Our Quantity Surveying & Construction Cost Services

A quantity surveyor works on the commercial side of a building or civil engineering project — the cost, the measurement and the contract. The work starts before anything is built and continues until the last payment is made. Practically, that means a quantity surveyor:

• Prepares a budget and cost plan at feasibility, so a client knows whether a scheme is affordable before appointing an architect or engineer to design it in detail.
• Measures the design and prepares the Bills of Quantities, the document that describes and quantifies every item of work to be priced.
• Prepares or checks the tender documents, analyses the tenders that come back, and reports on the comparison and any qualifications in the bids.
• Projects the cash flow so the client knows how much money is needed in each month of the construction programme.
• Values the work as it is executed and prepares or checks the interim valuations and payment recommendations on which the contractor is paid.
• Measures and agrees variations — the changes instructed after the contract is signed — and advises on their cost and contractual effect.
• Produces periodic cost reports showing the certified cost, the anticipated final cost and any movement against the budget.
• Drafts and agrees the final account, and quantifies claims when they arise.

We are usually appointed by the employer — the developer, institution or owner of the project — and act as one of the professional team alongside the architect, the engineers and the project manager. Quantity surveyors are also appointed by contractors, and by the parties to a dispute who need the works measured and valued as evidence.

The single most common reason a project overruns its budget in Kenya is that cost advice arrives too late — after the design is fixed, after the client has committed to a site, or after the tender has been returned. Design decisions made early set the cost; the later they are questioned, the more expensive they are to change.

Cost advice is most valuable at these five points:

• At inception and feasibility — for a budget, a cost per square metre benchmark and sensitivity testing of the scheme against the land, finance and return.
• During design development — for cost planning that follows the design as it evolves, so the design is steered to the budget rather than the budget being retro-fitted to the design.
• Before tender — for the Bills of Quantities, the tender documents and the pricing structure contractors will use.
• During construction — for valuations, variation valuation, cash flow monitoring and periodic cost reports.
• At completion — for the final account, retention release and settlement of claims.

Being appointed after the tender has been received is still worthwhile — a quantity surveyor can check the tender, correct errors and omissions, put the payment structure on a proper footing and control the cost from there. What cannot be recovered is the savings that earlier cost advice would have designed in.

The table below sets out the stages of a typical project and what CostEdge Consulting delivers at each one.

Quantity surveying fees in Kenya are calculated on one of three bases, and the right one depends on the project, the scope of the appointment and whether the work is continuous or intermittent.

• A percentage of the construction cost. This is the most common basis for a full service from feasibility to final account. The percentage tapers as project value rises, so a large project carries a lower percentage than a small one. The fee is calculated on the cost of the works, excluding the professional fees and the cost of land.
• A fixed lump sum. Used where the scope is clear and defined — for example preparing a Bill of Quantities from a completed drawing set, or preparing a single cost estimate or valuation.
• A time charge. Used for intermittent or open-ended appointments, such as a resident or site-based quantity surveyor, an expert witness instruction, or a dispute where the time required cannot be predicted.

The fee depends on the value and complexity of the project, the number of trades and the specification, the number of tender packages, whether the works are a new build, an extension, a refurbishment or fit-out, and whether the site is in Nairobi or elsewhere in the country. A refurbishment of an occupied building is more demanding to measure and administer than a repetitive apartment block of the same value.

Costs that sit outside the quantity surveying fee on most projects include physical site surveys, structural and services engineering fees, statutory approvals and charges, testing, laboratory analysis, and any legal costs. We set out precisely what is included and what is excluded in the fee proposal before appointment starts.

A Bill of Quantities is a document that itemises and quantifies the work shown on the drawings and described in the specification, so that every contractor pricing the project prices exactly the same items. It is prepared by measurement from the drawings and specification and is structured in a standard order.

