Property development is an industry that involves the work of many specialists from many different fields. One of the most integral components of the large and diverse workforce involved in the construction of property is the quantity surveyor.
We at PPQS agree that without somebody fulfilling this role, the development of property is impossible. Quantity surveyors are responsible for managing the financial aspects of construction and keeping their clients within the allocated project budget.
They are also in charge of managing the contractual agreements between their clients and other parties involved in the construction of a property. While administrating this process, they will interact regularly with contractors to ensure that all parties involved are staying within their budgetary constraints.
The large amounts of money required to build the property must be managed and traced by whoever is in charge of quantity surveying. Otherwise, a construction project can potentially exceed its financial constraints which can cause serious issues.
From the offset of a construction project, an expert in quantity surveying can produce something called a cost estimation. With this, clients can determine the feasibility of their construction goals from a financial point of view.
What Is Cost Estimation?
A cost estimation must be put together by someone who specialises in quantity surveying. This task has to be completed during the beginning phases of a property construction project. A cost estimation needs to be delivered to the client before on-site construction begins.
Firstly, the client must meet with an architect in order to communicate their construction plans. This will allow them to acquire blueprints for the property they are intending to build. At this point, the client can now give these blueprints to whomever they have hired for quantity surveying.
From this point, the quantity surveyor can use the blueprints to acquire important information such as spatial measurements and details about the kinds of materials the client wants to build with. With all this information, they can then calculate the construction costs that can be expected.
The quantity surveyor will take off measurements from the drawings and calculate the cost of construction. The construction cost is the estimate that a client should budget for if they intend to go ahead with the project.
It is unlikely that clients will be able to calculate cost estimates by themselves. Quantity surveyors have a highly specialised set of skills that allows them to perform this task. They are able to construct accurate cost estimates due to their extensive knowledge of the construction industry and the price of materials and services used in building development projects.
Why Is Cost Estimation Important in Quantity Surveying?
The cost estimation they provide to their clients can be cross-referenced with the overall construction budget. Clients can then determine whether or not their goals are financially realistic. If it is decided that the cost estimation exceeds the budget, clients can rely on their quantity surveyors to provide alternative construction options.
The job of the quantity surveyor is not to actualise their client’s goals but to provide counsel on the viability of what they are trying to achieve with their construction project given the allocated budget.
This means that clients must understand that their quantity surveyors may strongly disagree with specific areas of design in their blueprints, especially if certain building materials are bringing the projected costs above the budget.
Depending on the outcome of the cost estimate, it may even be necessary for an entirely new design to be created. Otherwise, quantity surveyors can use their knowledge of the construction material market to suggest alternatives to specific areas of a client’s design.
This can include the decreasing of a property’s spatial dimensions or the replacement of expensive building materials with more cost-effective alternatives. While this may conflict with a client’s aesthetic vision for the property, it is imperative that they remain within their budget in order to maintain the viability of their investment.
With the information imparted to them by their quantity surveyor, clients whose initial design plans exceed their budget will then have to communicate with their architect to come up with an alternative design.
If the client and architect take into account the information provided by the quantity surveying cost estimation, the redesign should easily be well within the constraints of the budget. Architects can also communicate directly with the quantity surveyors in order to get their take on the new blueprints to further expedite the process.
How Does a Quantity Surveyor Create a Cost Estimation?
One of the biggest hurdles faced by quantity surveyors when facilitating the financial aspects of a construction project occurs at the very beginning when they have to come up with the cost estimation required by their clients.
As we have discussed, the cost estimation is done before boots touch the grounds of a construction site. This means that quantity surveyors need to manage the expectations and visions of their clients ahead of construction to ensure that all expenses down the line will not jeopardise their goal of sticking to the budget.
Another tricky aspect of creating the cost estimation is the uncertainty surrounding how events will unfold once construction commences. Any number of issues could arise during construction that can potentially lead to more money being needed than what was projected at the start.
