History points to the Great London fire as what led to the start, and growth of the practice of quantity surveying in the United Kingdom before it spread to the rest of the world. In this article, we discuss how the London fire happened, the reconstruction of London and how the master builder profession was … Read more
Buildability or constructability is the measure of the ease, efficiency and eco-friendliness with which a building can be constructed. It depends on the project team’s experience and planning, design, procurement and field operations knowledge. The ease of construction (constructability) is the degree to which a building’s design facilitates construction field operations. A constructible design should … Read more
Value engineering was discussed in our previous article as an exercise that seeks to reduce the cost of a proposed project without affecting the quality and functionality of the development. A solar power project can immensely benefit from this exercise. Solar power generating plants aim to provide long-term sustainability in power generation and supply. Therefore, … Read more
Value engineering in construction is a systematic, organized approach to providing necessary functions in a project at the lowest cost. It promotes the substitution of materials and methods with less expensive alternatives, without sacrificing the functionality of the project. This is because it is solely focused on the functions of the various components and materials, … Read more
As projects become more complex, uncertain and dynamic, simple construction scheduling methods may not be enough to cope with the challenges and the risks involved to help the project manager deliver successful outcomes, meet project deadlines and manage production resources efficiently. There is a need for more advanced scheduling techniques to cater for these complexities … Read more
There are three universally recognised types of sub-contractors in the construction industry. These are domestic subcontractors, nominated subcontractors and named subcontractors. However, there exists a thin distinguishing line between the named and the nominated sub-contractor. We will be looking at them in more detail in this article. A developer intending to put up a building … Read more
An NCA site compliance certificate is a legal document that is issued to a construction site that was inspected and found to be compliant with the National Construction Authority (NCA) regulations. The National Construction Authority is a state organisation that was established by an act of parliament, No. 41 of 2011. Among other roles, the … Read more
Construction regulatory bodies fall into four different categories. These categories come up as a result of the multidisciplinary and disjointed nature of the construction industry. There are those regulating the professionals and consultants, contractors and sub-contractors, the quality of materials and workmanship, and those regulating aspects of building design, including approval of developments. Regulation is … Read more
A dimension paper is very useful stationery for quantity surveyors. Especially in the traditional practice of manually reading or scaling dimensions from a drawing, a dimension paper is used to record these dimensions in a recognised form. It is a specially ruled paper where dimensions are recorded by the quantity surveyor while performing quantity take-off. … Read more
Reliable sources of building cost information are essential to any good cost management practice. Quantity surveyors need accurate data for developing reliable cost plans and preliminary cost estimates during the early phases of the design. When you need data, it is a good practice to refer to your in-house databases. Whether it is unit rates … Read more
