Quantity Surveyor Services

We provide a full range of Quantity Surveying Services at pre-contract stage including Estimating & Tendering services, as well as post-contract services to clients and consultants.

Being Client focused, we primarily aim to identify and establish the Client’s needs and project’s primary objectives, and to provide the best possible services resulting in a project that is completed both on time and within budget, and thus exceeding the client's needs and expectations. These services may include:

Initial Cost Advice / Feasibility Studies

To obtain optimum “value for money”, each project is carefully examined in detail.

The primary triangle of time, cost and quality forms the initial basis upon which the client’s needs and criteria are weighted so as to achieve an optimum balance. Once all possibilities are explored, the budget is agreed and the project may proceed to its development stage.

Our Practice can carry out feasibility studies for projects in the private and the public sector, including restoration of historical buildings, residential, commercial / industrial, development and civil engineering projects.

Our Practice also establishes the initial budget constraints by carrying out preliminary estimates based on cost data derived from previous projects and by measurement and pricing of the key elemental quantities with the method of “cost per meter square”. The budget is allocated amongst the various building elements to establish the limits within which each element is allowed to develop.

Decisions made at this critical stage have significant impact on the overall development costs.

Our role remains to challenge the design on behalf of the client, to ensure all cost limits are maintained and achieved.

Budget Estimating & Cost Planning

Once the project preliminary drawings have been developed, our Practice may carry out accurate preliminary estimates based on the “approximate quantities method”, by taking off approximate quantities derived from preliminary drawings, which are then priced to establish the project’s budget.

During the final design stage, feedback is carried out on each element to ensure it remains within limits and the overall cost remains within budget

Preliminary estimates and cost planning techniques have several benefits which can be summarised as follows:

  • Clients become aware of the magnitude of their investment.
  • The rest of the team members become aware of the budget and thus develop their part of the work in accordance to the budget constraints.
  • Building quality and performance are improved.
  • Cost-effectiveness and a value-for-money design are more likely to be achieved.
  • The amount of pre-tender analysis by the architect and quantity surveyor should enable more decisions to be taken earlier, resulting in a smoother running of the project on site.
  • Once the budget constraints are known the likelihood of design alterations is minimized during the construction phase.
  • High cost elements are identified early thus an opportunity is provided in altering design prior to its maturity.
  • A balanced distribution of expenditure among the various parts or elements of the building is likely to produce a more rational design.

Advise on Tendering Procedures and Procurement selection

We can provide advice on the available procurement systems and guide the client in selecting the most appropriate method of procurement (procurement system) for the particular project.

Building procurement systems are fundamentally divided into Traditional, Design & Build, Management and Design and Manage. Each procurement system encircles several forms of contracts available within them for the client to choose from. However, all four systems have different results on the project in terms of addressing the client’s requirements. This is supported by the fact that, all four systems may lead to the acquisition of a building, yet only a successfully chosen strategy can lead to a completed building that best addresses the client’s requirements, or needs. In reality, clients vary in their requirements, since what one may categorise as a primary criterion, others may categorise it as the last in their list of requirements.

Our experience at BAC allows us to provide the necessary guidance in establishing the client’s need for adopting the most appropriate building procurement system.

Preparation of Tender Documents

BAC can provide both accurate and detailed tender documentation for our clients, which actually forms the very basis upon which contractors will tender for the project, as well as the platform for comparing the received tenders in selecting the most appropriate contracting firm for the construction of the proposed project.

Through the collaboration of the rest of the project team members, BAC produces the following tender documents:

  • Instructions to Tenderers
  • Form of tender
  • Appendix to the Form of Tender
  • Contract conditions and amendments
  • Specification drafting based on the desired quality and workmanship included in the project drawings
  • Tender pricing documents ie. Preliminaries, Bills of Quantities, Schedule of Quantities / Rates (or contract sum analysis on design and build projects)
  • Schedules of work
  • Schedule of Prime Cost Sums and Provisional Sums

Once the above process is completed, our Practice proceeds with establishing the “final cost plan” by pricing the tender documents so as to provide the client with an accurate figure of the expected tender sum.

The most important part of the whole process described above is the preparation of the Bills of Quantities, which forms the basis for the calculation of the contract sum, as well as the very basis for extracting rates in case of variations to the design.

The Bills of Quantities produced by BAC are comprised by preliminaries, preambles or descriptions of materials and workmanship, and the measured works section. The preliminaries define the scope and nature of the work, contain details of the contract conditions, as well as any special instructions to the contractor on pricing the job concerning non-quantifiable items of work.

BAC can prepare accurate Bills of Quantities with extensive analysis which prove as an invaluable aid in providing:

  • an accurate reflection of the design in terms of the project’s cost
  • the basis for selecting the successful Tenderer
  • the basis for the preparation of valuations for interim certificates
  • the basis for valuation of design variations
  • a Cost plan for the client
  • an accurate cash flow projection
  • information for carrying out elemental cost analysis for use in future approximate estimating reports
  • the necessary information for planning and progressing by the contractor's site planner
  • the basis for the preparation of the financial forecast reports
  • the basis for the preparation of the Final account
  • a supplement to the quality and workmanship specified in the drawings
  • an accurate estimate of Nominated Subcontractor’s sums
  • Domestic subcontractor & suppliers quotations

Selection and appointment of Contractor

Clients vary, and so do their preferences. Our experience has showed that clients may generally be categorised in two categories; those who desire the construction of their project through competitive selective tendering and those who desire the construction of their project through negotiation with one, or maybe more, contracting firms.

