are trying to exercise is to be main- tained. To ignore them is to invite trouble for it must be remembered that the Cost Checks have to give the architect a clear understanding of the situation throughout the whole of the Cost Checking process.
Programming the Design
Before embarking on the design stage, architect and quantity surveyor should decide on the order in which elements should receive attention. The costly elements with significant price factors, such as frame, windows and doors, heating, etc. usually need to be dealt with as soon as possible. Also those elements where it is felt that difficulties are likely to arise should be given early attention. Ele- ments with less significant price fac- tors can be safely left till later or fitted in as and when convenient.
If possible, this order should be established before the architect pre- pares his design programme. In fact, if the design programme can be built up on this elemental basis a similar programme can then be agreed for Cost Checks of the various elements. This latter programme would be ex- tremely useful to the quantity sur veyor and would also ensure that the architect got his Cost Checks when they were needed. For there is a tendency to delay actual checks until such time as a large number of ele- ments are ready to be dealt with, the consequence being that reports are often too late to be of any use in con- trolling the cost of the design.
The aim should be to have a steady flow of Cost Check answers being led back to the architect as soon as possible so that action can be taken whilst there is still time to take it. Cost Checks are not 'passive' ex- ercises: they are examinations which more often than not call for positive action. So in this sense they are ‘ac- tive and therefore must be closely re- lated to the design programme. Procedure of Cost Checking
Let us now look more closely at the actual procedure involved in do- ing a Cost Check. As we have already ren. the architect is working out his design solutions and that desirable state of having drawings and speci- fication details available has been reached. Therefore it is now pos- sible to assess the cost of the `ele-
ments sensibly and fairly accurately. The drawings are likely to be di- mensioned pencil sketches and the specification a series of notes.
An element or perhaps a number of elements are ready for checking and drawings and specification notes handed to the quantity surveyor. Ap- proximate quantities are then taken. off for each element separately. These are then priced in the usual way by means of composite price rates and the cost of the proposed design solution for each element is built up. This will be recognised as the normal estimating procedure we are all used to; the preparation of a normal estimate based on sensible information. The only unusual
thing (if it is unusual) is the break- down of the design into elements.
It is advisable to build up the cost of the element in sections so as to have a ready-made breakdown of the Cost Checks if modifications to the designs have to take place. For example, if the floor finishes element is being costed, each different type of finish should be kept separate. A summary can then be drawn up showing what is contained within the element, and giving the total cost of the element. An example of such a summary is given in Example 1.
EXAMPLE 1 SUMMARY-Partitions, Cost Check No. 3
Total Quantity
£
S. d.
7 y.s.
30 y.s.
Half brick, plastered b.s. (from page 1) 21 inch Paramount (page 1)
18
0
0
22 0
0
440 y.s.
6 inch Paramount
(page 4)
715 0
0
175 f.s.
Glazed Screens (page 6)
165
0
0
40
0
0
20 y.s. Unspecified (page 7)
Total of El. Cost Check
Divided by 4.800
(f s. of Floor Area)=1s
Cost Plan No. 2
Excess over Cost
Plan
£960 0 4
Od. (taken to Cost Check Record)
3s. 6d.
=
6d.
ARCHITECT'S DECISION
When doing a Cost Check, the quantity surveyor must make sure that he is covering all aspects of the clement concerned and satisfy himself that no part of it is being missed. For instance, the architect may have settled on his floor finishes but not necessarily at this stage done anything about skirtings. But they cannot be ignored in the Cost
THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER-VOLUME 17. NUMBER 4
Check for their cost may be as much as 10 per cent of the whole cost of the element. As a result, if they have not yet been specified, an ap propriate allowance must be includ. ed in the Cost Check in order to make it complete.
Initiative With the Quantity Surveyor
During the design stage. the quantity surveyor must not just sit around and wait for the drawings to come along. He must maintain continual contact with the architect, be aware of his progress and alive to his problems all the time.
Also, he should not necessarily wait for the complete design solution to an element before Cost Checks are done. In fact it is advisable to do Cost Checks on certain elements as they are developing in order to see how things are going; for it is not unusual to find that the cost of part of an element can exceed the total amount allocated to the whole of the element in the Cost Plan And if this is happening the ar chitect needs to know about it as soon as possible; certainly before he is committed to any one design solu
tion.
a
This checking of the element he- fore it is completed may appear to contradict the second principle for- mulated earlier. namely, that Cost Check must be done on nothing But less than a complete element. this is not so. Even though the de sign is not complete. a Cost Check is still done on the whole element. The part which is designed is de finite in its pricing, but the part which is still to be designed is given an appropriate allowance so as to complete the element. Only with this complete answer can compari- son be made with the Cost Plan and the proper conclusion drawn.
Recording Answers to Element Cost Checks
Answers to Cost Checks need re- cording in such a way that a com- plete picture of the Cost Checking situation at any time is always avail. able. A simple way of doing this is given in Example 2. This clear. lv shows what elements have been checked, when, and their cost. It indicates also, of course, those ele- ments which have yet to be examin
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