olumide4christ:


Hopefully and by God's grace, you can. Just keep on following this thread and other threads that would come up sooner and later; more knowledge shall be shared here and there.

Aii. Thanks

[b]Greetings Nairalanders,

Are you at the design stage of your proposed project OR at the point of engaging an architect to prepare a design/drawing for you? Take note that it is important to engage a Quantity Surveyor at this point primarily to benchmark the design your architect is preparing vis-a-vis your planned budget. As you should know, Architects tend to produce fantastic and mind-blowing designs to 'WOW' their clients; HOWEVER, more importantly, you should know that it will take money to bring such fantastic designs to reality.

BUT THE QUESTION IS......WHAT IF YOU, THE CLIENT DOESN'T HAVE ENOUGH FUNDS TO ACTUALIZE SUCH FANTASTIC DESIGNS? Would you abandon the project midway?

To forestall this occurrence, Quantity Surveyors are trained to do what we call "DESIGN-COST CONTROL" during the design stage (preparation of drawings) of proposed project. We work with your architects to streamline your design such that the final design, when it is eventually actualized/built, does not go beyond your budget, which we also can help you determine. We achieve this based on our in-depth understanding of some parameters which when introduced by architects in building design, can drastically increase the final construction costs.

We are available to answer all your questions/enquiries. [/b]

olumide4christ:
Greetings Nairalanders,

Please feel free to ask your burning questions on various project cost issues. We are very much available to answer them. Wishing God's speed as you commence and complete your projects this year.

Regards.

Approximately how much does a quantity surveyor charge for his services?

Following.

@olumide4christ, pls can you drop your e-mail address.

[b]CUTTING COSTS! CUTTING COSTS!! CUTTING COSTS!!! - LET'S STRIKE A BALANCE!
I decided to make comments on this topic due to the occurrences and recurrences I have observed on this forum as well as out there in the field.
Cutting costs in all fairness, is a necessity for many building clients especially in these harsh economic times. However, cutting costs should not be done to the detriment of the integrity and lifespan of the building.

Why, you may ask? The reason is simple - Cutting costs in a building project is like a diminishing returns or diminishing marginal utility or elasticity curve...when you start, you get some immediate gain but when you continue for a while, when the red line (breaking point) is crossed, you begin to incur losses, even when you are injecting resources into it to make amends.

The point I am trying to establish here is that in trying to cut costs in your building project, you must strike a balance i.e. there is always a breaking point or elastic limit, beyond which things will begin to go wrong.
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[b]How Can We Strike A Balance in Cutting Costs?

Always involve a construction professional or professionals (Architect, Quantity Surveyor, Structural Engineer) on your project. Don't make use of quacks. A trained & experienced construction professional (most especially a Quantity Surveyor) always knows the boundary line between safe and dangerous when it comes to Cutting Costs in construction and will be bold to tell you that though you are the client and as such calls the shots, your cost-cutting measures are going into the danger zone & as such, would advise you to desist from such measures.
A quack on the other hand, will always concur to whatever the client wants irrespective of the dangers, simply because he just after the money & has no career or name to protect. Lets liken the professional and the quack to the shepherd & the hired hand as referred to by Jesus Christ in John 10:11-13. The shepherd cares for the client and will do his/her best to protect the client's interests while the hired hand cares less because all he/she is concerned about is the money.

If the clients on Nairaland and elsewhere who have had or are presently having troubles on their projects had gone the extra mile of involving a professional on their projects, the final results would most likely have been different.
I hope I haven't bored you but you have learnt a thing or two.

Stay tuned and keep following this topic. I shall speak next on the ways by which clients and/or builders try to cut costs and their positives and negatives.

Remain blessed!
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[b]METHODS EMPLOYED BY CLIENTS AND/OR BUILDERS IN CUTTING COSTS

1. MICROMANAGING PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

A large proportion of individual clients believe that employing professionals other than the architect is a waste of resources. They even go as far as engaging the architect only for production of the design/drawings and after the client has collected the drawings, he bids the architect goodbye and proceeds to execute the project directly.

They do not –
- engage quantity surveyors to help monitor the costs;
- engage structural engineers to instruct their builders and/or artisans on what to do to ensure a structurally sound and stable building, in case of buildings with upper floors.
- engage the architect who designed the building to ensure the aesthetics and quality.
- engage engineers to carry out a soil test prior to design of the foundation, in order to determine the most suitable foundation for the project.

The main reason given by the clients for this action is cutting of costs and saving enough resources to plough into the main project execution.

This singular act has been the bane of many projects initiated by individuals, resulting in poor quality of work output, defective buildings, excessive increase in project cost, collapsed buildings, copious amounts of rework and even abandoned projects. NAIRALAND as a case study is rife with such problematic projects, which every person who understands a thing or two about construction, knows is majorly caused by lack of professional inputs and supervision.

It sometimes beats imagination how clients would simply engage a builder/contractor to carry out their projects and not employ a consultant to serve as checks and balances on the contractor, especially in a society like ours were sincerity and honesty is so scarce.

This is totally contrary to the basics of construction management. Every client needs a consultant to help watch their back during the project stage.

POSITIVES
- It saves the client some money in the short-term
- The client has direct relationship/interface/control with and over the resources (material, labour, etc) used in the projects.

NEGATIVES
- Poor level of workmanship and consequently, poor quality of the finished product
- More costly in the long run, due to high cost of remedial works on defects arising
- It could amount to a total loss, in case of complete or partial building collapse.
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Hello Olumide,

Good Thread!


