing with these problems on behalf of the employer. He is essentially a cost expert whose prime task is to ensure that the project is kept within the agreed budget and that the employer obtains value for money.

Some of the services he offers are preliminary cost advice and cost planning, preparation of bid documents, advice on type of contract and method of obtaining bids, negotiation with contractors, and valuation of work in progress and settlement of the final account. 

He will at all times need to collaborate very closely with the consultant.

Range of services which Quantity Surveyor can offer: 


1)        Feasibility studies.    

2)        Procurement procedure.

3)        Budget Estimating.    

4)        Cost / Design comparison. 

5)        Contractual procedure.   

6)        Value advice.

7)        Preparation of Bill of Quantities.  

8)        Bid evaluation and reporting. 

9)        Site re-measurements.    

10)   Rate negotiation. 

11)   Checking of monthly payments and final accounts. 

12)   Financial reporting and cash flow projections. 

13)   Claims assessment and negotiations. 

14)   Advice on and participation in arbitration.   


 

The Project Manager - Roles played by project manager will be described later. The Contractor - The contractor is the person or the firm who undertakes to complete a building project in accordance with the contract documents on behalf of the employer. He should have the full control of all operations on site, including the work carried out by nominated subcontractors. The contractor is to proceed regularly and diligently with the works and to complete by a specified date. Failure to comply with this requirement may render the contractor liable for the payment of liquidated damages. He receives all his instructions through the consultant. But he has dealings with other parties to the contract, such as the quantity surveyor, when he measures and values completed work.  The contractor employs personnel to take charge of work on the site and for large projects there can be a site agent. The contractor often employs a quantity surveyor to safeguard his financial interests.  The Subcontractor / The Supplier - Roles played by subcontractors and suppliers will be described later. The Clerk of Works / The Resident Engineer - Roles played by above personnel are described later. 

What is role of QS in construction field?

The Role of the Quantity Surveyor As building work increased in volume and complexity, employers became dissatisfied with the method adopted for settling the cost of the work and recognized the advantage of employing an independent quantity surveyor. He had to prepare an accurate bill of quantities to be priced by bidding contractors and who would measure and value any variations that might occur during the progress of the works. It is defined the quantity surveyor’s role as to ensure that resources of the construction industry are utilized to the best advantage of society by providing, the financial management for projects and a cost consultancy service to client and designer during the whole construction process.

The following briefly describes the Role of the Quantity Surveyor in detail.

Preliminary Cost Advice - From the inception of a new building project, the quantity surveyor has to give practical advice on the likely cost of the scheme. He may advice on the comparative costs of alternative layouts, materials, components and methods of construction. He can also assess how long it will take to build and can produce estimates of future maintenance and operating costs. Once the employer’s brief is finished, the quantity surveyor can prepare a realistic budget and a cost plan showing the distribution of costs over the various elements.

Cost Planning - Cost planning aims to help all members of the design team to arrive jointly at practical and efficient designs for the project and to keep within the budget. Effective cost planning will help to ensure that everything follows in accordance with the estimate, from the successful contractor’s tender to the final project cost.

If the employer decides to change his plans and introduce variations, the quantity surveyor will assess the cost implication. Constant monitoring means that the risk of overspending can be seen at an early stage and prompt corrective action taken.

Cooperation between Consultant and Quantity Surveyor – for cost planning

The Quantity Surveyor acts as a specialist adviser to the consultant on all matters concerned with building cost. He offers considerable assistance to the consultant in advising on the financial effect of design proposal and so helps in ensuring that the money available is put to the best possible use and that final costs are kept within the agreed budget.

Where the estimated cost of an element exceeds the cost target, then either the element must be re- designed or other cost targets reduced. Where a number of design elements would have to be adjusted to keep costs within the total cost limit and this would result in a building of undesirably low quality, the design team should request additional funds from the employer. 

Contractual Method-  Numbers of contractual procedures have evolved from competitive bids, as the traditional method, to negotiated tenders with a single contractor and “design and build” contracts, where the contractor undertakes the whole task of design and construction. The quantity surveyor canadvice on the best form of contract for a specific project.

Bidding - Competitive bidding, often from a selected list of contractors, remains a common basis for construction contracts. Bills of quantities are fundamental to this process. Bills of quantities translates the drawings, schedules and specification notes in to a document listing in detail all the component parts required for the project. This enables each contractor to calculate his bid price on exactly the same basis as his competitors. In the absence of such a bill being prepared on behalf of the employer, each contractor will have to prepare his own quantities in the limited amount of time allowed for bidding. 

Choice of Contractor-  The quantity surveyor provides sound and practical advice on contractor selection. The quantity surveyor will take factors such as, industrial relation record, past performance, in to account in making recommendations to the employer on the make up of the selected list.

Valuation of construction works - In most construction contracts, the contractor is paid monthly. The quantity surveyor will value the work carried out each month on the project and submit a recommendation for certified payment. He will also settle the final account and prepare financial statements for the employer. It is important to ensure that any variations, claims or extras do not raise the likely final account figure above cost limit. It is necessary to monitor the financial effect of variations and these should be costed by the quantity surveyor before they are issued.

The Role of the Quantity Surveyor in the public and private Sectors

 In both the public and private sectors, the quantity surveyor as a member of the design team, advice the employer and consultants on the probable costs of alternative designs. His advice enables design and construction at all stages to be controlled within predetermined limits of expenditure. 

He prepares bills of quantities and negotiates with contractors, prepares forecast of final costs and valuation for payments to the contractor as work proceeds. 

He is responsible for the measurement and valuation of variations in the work during the contract and for the preparation and agreement of the contractor’s final account. 

The Role of the Quantity Surveyor in the Contracting Organization

In contracting organizations, the duties of the quantity surveyor will vary according to the size of the firm employing him. The quantity surveyor employed by the contractor will aim to secure maximum payments for the work done at the earliest possible time to avoid any possible cash flow problems. This has however to be undertaken within the provisions of the contract and the contractor cannot receive more than his contractual entitlements.  

The contractor’s quantity surveyor’s activities can include preparing bills of quantities for small projects, collecting information about the cost of various operations from which contractor can prepare future estimates, preparing precise details of the materials required for the contracts in hand, compiling target figures so that operatives can be paid production bonuses, preparing interim costing so that the financial position of the contract can be ascertained as the work proceeds and appropriate action taken when necessary, planning contracts and preparing progress charts in conjunction with site management, making application to the consultant for variation orders if drawings or site instructions vary the work, agreeing the value of variations and subcontractors’ accounts, and comparing the costs of alternative methods of carrying out various operations such as temporary works, so that the most economical can be adopted.