UJENZIBORA

Design and Build Contractor.

Category: Construction Management

Construction Management / Cost Information / Decision Making / Quantity Surveying

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Importance of Cost Planning Your Building Project.

Construction projects are dynamic and continually changing. You need to be able to anticipate challenges, identify potential risks, and manage costs so you don’t get caught off guard when the unexpected happens. If you’re in the planning stage of a construction project, cost planning will help you set a budget for all the expenses that come with it. This includes material costs, labor, subcontractor costs, and other related expenses so that you have an accurate estimation of how much money is needed before breaking ground.

Cost planning also helps you identify areas where your project has high risk — like a slim budget or tight timeline — which is useful information if you plan on getting financing to pay for it. Knowing these things up front will save you from potential pitfalls and unpleasant surprises later on down the road.

What’s Included in a Building Cost Plan?
To bookend the cost management process, you’ll want to create a procurement plan and a cost summary. The procurement plan will help you outline the process of securing contracts with suppliers and vendors, which will include details like the type of material needed, the schedule for delivery, and any certifications needed. The cost summary will include all the numbers that went into calculating your budget, including the total cost of materials, labour, and any additional expenses like permits and inspection fees. A Quantity Surveyor can help you have this information in form of a Bills of Quantity, Program of Works and Material Schedules.

Identify the Scope of Your Project
The best place to start when cost planning is to determine the scope of your project. This will help you identify the necessary labour and materials you’ll need, which will in turn help you calculate the cost. The scope includes details like the overall building size and construction type, the number of floors, and any unique or special features like rooftop gardens or green roofs. A project scope might also include other factors, like whether you’re planning to include mechanical systems like plumbing and electrical work or add any special features like a conference room or rooftop patio.

Estimate Material Costs
When estimating material costs, you’ll want to account for any unique factors that may increase your building costs. This can include things like the type of material you choose or the labour costs associated with a certain construction method. For example, if you’re planning to use timber framing instead of concrete columns, you’ll want to account for increased labour costs associated with putting in posts instead of setting a sill plate. If you’re unsure of the costs associated with certain materials, you can visit a building supply store like Builders in Karen or Central Auto Hardware in Industrial Area (Nairobi) to research local pricing.

Estimate Labour Costs
Labour costs can vary widely, depending on the region where you’re building, the type of work you need done, and the skills of the people doing it. You may also want to account for overtime hours or any additional expenses that come up during the course of your project. To estimate labour costs, you can use the services of a quantity surveyor or reach out to your local construction company to get a quote from a project manager.

Identify Subcontractor Costs
Subcontractor costs are the expenses associated with hiring outside construction companies to handle tasks like excavation, site grading, concrete work, or electrical work. To estimate subcontractor costs, you can request a bid from a contractor to get an accurate estimate. You’ll also want to account for any change orders, fee changes, or potential miscommunications that could lead to added expenses. Therefore allow a Contingency Sum of between 5 to 7% of the Overall Cost.

Summing up
As you can see, cost planning is an important part of project management. It will help you estimate the total amount of money needed to complete a project, as well as identify potential risks that can affect the project. If you’re planning a building project, it’s important to understand the factors that will affect the price of your project. This will allow you to set an accurate budget and make informed decisions.

Architecture / Construction Management / Cost Information / Project Management / Quantity Surveying

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Basic Factors to Consider When Cost Planning Your Building Project

The general premise I would wish to take emanates from the intriguing question, “If a man wants to build a house, does he not first sit down and estimate the cost?”

It is thus imperative that one needs to “sit down” and contemplate or wrap his mind around the entire building project to determine whether it is worth his while to embark on the journey of construction.

While undertaking Cost Planning for your building project, it is important to keep in mind that the final cost of the house will be affected by both Design Factors and Economic Factors.

Design Factors

The design factors like shape and size of the building, complexity of the design, circulation space of the building, the height and the structural design of the building will have a bearing on the final cost.

It is also worthwhile to note that the workmanship and quality of materials to be used as determined by the specifications will have an impact on the cost. Most persons wishing to build are surprised at how varying one item like the type of finishes can have a high impact on their construction budget. Every building material has a substitute which could be cheaper or more expensive but plays the same function.

For example, among Roof Covers, we have corrugated roofing sheets(Mabati) , Makuti and thatched Grass, Box Profile Sheets, Stone Coated Tiles, Clay Tiles and Shingles. All play the same function but are priced differently. They also require different levels of expertise which has a bearing on the final cost of roofing.

The one you pick will have its own specific cost implications like Timber Spacing, Initial Cost and Maintenance Costs. Read: Which is the Best Roofing Material?

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Economic Factors

There are other hidden factors that will have an effect on the final cost of doing the building project. For instance, the interest on borrowed funds and price fluctuations caused by inflations or market forces can affect an initial cost plan of a project.

The source of the building materials, that is, whether available locally or imported will also affect the overall cost plan. There are some designs that may necessitate sourcing of skilled laborers and this would add to the overall cost. Building with machine cust stones is cheaper than building with Bush-Hammered Stones. Read: Ujenzibora Guide on Walling.

Political Factors

There are Political factors in terms of how stable a neighborhood is or the safety index of a neighborhood. One can readily tell that a high-end zoned neighborhood where the development is controlled could be cheaper in terms of security measures to be incorporated in the cost plan but relatively expensive since one has less free-play in the design variables.

