An international look at Bills of Quantities
by Alex Bunting, MArch, DPA, FRICS, ASVA
Lecturer in Building Economics, Dept. of Architecture, University of Hong Kong
WHILE many quantity
quantity surveyors would agree that a standard approach to the presentation of bills of quanti ties would be beneficial to the building industry of any particular area, the question of standardisation of format is not so important on an international basis: apart from any other factor con- cerned, only a few of the giant con- tracting organisations venture out of their home countries in search of con- struction contracts.
However, a study of douments used in areas other than their own home area should be of some value to surveyors who have the willingness to investigate (and possibly accept) useful practices from other sources.
In the course of some recent re- search work, an examination was made of a number of bills of quantities from various countries: the findings of this examination are noted here.
Documents were accepted as sur- veyors in other countries made them available there is no statistical signi- ficance attached to the relative numbers examined. It should also be under- stood that there is no significance in the fact that four documents from New Zealand were examined, and only one from, say, Australia. Similarly, it is not suggested that the practices mentioned are typical of any country
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they are simply reported as they were found.
The documents which are reported on came from the following areas: Bahamas; South Africa (three docu- ments); Barbados; Scotland; Australia; Sabah; New Zealand (four docu- ments).
The first point noticed was that all the New Zealand bills and one of the South African bills had the title 'Sche- dule of Quantities'. The use of the word 'schedule' probably stems from Scottish influence in these countries, although the term 'Bill of Quantities' is now used in Scotland.
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All the documents (except those from New Zealand) followed the same pattern in the presentation of quanti- ties information. The layout was:
Item No.
Description
Unit
Unit Qty. Rate Cash
In a number of cases the location of the unit' and 'quantity' columns were interchanged, but apart from this the presentation was fairly standard- ised. The exception to the general rule was the pattern of the New Zealand bills, which provided separate columns for the costing of labour and materials. The layout generally adopted was:
Item
No.
Description Qty. Unit
Labour
Material
Rate Amount Rate Amount|
In the New Zealand bills it is point- ed out by the surveyors that this method of presentation is for the con- venience of contractors in initially establishing their costing: the success- ful tenderer is required to submit a priced schedule with materials and labour in single combined unit rates.
Preambles
The question of whether or not the specification is incorporated into the bill of quantities depends to a large ex- tent on the particular conditions of contract in use. In Britain, where the most popularly used conditions debar
the specification from being a 'con. tract document' when a bill of quanti- ties is provided, the information neces- sary for estimating purposes which would normally be found in the speci- fication is included in the bill of quantities under the heading 'pream- bles'.
A common practice among English quantity surveyors is the placing of these preambles in a priceable format, that is, issuing them on paper with cash columns so that an estimator may place a money value against any parti- cular item. Not all British quantity sur- veyors do this- sometimes the 'specifi- cation' is issued under the heading of 'preambles', but is placed in a non- priceable format.
Another question which the quantity surveyor encounters in his document preparation is the location of the specification (or 'preambles'). Should the specification information peculiar to any trade be placed in sequence immediately before the 'quantities' information for that trade, or should all the specifications for all trades be collected together?
Format
From the specification point of view the documents received were examined on three counts. First, did the document contain a specification, and if it did, what was it called? Secondly, if there was a specification, was it issued in a 'priceable' format? Thirdly, was the specification for each trade located with the quantities for that trade?
The examination of the documents showed the following approaches:
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Bahamas The specification was a separate document, but was referred to in bill descriptions.
South Africa (I) - A specification (called 'preambles') was given in full for all trades before the quantities section. The format was non-priceable.
Far East BUILDER, July 1971