Journal

Contingency is a proportion of your budget that must be allocated for unforeseen costs. Your design and construction teams should help you to avoid spending this unnecessarily, but it is important to be aware that it is normal to expect some unplanned costs on almost any construction project. Contingency may be required due to the condition of an existing building or site, errors or omissions in surveys, designs or information, regulatory requirements, non-performance by s

In the early stages, it can be useful to compare your project to other similar projects to get a general indication of likely cost. Be careful to understand how similar, or not, the two projects are, and also whether the comparison project was recent enough for the numbers to still be relevant. It is worth bearing in mind that people may not always be clear on the full level of cost when recounting a past project. It is also worth considering what sort of project structure, t

Cost is a purely quantitative measure that can often overlook other benefits and gains if considered in isolation. By comparison, value may consider other indirect benefits, both financial and other.

The cost of a construction project is affected by many factors. These include the quantity of work being undertaken, the quality of...

A key factor to understand and consider is the relationship between your scope and your budget, and how to avoid a mismatch between them. Understandably, it is very common that homeowners commissioning projects may not have an accurate understanding of the budget required to provide a given scope of work. The best way to manage this mismatch is to commission a cost estimate from a Quantity Surveyor (QS) during the very early stages of the project. The cost estimate can the

The Construction Cost is the cost of contracting a builder to carry out the works, and should include for all fixtures, fittings, materials, labour, supervision, and management, etc. This cost should also include the Contractor’s overheads and profit for the job, but excludes VAT. The costs of any ‘client supply’ items, or other elements of the project commissioned outside of the main building contract (i.e. joinery or landscape), should also be included within the constructi