June_1971 — Page 42

priate trade headings such as 'Roof Tiler' or 'Slater' - or if the roof finish happened to be of metal, under 'Plum- ber'. Thus it may be accepted that uni- formity of bill presentation, as far as trade headings are concerned, is far from being an established fact in Bri- tain.

In the course of some recent re- search work an examination was made of a number of bills prepared in Hong Kong and this showed that, in broad

terms, bills of quantities in Hong Kong follow the 'South of England' pattern. While this is so, some of the combina- tions of trade headings might appear to be unusual to the British trained quantity surveyor.

For example, combinations were found of:

Bricklayer and Asphalter

Bricklayer Mason and Asphalter Ironmonger Smith and Metalworker Plasterer and Pavior

Plasterer Pavior and Wall Tiler Some of the 'British' combinations of trades did not occur in any of the bills seen. There were no instances of Glazier being combined with Carpent- er and Joiner, and no instances of Ironmonger being combined with Carpenter and Joiner.

The old conventional headings of

Roofer' and 'Smith' appear to be little used in Hong Kong, while use was found of new 'trades' such as 'Metal Windows' and 'Electrician'.

Room for improvement

While it is unlikely that the varie- ties of bill presentation found in Hong Kong present any real difficulties to the bill users, there would appear to be some room for an approach to standar- disation.

In Hong Kong the units used in bills of quantities are uncomplicated in that, apart from 'number' or 'weight' or 'sum' items, the unit used is the foot. There is none of the complica- tion found in 'pre-metric' British bills, where yards and feet were both used, and where units of measurement such as the square and the rod were only abandoned in recent years.

Quantity surveyors in Britain tend- ed to complicate matters by using a variety of ways to indicate a unit. For example, different offices could indi- cate the unit 'square yards' by:

Square Yards

Yards Square Sq. Yd.

Yd. Sq.

Y.S.

S.Y.

Superficial Yards Yards Superficial Sup Yds

Yds Sup Super Yards

theme.

and other variations on the

The Hong Kong situation is not so complicated, because there are fewer units to use. However it is common to find Linear Feet described as 'Feet Run', or 'Run', while the use of 'Superficial' or 'Super' for 'Square' is not uncommon. The degree of varia- tion is small, but it appears to be quite unnecessary to have any variation at all.

The use of 'Feet Run' has all but disappeared from British practice, and the use of 'Superficial' for 'Square' is dying out. This is one area in which it should be an easy matter to achieve standardisation. Possibly the following might be acceptable to the industry:

Linear Feet . Square Feet Cube Feet

Reference I

•

.Lin Ft .Sq Ft

.Cu Ft.

"The Function and Uses of Bills of Quantities'... The report of the RICS Working Party on Quantity Surveying Techniques.

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