Got a project I am taking through the idea stage currently- it will be in Lekki area of lagos - Are you able to help provide quick estimate that will cover such projects from start to finish- before a full design/drawing is commissioned just to get a ball park figure. A raft foundation will be required in both project


Project A
1 number of terrace duplex x 3 unit of 3 Bedroom each with average finishing- or as you rightly say it should be called- a 1 terrace house of 3 unit across 2 floors- with kitchen/living room downstairs and all bedrooms upstairs.

Project B

6 flats apartment of 3 bedroom each- 3 flats up and 3 flats down- land dimension- 120 x 60 ft ( will such a structure fit into the land size and allow for parking of at least 3 cars?

Lets also have your number as I will need someone to provide the final proper design, bill of costing for materials and labour when we complete the idea phase and every required thing is set

Regards

[b]5. NON-CONSTRUCTION OF GROUND FLOOR BED (LOCALLY CALLED DPC OR GERMAN FLOOR)

This is a quite popular, but improper way of foundation construction. In a bid to cut costs or sometimes fast track the progress of a project, builders sometimes in conjunction with clients, on completion of filling of the foundation, continue the construction of superstructural walls without first completing the foundation by casting the ground floor bed. They would then continue with constructing the superstructural walls and roof carcass/covering, before returning back to cast the ground floor bed within the room spaces, most times reducing the thickness of the bed.

A floor bed is supposed to be monolithic in nature i.e. cast all together as a whole in order to maintain its rigidity. However, with this faulty method, the floor bed is broken up into sections or compartments and thus, non-monolithic. It must be said that in the final analysis, this method does not actually reduce costs, even though they think it does.

Casting the ground floor bed after laterite/sand filling is the proper and professional way of completing the construction of any foundation, as taught by every construction book and in every school of higher learning in the construction sector.

POSITIVES
- It saves the client and/or builder little money only in the short-term
- It enables fast tracking of the progress of the project.

NEGATIVES
- This act would eventually expose the building to cracks appearing at the joints between the superstructural walls and the floor bed, due to uneven or differential settlement occurring in the foundation which causes the walls and the floor to separate since the floor bed is not monolithic.
- Ingress of water, moisture and/or termites into the spaces in the building through the resultant cracks mentioned above
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[b]7. OMISSION OF ROOF BEAM OR HEAD BEAM

Some clients and builders see the construction of a concrete roof beam or head beam on top of the last course of the superstructural walls, before the roof, as an unnecessary additional cost to the project and on many occasions, opt to leave it out. This could prove problematic and a wrong decision in the future, when the weight of the roof carcass and covering bears down on the walls, since the roof sits directly on the top of the walls.

The purposes of the concrete roof or head beam in a building are:

1) To serve as a final tie to the top of all the columns in the building, thus increasing the rigidity of the building

2) To effectively carry the weight/imposed load of the roof carcass and covering, and transmitting such loads to the columns and onward to the foundation, due to the fact that the reinforced concrete roof beam is strong in containing tensional and compressional forces exerted by the roof.

On the other hand, the block walls do not have the capability to resist such tensional and compressional forces, when directly in contact with and receiving the weight of the roof and as such, when there is no roof beam, cracks begin to appear in the walls sooner or later.

POSITIVES
- It saves the client and/or builder little money only in the short-term.

NEGATIVES
- This practice eventually exposes the building walls to vertical cracks, which usually start from the upper part of the walls.
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[b]8. USE OF LOW GAUGE ROOF COVERING

This is commonly done by the builder/contractor, in cases where he has foreknowledge of the fact. Aluminium roof coverings come in various but common gauges, being 0.70mm, 0.55mm, 0.45mm. There are lesser gauges, but those listed above are acceptable and recommended.

However, to save cost or cut corners, lower gauges of 0.35mm or less are used, though the client may have been informed that the aluminium roofing was of a recommended gauge. Of course, the lower gauges are far cheaper than the recommended gauges. Prospective clients are therefore encouraged to ensure that the recommended gauges are used on their projects. Vernier calipers can be used to determine the exact gauge of any roofing sheet.

NEGATIVES

- Usage of lower (not recommended) gauge aluminium roofing results in leaking roofs within a short period after installation due to its low quality.
- Lower (not recommended) gauge aluminium roofing is easily blown away by strong winds due to its extra light weight.
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[b]10. REDUCTION OF COLUMNS ON THE UPPER FLOORS

I have seen this phenomenon on some occasions, where some clients after obtaining structural drawings prepared by competent structural engineers, which show column layouts, amongst other important information, would opt to reduce the number of columns/pillars on the upper floors.

They do this with the erroneous belief that only the pillars on the ground floor are designed to carry the imposed loads and as such, columns/pillars on the upper floors are not necessary or should be fewer than those on the ground floor. Every qualified structural engineer would agree with me that such beliefs are erroneous and dangerous.

POSITIVES

- It saves the client and/or builder some money only in the short-term. The reduction of the number of columns would mean less concrete, formwork and reinforcement and hence, reduction of some cost.

NEGATIVES

- This practice renders the building structurally unstable due to the omission of some columns. Every column in a building has been designed by the engineer based on his structural calculations and removal/omission of any column alters the structural balance of the building, which could lead to failures such as cracks, or even building collapse. I believe the qualified engineers in the house can attest to this fact.
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