QS

[Jenjen]

Hi everyone

 

A friend of ours is a quantity surveyor and has mentioned helping us out with our project. I was wondering how much a quantity surveyor typically costs and what the typical level of involvement is. I see it as a good way to keep control of costs however would imagine in a main contractor scenario it is slightly less crucial. Just trying to work out if the extra spend is worthwhile?

 

thanks in advance! 

[Nickfromwales]

Hi

If you plan on being hands on, a QS can give a valuable insight as to whats going to cost what. On an extension project I found it made an invaluable reference document to glean extras we had ( sometimes inadvertently ) undertaken, and basically identify anything that was above the original contact ( and therefore was chargeable ). If you're not hands on and are using a contractor then its equally of value IMO, for the Friday afternoon sit-downs where the stage payments are approved; eg how much work was supposed to have been done and what HAS been done to warrant the next stage payment.

[Nickfromwales]

QS was ~£200 for the above.

[newhome]

25 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

for the Friday afternoon sit-downs where the stage payments are approved; eg how much work was supposed to have been done and what HAS been done to warrant the next stage payment.

 

Yep, earned value calculations. I suspect that most people don’t do enough of that in a self build which is one of the reasons contractors bugger off once the remaining payments are worth less to them than the work still left to do. 

 

33 minutes ago, Jenjen said:

however would imagine in a main contractor scenario it is slightly less crucial.

 

As Nick says it’s still really important to stay very close to the budget even if you are using a main contractor. There are many tales of horror on here where using a main contractor hasn’t worked out as people envisaged. 

 

 

[ToughButterCup]

Staying on top of your budget is hard nitty gritty work. Often done when you are tired; and therefore error-prone.

 

Employing a QS is a good starting point - but we found the hard way that its only a starting point. Naively, I assumed that the QS work would be accurate until - by accident - I found a couple of howlers in his work, (a couple of thousand logged instead of a couple of hundred). I suspect that there were a few more that I didn't pick up.

 

A QS' work is merely an indication of cost. Every heading needs to be checked

1 hour ago, Jenjen said:

[...]

however would imagine in a main contractor scenario it is slightly less crucial.

[...]

 

In my direct experience, one QS employed on the contractor's recommendation appeared to have an unhealthily close relationship with our QS. Unknown to me at the time, I later found they were drinking mates. 

 

Finding out who knows who, and knowing how they relate to one another is worth the effort. That information depresses the price.

Building trades act and relate to one another as does any other  elite.

[joe90]

1 hour ago, Nickfromwales said:

QS was ~£200 for the above.

 

Thats little to pay for a GOOD QS regarding what you are spending, as a project manager and builder in a previous life I didn’t need one but I found myself having to justify “spend” to my wife who didn’t understand building costs. I also had a brilliant main contractor so consider myself very lucky after reading stories on here.

[the_r_sole]

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Edited September 26, 2019 by the_r_sole

[Alexphd1]

£200 mentioned above for a extension is a lot less than I was expecting. For our build project I don't see what value a QS could bring to the project but we are not a normal build.