Does my intended Scope of Work correlate with my budget?

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 then be updated as the scheme is developed and detailed during the course of the design and specification process.

To give flexibility with cost, it is generally sensible to identify elements within the designed scope of work that could be revised or omitted if necessary to reduce the ‘Construction Cost’. Examples might be elements of fitted joinery, or external works, that are often relatively straight forward to omit and to later reintroduce if budget allows. For some projects it may be possible to package work into phases, helping to reduce initial costs while still allowing for the full scope of work in future.