Services offered by Quantity Surveyors in Kenya

Most people do not understand the job description of quantity surveyors and that is why many people underestimate the need for quantity surveying services in every construction site. This has resulted to people incurring a lot of losses either through incorrect estimates or through buildings which are not up to standards.

Many of the people who have employed the services of qualified and experience quantity surveyors can boast of excellent work and value for the money they put into the construction. They have also been able to avoid the losses that come with not employing the services of a quantity surveyor or using inexperienced people to take take care of your construction projects.

Quantity Surveyors

A quantity surveyor is a construction cost consultant or commercial manager that manages all costs relating to building and civil engineering projects, from the initial calculations to final figures.

Services offered by quantity surveyors

Cost planning

cost planning is best used as a working tool to reflect and record the effect of cost decisions throughout the design process. This process assists those decisions to ensure a project returns maximum value for money.

 The quantity surveyor works together with the design team between the briefing and the sketch scheme game to come up with an effective cost plan. The starting point is the initial cost plan then later a more detailed analysis will be prepared on an elemental basis. Then as each element is designed the price can be checked against the analysis.

Estimating

The cost planning and quantity surveying information is used to draw an accurate budget by the quantity surveyors for the respective clients. Good estimation will help you as a client to save more and also to avoid the costs which may come with underestimation. This is because if you underestimate especially for the materials you will have to incur extra costs on transport.

Contract negotiation

The quantity surveyors are also responsible for contract negotiations.

Procurement advice

Quantity surveyors also offer procurement advice. The right procurement will reduce your risk, improve value and ensure a favorable project outcome. The quantity surveyors assist you to take a proactive strategic approach to building and executing the right procurement strategy for your project to meet your objectives.

Preparing bill of quantities

The bill of quantities is a document prepared by the quantity surveyor that provides project specific measured quantities of the items of work identified in the tender document. The quantities may be measured in number length, volume, weight or time.

Monitoring budget

Quantity surveyors also offer budget monitoring services. The purpose of this is to provide advice about processes and procedures that you should have in place. They also provide information about the budget process.

Preparation of payment invoice and certification

They also make preparation of payment invoice and certification.

Assessment of variations

The assessment and granting of minor variations to building consents is also done by the quantity surveyors.

Dispute resolution

Quantity surveyors also resolve any conflict that may arise during the procurement process.

Preparing feasibility studies

A feasibility study is an evaluation and analysis of the potential of a proposed project which is based on extensive investigation and research to support the process of decision making. Quantity surveyors are also responsible for this.

Cost control

Cost control refers to the process of controlling costs associated with the whole activity. Cost control includes investigative procedures to detect variance of actual costs from budgeted costs, diagnostic procedures to ascertain the cause of variance and corrective procedures to effect realignment between actual and budgeted costs. All this is also done by quantity surveyors.

Value engineering

Value engineering is a systematic method to improve the value of goods or products and services by using examination of function which is also a service offered by the quantity surveyors.

 Quantity surveyors play a very vital role in the construction sector and therefore everyone who wishes to put up a building or any kind of construction should seek their services to be on the safer side.