Is that a BQ or a Christmas Turkey?

Is that a BQ or a Christmas Turkey

Bills of Quantities,


by milkynice

One of my recent tweets was a wish list of twelve things that I would like for Christmas and which hopefully will transpire through the forthcoming year.

Of that 12 things, there is one in particular that I really would like to come true the most. I have been a good Quantity Surveyor student all year, I didn’t swear at any Architects, I didn’t approximate tonnes to a whole number and I didn’t talk back to my seniors.

So please AYO deliver this : The one I want to come true is ‘ Contractors to give more time for QS’s to produce BQ’s’.

Let me set the scene here, this is an experience you could have daily as you do a lot of work for Contractors and time is just one factor.

A tender comes into the Contractor, it is a design and build contract so there is usually a specification, a set of drawings (you will be lucky if they are slightly more detailed than the planning issue) and a set of Employer’s requirements. There is no bill of quantities only a contract sum analysis.

The Contractor needs a bill of quantities produced and so he invites a few Quantity Surveyors to submit a fee to produce a BQ. Contractors want more than builders quants now; they want a detail BQ produced, measured to SMM7.

Let me point out the problems associated with that, by the way Contractors know these problems exist, however sometimes they choose to ignore them.

Issue 1. Design information : the drawings that come with even traditionally procured tenders are rarely up to stage F of the RIBA plan of work – Production Information. This means that as QS’s producing bills of quantities we cannot act outside of our limitation we are only able to make a reasonable assumption and qualify it or exclude. You cannot measure detail quantities on this level of information.

Issue 2. Time : the continual squeeze on time available to tender comes down from the top i.e. the Employers QS , the Project Managers or the Architects that are administrating the tenders. Contractors need to give this feedback to them.

Issue 3. Cost : I am more than aware than the cost of producing bills of quantities at tender stage is a financial gamble for contractors, they may expend a huge amount on a tender and not win the contract. But Contractors need to realise that the cost of bills of quantities in today’s market place is usually calculated on hourly rate x hours and it is really as simple as that. Some Contractors think they can get a bill knocked out for a rate that would be less than the hourly rate they employ their own QS’s for and they think that you can squeeze two working weeks i.e. ten days into five.

Issue 4. Quality. The first three are the key ingredients for the BQ Christmas dinner, drop one of them and you haven’t got the right recipe. To get things right you need to pay a reasonable fee, you need to give the Quantity Surveyor as much time as possible to produce the BQ and you need ensure that your expectations for the returned BQ are reflective of the information you have sent out.

SMM7 code D20.10.2.3 - Filling to make you stuffed, obtained off site from Supermarket

Moral of this Christmas story – if you don’t give the QS enough time to produce a BQ – you are going to get it back like an undercooked Christmas Turkey!!!



Yours The Quant..... Surveyor