Whatever happened to the QS?

It seems that all construction professionals have got together and decided to push all responsibility onto the contractor. This in turn pushes up the cost of building and unbeknown to the client they are paying a premium for this extra responsibility.

Having spoken to estimators who have worked for 40 years or more I hear tales of how tender enquiries used to be. Drawings were not always required to price a project as the bills of quantities were so detailed. Whatever happened to the quantity surveyor who used to produce these detailed bills?

Rather than bills of quantities and a set of detailed drawings you usually receive a few drawings missing vital details and a schedule of works that is missing items and finishes with the statement: ‘It is the responsibility of the contractor to check the drawings and make sure all items are included.’

What has the client paid the quantity surveyor to do? To price the job I would need to measure the items so why not just cut out the quantity surveyor all together? Anyone with the capability to read and write can copy items straight from a drawing that an architect has produced and list it all out.

When you price a bill of quantities you know what you are pricing, there is a description and a quantity. A schedule of works is not as clear and as estimators you find yourself thinking, ‘Well I’m not quite sure about this item, I better add a bit more to it just in case’. If all contractors are doing the same thing you are not getting the most competitive quotation.

Without a bill of quantities all contractors will look at a project slightly differently. Therefore the client is not always getting quotations that are like for like. Is this value for money for the client? I don’t think so.

I am sure that the many quantity surveyors out there are all saying ‘We don’t get a big enough fee to spend the time producing a bill of quantities’. Well, I can believe that. However, does the client realise that by paying less to the quantity surveyor they are actually paying more for a project? Collectively quantity surveyors should be advising the clients of this before the art of quantity surveying is lost.