Quantity Surveyors

carlson

Has anyone got any experience of using one of these - are they worth it and what did you pay?

Is 2.8% of construction costs the norm?

Doing a build at the moment and everyones fees seem to be astronomical - the construction slowdown has not seemed to hit the architect or QS sector from what I have seen anyway!

Any views appreciated.

Carlow52

carlson wrote: »

Has anyone got any experience of using one of these - are they worth it and what did you pay?

Is 2.8% of construction costs the norm?

Doing a build at the moment and everyones fees seem to be astronomical - the construction slowdown has not seemed to hit the architect or QS sector from what I have seen anyway!

Any views appreciated.

What do you expect the QS to do for you? and what is the cost of the next best alternative

The larger QS and building services firms ARE shedding staff.

Doing work for reduced fees while still paying high PI and other costs is not a viable business model; fees will only come down when the cost base comes down

carlson

My understanding is that they control the costs of the build and keep it within budget and do the tender doc and check the tenders coming in to see who is cheapest- I would have thought the cost is what the builder quotes with a bit of room for the unexpected either way. I am talking about a domestic extension with a budget of about .5m.

The builder keeping within the budget along with a bit of guidance from the project manager is the next best alternative.

Surely bargaining on fees is better than no fees though?

Have just received a very professional outline of what qs will do along with fees from a company - I am quite green in this area and need a bit of 'layman's language' How can they justify 2.8% plus 21% vat - just need someone to explain how they earn their fees?

I appreciate the reply Carlow52

RKQ

The QS will meassure all works and price everything. Provide a Bill of Quantities - a list of materials, lengths, areas and costs.
The QS will come on site to inspect construction and meet other members of the design team. The QS is like you construction Accountant. He / she can tell you the cost of each change or the cost of each different specification.
This is very useful at BER stage, as you can cost different insulation materials and work out the most cost effective solution for your project.
The QS is very useful in negioting with the Contractor especially near the end of the works - variations, revisions, unforseen elements etc.

kkelliher

Let me start by saying best of luck with the project.

As a "QS" I am of course going to say yes it is worth while. I always advise that people go down one of two routes if they want to keep control and be in full knowledge of what they are getting.

The first is a bill of quantities (BOQ) whereby each and every item is specified and a builder is required to put a price against each and every item thereby giving you full knowledge of what each item is costing and allowing you to make a clear and concise decision as to changes of items for savings. It also gives you a clear comparison on an item by item basis of the builders you asked to tender. In order to put together a proper BOQ you should spend time with your QS going through every spec you can to make it clear prior to sending out the tender what exactly you want item by item.

The second way to go is to spend time putting together the most concise specification you can for every item you want in the house. Most specifications for houses consist of a few descriptions down the side of a drawing. This leads to alot of problems for clients as they dont get what they actually wanted because the spec was too loose. If you can list down every item in a document includeing pictures or porduct references and then send this document wth the drawings to give the builder the complete list of what you want and what he is required to spec. The only downside to this is you will more often than not receive one figure back from the builder which if over your budget does not allow you to digest the information in order to make savings on individual items.

In self building there is no such thing as too much information when asking someone to price for you.

The cost of a BOQ varies greatly from practice to practice due to overheads and other reasons. You can get one person to do it who may not be fully qualified and have no Professional Indemnity Insurance and the next will have everything and have an office with four or five staff so its difficult to compare.

Commercially Quantity Surveying practices are charging 1-1.5% of projected build cost with 50-60% of the fee been attributed to BOQ production with the balance allowed against site visits for valuations and payments.

muffler

I would always recommend that the client get a BOQ. After that I think the person supervising the works can probably handle most other issues.

Quazzie

kkelliher, do you think the variation between your price (1.0%-1.5%) and the OP's price (2.8%) is because generally Commercial builds tend to be on a larger scale therefore less need for the raised level to cover standard base fees?

kkelliher

Quazzie

In general I would have to say no as the OP said his budget was approx 500k which at 2.8% is a fee of approx €14k which is off the wall for an extension (I also have to say €500 k is also very high budget for an extension).

Most Qs will have pro forma documents for this type of work and it will only be a measurement excercise.

Personally I charge a fixed fee for projects where the % works out under €5k, as you have to look at time on the project in sum instances.

The difference in PI insurance for the year for projects up to 600k and those up to a million is approx €300. There may be a fair difference when you go over €10 million but unfortunately i dont know what that cost is.

carlson

Thanks for your input - will get a boq done, but by someone as a nixer

Appreciate the replies