An experienced quantity surveyor will have to take such uncertainties into consideration to make sure that their client’s financial interests are secured. This requires a concrete understanding of what the building process will look like from start to finish.
Quantity surveyors are thus tasked with not only reducing construction costs as much as possible but also with maximising their contingency funds should problems occur later on down the line. This is the tightrope upon which they must balance when producing a cost estimation.
If they manage to pull the cost estimation off effectively, by the end of the construction process quantity surveyors can expect to deliver exactly what was assured to their clients on schedule and within the budgetary constraints they came up with.
One of the ways in which quantity surveyors can begin developing the cost estimate for their client’s construction project is by creating a work breakdown structure. This is an important tool used to assist these financial specialists with comprehending the scope of the project ahead.
From here, quantity surveyors can develop an understanding of the kinds of tasks that will need to be done. And from that, they can use their knowledge and skills to determine timeframes for each aspect of work.
They can then begin the job of allocating roles (contractors) for each of these tasks. Combining the cost of these roles with the timeframe in which the work must be carried out allows a quantity surveyor to begin developing the cost estimate.
Now having figured out the projected costs of the work that must be done on the site of construction, quantity surveyors can then begin allocating the costs of equipment, materials, and other assets required for each role of the building process.
Overlaying the projected costs of these resources on top of the costs for the tasks that need to be done with these resources gets us closer to the final cost estimation. As you may now see, creating a work breakdown structure greatly assists in the process of developing a proper and reliable cost breakdown.
It is important to note here that, as suggested previously, during this process a quantity surveyor should be trying to minimise the costs of these resources as much as possible. This entails them drawing on their knowledge and expertise in the construction market. They should be looking for the most affordable sources of the resources their client’s construction project requires.
Quantity surveyors often make use of software specifically designed to expedite the process through which construction designs can be interpreted to produce a reasonable cost estimation. Programs such as DimensionX are very popular for this reason.
Software such as DimensionX can be utilised by quantity surveyors in order to seamlessly translate the designs produced by architects into measurements that can then be used to determine construction costs.
What Are the Other Responsibilities of a Quantity Surveyor?
We have spent a lot of time discussing the cost estimation task performed by individuals in the quantity surveying industry. But what are some other roles these specialists undertake during the building process?
The job of a quantity surveyor is not exclusive to just preparing a cost estimation. In fact, their job requires them to remain involved in the construction process from start to finish. If you are interested in learning more about some of the other responsibilities involved in quantity surveying, here are a few examples for you:
People working in the quantity surveying field need to have a comprehensive understanding of the construction industry and market at all times. Prices fluctuate constantly and quantity surveyors need to take note of these changes in order to produce precise cost estimations and to ensure that the resources and materials required for construction are affordable.
It goes without saying that there are numerous legislative requirements that properties have to adhere to both during the construction process as well as after. One of the many roles performed by those in quantity surveying is that of ensuring that legal requirements are adhered to throughout the construction process.
Sometimes issues arise during the construction process that necessitates a change in the budgeting or contractual agreements. The quantity surveyor will be tasked with ensuring that these alterations are documented for financial purposes. If the budget needs to be shuffled as a result, it is their job to assure that this is done.
They are in charge of preparing and managing the contractual agreements signed between their clients and workers. This is considered to be one of the most important tasks carried out by those tasked with the role of quantity surveying
Since they are handling the signings of these contracts by each party involved personally, they will also be tasked with inspecting the terms and conditions of any contractual agreements that may be necessary to produce in order to facilitate the development of the client’s property.
PPQS Offers Expert Quantity Surveyor Services
If you are preparing to invest in the development of a property and are in need of qualified quantity surveying, we at PPQS can provide you with excellent services in this regard. Our cost estimation services, among others, are credible, accurate, and dependable.
For more information on the services that we provide to our clients, feel free to browse our website or contact us directly via email or over the phone. We are based in Cape Town and are able to provide our quantity surveyor services across many regions of South Africa at large. Contact us for further details or to schedule a meeting.