Our extensive knowledge and experience of the market can provide professional and reliable services with regards to the selection and appointment of the most appropriate contractor.

Examination of tenders and tender reporting

Once tenders are submitted, a meeting will normally be arranged between the client, the Architect and the Quantity Surveyor for opening all valid tenders which have been submitted in accordance to the Tender Documents. During the meeting, the sealed tenders are opened and a list is drafted were all the tenderers and their corresponding tender sums are recorded.

The tenders are then collected for evaluation purposes. Once we have evaluated the tenders a tender report is prepared for the Client with our recommendations. The tender report provides such detail as to enable the client in making the final decision concerning the selection and appointment of the contractor. All tenderers are evaluated individually whilst comparison is also carried out between them so as to provide a clear picture of their pricing pattern.

Project Monitoring during construction

We have successfully delivered services to a wide range of clients which provided the fundamental knowledge in monitoring construction projects in detail and on a continuous basis.

Our services include:

  • Valuation of work executed on-site, calculation of any fluctuations in labour and materials (if applicable) for the purposes of issuing Interim Certificates including calculation of fluctuation of labour and materials.
  • Provide advice to the Architect and the Client on contractual and cost implications of variations prior to issuing variation orders.
  • Valuation and agreement of variations in accordance with the terms of contract.
  • Preparation of financial forecast reports at project intervals for keeping up to date the Architect and the Client. Financial forecast reports also provide the ability to maintain budget constraints during the construction of the project.

During the construction process of the project, we attend site meetings where project difficulties are discussed and solutions are provided by the project team. Our experience may prove vital to the project team in managing project costs effectively and thus maintain the budget constraints set out by the client at the initial stages of the project’s life.

The preparation of valuations for interim certificate purposes provides a clear picture of the progress of the works, thus enabling the project team to take corrective measures in case of insufficient progress to the works.

The preparation of financial forecast reports provides the ability to project the outcome of the project in terms of its final cost based on the information available at the date of the financial forecast report is being prepared. This is vital for maintaining budget constraints, since in case the financial forecast report indicates that the projected cost of the project is likely to exceed the client’s budget, corrective measures can be taken in altering certain design criteria through value management sessions, and thus reduce certain elemental costs in ensuring that budget constraints are maintained.

Preparation and settlement of Final Accounts

We undertake the task of the final account settlement on behalf of the client.

Final accounts in the construction industry form a binding agreement of the amount of money (i.e. final account sum) to be paid at the end of a contract by the employer to the contractor. The final account brings finality to the negotiations with the contractor leading up to the agreement of the final account between the parties to the contract.

Once the project has been completed, we collect all relevant information required for the preparation of the final account. Under most contract terms, the contractor is normally obliged to provide all relevant information required for the preparation of the final account.

BAC follows the procedure listed below for the preparation of final accounts:

  • the Contract Sum (the sum stated in the Contract) is taken as the starting point
  • all variation orders which had not been valued during the construction phase of the project, are valued
  • re-measured works are valued where applicable and included
  • the valuation of all variation orders is carried out
  • the adjustment of all provisional items is carried out
  • the adjustment of all prime cost sums is carried out
  • work executed on an approved Daywork basis is valued
  • loss and expense claims / reimbursement claims are accurately assessed and included
  • fluctuation of labour and/or materials, where applicable, are calculated and included

Once the above tasks are carried out, the settlement of the final account sum follows, which entails the drafting of the final account and negotiation with the contractor on behalf of the client.

The final account is signed by the parties of the contract once agreement of both parties is reached.

Special Services

Value Management

Value Management is a problem solving approach offering Client focused value learning, alignment and realisation. The understanding of function and value is central to Value Management. The emphasis on function helps the project to remove any existing solution orientated paradigms, which may exist amongst the team members and obscure the best ‘Value’ approach.

A quantitative expression of the above would be, Value = function / cost.

Due to our multifunctional experience through our profession, our Practice is able to carry out Value Management sessions in delivering the functional value of a project to the client.

It is recommended that Value management sessions be carried out at the initial stages of the project, yet they could also be carried out during the construction phase of the project.

These problem solving techniques provide the tool for deriving the greatest function for the least cost. Simply put, a product has the best value when it produces the greatest function for the least cost, where function is what an item does, not what it is.

At its most simplistic form, the function of a door hinge can be described to ‘support weight’ and ‘enable rotation’.

Due to our specialisation, experience and generic knowledge of the complex nature of the construction industry, we can assist the client in forming a value management system which will form the basis for carrying out value management sessions with the client and the rest of the project team members in deriving the best functional value of the project.

Such special services are provided only upon request by the client.

Claims Management

On behalf of a client our practice may undertake the task of assessing claims submitted by the contractor demanding reimbursement, and evaluate the actual loss and/or expense incurred.

Such special services are provided only upon request by the client.