• Preliminaries — the contractor’s obligations and site costs: site establishment, insurances, supervision, temporary works, plant, scaffolding, cleaning and completion.
• Preambles — the specification of workmanship, materials and quality standards against which the measured items are to be built.
• Measured works by trade, in order: substructure, reinforced concrete frame and upper floors, roofs, staircases, external and internal walls, windows and doors, finishes, fittings and furniture, sanitary installations, electrical installations, other services, and external works and drainage.
• Dayworks — the schedule of rates and percentages applicable to work instructed on a daywork basis.
• Summary and collection — the collection page that gathers the totals of each section into the contract sum, including any provisional sums, prime cost sums and contingency, and any adjustment for Value Added Tax.

A priced Bill of Quantities does more than select a contractor. It is the basis on which the contract sum is adjusted when changes are instructed, the schedule against which interim valuations are measured, and the reference used to assess the value of variations. A project without one usually ends up valuing changes through argument rather than by measurement.

A Bill of Quantities is not the same as a cost estimate. A cost estimate sets out what the work is likely to cost; a Bill of Quantities is an unpriced schedule of quantities issued to contractors to price. We also prepare quotation bills — measured and priced from drawings or from physical measurements on site — for extensions, refurbishments and small works where a full bill is not warranted.

A single rate per square metre is the most common way people try to budget a building in Kenya, and it is the least reliable. Two buildings of the same area can differ by more than double in cost because of the specification, the ground conditions and the level of services. A rate is useful as a first sanity check; it is not a budget.

We cost a building element by element instead, so you can see what each part of the building is costing and where the budget can be adjusted. A typical elemental cost plan divides the building into:

• Substructure and foundations, including excavation, hardcore, blinding, foundation concrete and waterproofing.
• Frame and upper floors, including reinforced concrete, structural steelwork and suspended floor slabs.
• Roof, including the roof structure, covering, insulation, rainwater goods and rooflights.
• Staircases, including the structure, balustrades and finishes.
• External walls, windows, external doors and external finishes.
• Internal walls, internal doors, partitions and internal finishes.
• Fittings, furniture and equipment.
• Sanitary, mechanical, electrical and other installations, and lifts where provided.
• External works: pavings, drainage, boundary treatment, landscaping and site services.
• Preliminaries, contingency and any allowance for professional fees and statutory charges.

To prepare a reliable estimate we need the architectural and engineering drawings, the specification or the standard of finish you are targeting, the site location and any information you have on ground conditions, and the intended programme. Where drawings are incomplete we can prepare a budget cost plan from an outline brief and refine it as the design develops.

Quantity surveying is a regulated profession in Kenya. Practitioners are registered by the Board of Registration of Architects and Quantity Surveyors (BORAQS) under the Architects and Quantity Surveyors Act, and the professional body for the discipline is the Institute of Quantity Surveyors of Kenya (IQSK). Before appointing a quantity surveyor it is reasonable to ask for the registration number of the individual who will actually sign the documents.

Our team’s registrations and memberships are:

• Kobia Michubu, Director — Registered Quantity Surveyor (Reg. No. Q715), Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (MCIArb) and an arbitrator, Member of the Institute of Construction Project Managers of Kenya, professional member of the Institute of Quantity Surveyors of Kenya, and Corporate Member of the Architectural Association of Kenya.
• Amos Munene, Quantity Surveyor — Registered Quantity Surveyor (Reg. No. Q1037) and member of the Institute of Quantity Surveyors of Kenya.
• Brian Oluoch, Quantity Surveyor — Registered Quantity Surveyor (Reg. No. Q1046) and member of the Institute of Quantity Surveyors of Kenya.

Full qualifications, degrees and memberships are listed on our team pages.

Send us whatever you already have. We will tell you what can be done with it and what else is needed.

• Architectural and engineering drawings, however complete.
• The specification, or a description of the standard of finish you are targeting.
• The site location, plot details and any ground or survey information.
• The stage you have reached — brief, design, tender or on site.
• Any existing budget, cost plan, Bills of Quantities or tender returns.
• The form of contract you intend to use, if one has been chosen.

We are based in Nairobi and work on projects across Kenya, including on a resident or site-based basis where the size and location of the works require it. Use the contact page to send your documents, or book a consultation and we will take you through the cost advice stage by stage.