We produce accurate and detailed Bills of Quantities for private clients and main contractors tendering on projects to assist them in submitting competitive tenders for projects. We produce two types of Bills of Quantities:
- Firm (to obtain a lump-sum price for a fully designed building project)
- Approximate (subject to re measurement as built)
Construction Pal’s Surveyors can produce approximate bills of quantities which are mainly used when there is insufficient details to prepare firm bills of quantities or where the client has decided that the time and cost of a firm bill of quantities is not warranted. These types of contracts do not provide a lump-sum price, but instead tender price totals (i.e. a quantified schedule of rates), since the quantities are subject to re-measurement on completion by the quantity surveyor. In general, these contracts are usually subject to greater variation than lump sum contracts and therefore should only be used where time is a limiting factor or where there is great uncertainty in respect of certain elements, such as major excavations and earthworks.
It is important to note that the initial resource cost of approximate bills of quantities is likely to be lower than firm bills of quantities, but the need for re-measurement invariably results in an overall higher resource cost. Although the measured quantities are approximate, the descriptions of work items should be correct in the approximate bill of quantities.
Bills of Quantities that are required for a lump sum contract based on firm or approximate quantities will normally be prepared by the employer’s quantity surveyor, whereas under a design and build contract, the employer’s project team will prepare the employer’s requirements and the Bill of Quantities or quantified schedules of work will be prepared by either the main contractor or, more likely, the main contractor’s work package contractors. In general, the choice of who quantifies building works is solely down to the employer’s preference of contract strategy
Composition of Bills of Quantities
The Bills of Quantities which we provide our clients with can include the following main sections:
- Form of Tender
- Summary (or Main Summary)
- Preliminaries, comprising two main section as follows:
– Information and requirements; and
– Pricing schedule
- Measured works (incorporating the contractor designed works eg. pre-cast concrete floors/stairs, windows etc)
- Risks;
- Provisional sums;
- Credits (for materials arising from the works);
- Dayworks (Provisional); and
- Annexes
