Key Post: Building a House

[onq]

As a Chartered Quantity Surveyor can I please advise any self builders or anyone building a house not to waste €250 in employing someone to prepare a Bill of Quantities. There is no benefit in doing so in a one off house unless it will cost of €1m to build. Send out your plans to most builders and they will give you a detailed breakdown. Even if they dont insist that they do as most builders are desperate for work. I accept that a Bill of Quantities will list out all the materials required but in most self builds their will be changes throughout the build process. Of course banks want cost certainty but this is easily achieved by using a cost/m2 and adding a few contingency sums. Anyway if you are going down the self build route you should have some experience of building and a piece of paper with a list of materials is not going to solve all your problems.

Are you sure you're a Chartered Quantity Surveyor?

The title is protected by law now and not to be bandied about.

The reason I ask is that it costs a lot more than €250 to prepare a Bill of Quantities.

€250 is what it costs to get dyno rod to come out and spend two hourse clearing a drain.

I've just organized Budget Cost estimate for a Bank presentation for a client and even that cost a LOT more than €250.

So on the face of it I just don't know where you're coming from with the €250 charge for a BoQ.

A BoQ can achieve useful savings and cost control on houses in the half million euro range, never mind €1M.

FWIW

ONQ.

 

[onq]

As a Chartered Quantity Surveyor can I please advise any self builders or anyone building a house not to waste €250 in employing someone to prepare a Bill of Quantities. There is no benefit in doing so in a one off house unless it will cost of €1m to build. <snip>

Let me develop my query of your qualification to a personal one.
In this thread you've advised people not to retain a QS on a once-off under €1M.

Are you the same Patrick 2008 who posted the following in:
http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?p=922664#post922664

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28-08-2009, 09:21 AM

Frequent Poster
Posts: 59


Re: New build spreadsheet list
Hi Jollyman. I agree to some extent with you in paying a Chartered QS to prepare BOQ's etc for a one off house as it is relatively easy to prepare a schedule of materials etc. Of course this depends on the complexity of the design, the Clients know how etc. I do think it is benefical to employ a QS who has influence with suppliers etc. For example I can get material prices from most of the suppliers I use in the Leinster area for 20-30% less than you can. That is because the company I work for build a few thousand units a year so we have better buying power. I have acted as QS forsome clients as a side job and my suppliers have given me this discount to pass on to my clients. So for example the materials element of a self build can be anything up to 25% of total build cost. So if your final build cost is say €200,000 and the materials cost is €50,000 then a good QS cansave you up to €15,000 on materials alone. And all for a fee of a few thousand euro. This does not include savings that can be made on labour rates and savings on other efficiencies throughout the build process.

Bear in mind a QS has to spend 4 years in college and a further 2-3 years to gain Chartered status. A spreadsheet will not save you money but a good QS with good contacts and commercial acumen will.

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In the above quoted response you're telling people what a good idea it would be to use a QS on a house one fifth the price - €200K.

Patrick 2008, in case you don't get it, consistency is the key to online credibility.
Unless there is an overriding reason for doing a complete 180 degree turn on advice you've posted, it diminishes your credibility.

Stating you're a Chartered QS and then posting inconsistently while offering advice you are supposedly professionally trained to give may undermine not just your good self, but also the profession of which you claim to be a member.

You say;

"I have acted as QS forsome clients"

Are you a qualified and competent chartered QS or not?

I ask because your current stated position on houses under a million is at complete variance with your previous statements.
I have known and worked with a few QS's and the one thing that they all are is consistent.
And the one line they all say is that employing a QS will always bring benefits on budgeting and cost control and they will advise on which is the best service to obtain from them.
Similarly every QS I know will tell you that a Builder's QS works for a builder and not the client/employer and that you should retain your own professional advisors.

Your advice therefore is not at all what I would have expected to read from a Chartered Quantity Surveyor.

Over to you.

ONQ.