Upon completion of the design and comprehension of all factors affecting the cost plan, the tasks, timings and costs are summarized in a Developers Budget or a Project Baseline Plan that will set out for you the roadmap towards home ownership. The Developers Budget will have a breakdown of the following items:

  • Construction Cost
  • Cost of Land Purchase
  • Cost of Finance
  • Professional Fees
  • Legal Fees
  • Preliminary Costs
  • Management Costs
  • Marketing Costs (If Development is for Sale)
  • Anticipated ROI (Return on Investment)

The Construction Project Workflow will also be reflective of all the factors that will affect the Building/Infrastructure Project from Inception to Completion.

One truly needs to be meek and confident enough to “sit down” when it comes to making a decision to build a House!

I trust that in your meditation to build, you shall consider the aforementioned lest people pass by your incomplete Building Project quoting Scripture:

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he has sufficient to finish it?

Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,

Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.”- Jesus Christ, Luke 14:28

Qs. David Nahinga

Twitter: @UjenziBora / @dnahinga

 

Affordable Housing / Construction Management / Contracts / Cost Information / Decision Making / Finances / Ujenzibora

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Revealed: 7 Ways a Quantity Surveyor Can Help Your Building Project as a Cost Editor!

To attain knowledge add things every day. To attain wisdom subtract things every day. – Lao Tzu

Why a Cost Editor?
“Editing- which involves the strict elimination of the trivial, unimportant, or irrelevant – is an Essentialist craft.”
Everyone who reads a newspaper that has a lousy editor knows the feeling of being wasted.

But seldom do we reflect on the role of a good editor. A good editor leaves everyone focussed on the main issues of the story without being bogged down in unnecessary details.

When it comes to construction works, a Quantity Surveyor plays the vital role of a Cost Editor because he has carefully trained his/her eye and mind to see details. Here are 7 ways this can happen, leading to savings both in time, cost and bringing out the Lead Story in your Project.

According to Miliken, The Bills of Quantity is a fundamental instrument which has existed and developed over 300 years. It is to the discerning investor, what a pen is to a Copy editor.In my experience as a Quantity Surveyor, Bills of Quantities are entirely justified where the anticipated savings outweigh the fee charged to produce them. The role of the Quantity Surveyor as a Cost Editor in both big and small construction projects is emerging as an exceptional and an indispensable skill. Here are 7 Ways Why!

1.0 Elimination
A book editor or a film editor makes it easier for the reader to keep an eye on what is important. They do this by eliminating everything but the elements that need to be there.

A Quantity Surveyor as a Cost Editor can help your project by reviewing both the design and rationale for inclusion of certain elements. For example, in a recent building project, we proposed removal of 7 Square metres of corridors and saved the client 245,000 Shillings. The house worked just fine without the overdesign of circulation space. This was not apparent to the Architect of the Project.

2.0 Providing a Measurement Tool
A bill of quantity is a measurement tool. It captures the Lead Story of the project. It has brief description of every part of the proposed project. A recent Study revealed that where contractors are given a chance to estimate the cost of a project without a Bill of quantities, they increase costs by a factor of 10% to take care of Quantities Risk. In that sense, the very act of having a Bills of Quantity in your project can save you up to 10% of the cost of construction.

3.0 Substitution
A Quantity Surveyor prepares a Bill of Quantity for infrastructure projects (Building or Civil). A bill of quantities is a document used in tendering process which includes the materials, parts, and labor with respect to their costs. During this process of preparing the Bill of Quantities, a QS can propose substitution of the materials, methodology for construction and more affordable alternatives thereby leading to significant cost savings.

4.0 Prioritizing or Phasing.

When an author has a very long story and the publication does not have enough space, the editor decides which parts of the story to cut and publish later. In building construction, we call it Phasing a project. To achieve this, a Quantity Surveyor asks questions, listens to all the consultants (Architect, Engineer, Client Contractor et cetera), and connects the dots in order to distinguish the essential few from the trivial many. As a Cost editor, he can propose budgetary allocations that match the current financial constraints of the project. He can also help the Client to prepare cash-flow projections and phasing of the project!


5.0 Making Trade-Offs
A book writer may have many characters they want to fit in a story. They could also have many plots, twists and turns. Without a Copy editor, the whole storyline can get lost in the confusion of trying to include everything. A great editor asks, “Will this character or plot twist or detail make it better?”

The true value of a Quantity Surveyor is in helping the Client and the project Team re-discover what really matters in the project within the time, cost and quality expectations. In this case, they can suggest meaningful trade-offs, substitutability of building materials and best practice from past projects.

6.0 Time Estimation using The Labour Constant.
The Contractor’s prices for the various work items in the Bill of Quantities reflects the amount of time the estimator has allowed to complete each unit of work. This is refereed to as a Labour Constant for the particular item. It is easy for the Estimator Quantity Surveyor to help the project team calculate how long it will take to complete both individual work items and the entire project. This can help the project team to design a planning framework and formulate programmes for constructing the building.

7.0 Identifying Gaps.
A book editor or a film editor fixes gaps which break the main story line.
One of the major benefits of employing a Quantity Surveyor to measure is that, during the process of preparing Bills of Quantity, a QS will often spot gaps in the design information and will query the design team as to what is missing , will press then to finalise the outstanding information or suggest fixes.

Lastly, In the words of French writer and Poet, Antione de Saint-Exupery, “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

References:
1. McKeown, Greg. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less Ebury Publishing.
2. Cunningham, T. (2016) The function and Format of Bills of Quantities: an Irish Context. Report prepared for Dublin Institute of Technology, 2016.

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