To understand the processes involved in producing bill of quantities / work packages.

One of the main advantages of using a bill of quantities / work package is that every contractor / sub-contractor submitting a bid is using a common format.

This makes the work of the surveyor more straight forward when carrying out due diligence on the submitted tenders prior to making a recommendation to the client.

Unlike its’ predecessor SMM7, NRM2 has many pages of guidance for the quantity surveyor on the 🔗purpose and the 🔗format of a bill of quantities / work packages.

However, bills of quantities / work packages contain much more than just measured items and are divided into the following sections;

Form of tender; including a certificate of bona fida tender

🔗 Summary

🔗 Preliminaries (p 270 - 271)

Measured work (including contractor designed works)

Risk allowance

🔗 Provisional sums (p 24 - 25)

Credit for materials arising from the works

🔗 Dayworks

Annexes (Soil investigation reports, etc.

NRM2 Section 1; Preliminaries

Preminaries can account for between 10 – 12½% of total building costs and are used throughout the duration of a project for a number of functions such as;

Interim payments

Valuing extensions of time

Claims assessment

NRM2 Section 1 is divided into the sections;

🔗 Main contract preliminaries

🔗 Work package contracts preliminaries

Prelimaries can be priced in three ways (see table 2.1);

Time related charges and

Fixed charges

A combination of the above

Table 2.1 Pricing Schedule – Mechanical Plant

Cost Centre	Component	Time related charges	Fixed charges	Total Charges
		£p	£p	£p
2.7	Mechanical Plant
2.7.1	Generally	2,446.78	1,500.56	3947.34
2.7.2	Tower cranes	9,240.48	10,300.00	19,540.48
2.7.3	Mobile cranes	7,060.00	Nil	7,060.00
2.7.4	Hoists	500.89	123.45	624.34
2.7.5	Access plant	458.77	345.00	803.77
2.7.6	Concrete plant	3000.98	450.00	3450.98
2.7.7	Other plant	200.32	198.56	398.88

Preambles

In addition to the above list a specification or preamble is included giving details of the quality of materials to be used and the expected standard of workmanship.

Preliminaries and preambles fullfill different functions

Preambles ( specification) is normally drawn up by reference to a standard library of descriptions, such as 🔗 National Building Specifcation (NBS)

Preliminaries	Preambles
Defines the contractor’s liabilities and obligations usually by reference to a standard form of contract	Prescriptive requirements focusing on quality of workmanship and materials, e.g. type of bricks, quality of concrete, etc.
Describes items required to construct the project which are not part of the final physical structure, for example; site huts, security, etc.	Referenced in bill of quantities item descriptions
Usually priced	Not priced although requirements of the preambles will be reflected in bill rates
Section 1 of NRM2 contains standard format and rules of measurement 🔗 (p 57 & 58)	Based on standard libraries such as the National Building Specification 🔗(NBS)

Presentation of the bills of quantities / work package

NRM2 suggests three principal structures for presenting bills of quantities / work packages;

🔗 Elemental

🔗 Work sections

🔗 Work packages

Each of the above approaches has it’s advantages and disadvantages.

Elemental

The principal advantage of presenting bills of quantities in elemental format is that is facilitates the easy transfer of cost information to a cost analysis, similar to the 🔗 Builiding Cost Information Service (BCIS) Standard Form of Cost Analysis (SFCA).

Work Section Breakdown

This breakdown structure is often preferred by contractors for the purpose of pricing as all like products and components are grouped together (e.g. the reinforced concrete columns, beams, floors, roofs and staircases), whereas they can be spread among a number of different elements when an elemental breakdown structure is used

Work Package Format

Measurement is divided into work packages that are defined generally by the quantity surveyor. Work packages are based on discrete work packages that usually will be carried out by a single contractor or sub-contractor for example; ground works, suspended ceilings, etc. Used in conjunction with certain procurement paths such as management contracting.

Non-quantifiable Works

However, sometimes it’s not possible to measure and / or quantify items due to lack of information or because the client or design team have not finalised details. Never-the-less allowances have to be included in the bill of quantities / work package.

1. Non-quantifiable works; ? Provisional sums

Provisional sums are sums included for any items of work that are anticipated, but for which no firm design has been developed, including any sums listed for any items of work that are to be executed by a statutory undertaker such as a utility provider. Pre-determined sums of money are set against each item, determined by the quantity surveyor/cost manager, to cover their cost

A provisional sum will be identified as either ‘defined’ or undefined

2. Non-quantifiable works; Prime cost sum (PC Sum)

A sum of money included in a unit rate to be expended on materials or goods from suppliers (e.g. ceramic wall tiles at £36.00/m² or door furniture at £75.00/door).

It is a supply only rate for materials or goods where the precise quality of those materials and goods are unknown.

3. Non-quantifiable works; Provisional quantities

Used where insufficient detail to prepare firm bill

Quantities determined and identified as ‘Provisional’ and re-measured when appropriate

When the provisional quantities and firm and compared – if difference is less than 20% - rate remains not subject to review.

Can’t find a measurement rule in NRM2?

If it’s not possible to find a rule in NRM2 to measure a particular item, then it is possible to depart from NRM2 by;

Adapting NRM2 or

Using bespoke rules of measurement

All departures from NRM2 must be noted in the Preliminaries Section so that a contractor can adapt pricing accordingly. Failure to do this could result in a claim.

Once the measurement is complete the quantities and the description have to be arranged into 🔗 ‘bill order.’ Prior to the wide-spread use of software packages in bq / work package production the quantity surveyor had to manually abstract all the measured items and arrange them in the correct order. Guidance on the 🔗 order of items is given in the NRM2. The abstracting process is now done by software, however the manual process of abstracting explains why traditionally quantity surveyors 💡 abbreviated many items. Many of these abbreviations are still used today.

Objectives

To understand the structure and layout of the RICS New Rules of Measurement 2 (NRM2)

To understand how to use NRM2 to compose a description

New Rules of Measurement 2

NRM2 replaced the Standard method of measurement (SMM) on 1st January 2013

Various revisions of the SMM had been around since 1922 but it was thought that, for a number of reasons it was time for a major change

Whereas SMM shared ownership and editorial rights with the Construction Confederation, NRM2 is owned and published solely by the RICS

Specialist trades / contractors were consulted when work sections were drafted

A Pdf copy of 🔗 NRM2 is available to download free of charge

So Why Change?

There had been an sharp increase in the use of non-standard format for obtaining bids from contractors and sub-contractors

SMM reflected an age when the bill of quantities was king and today many forms of procurement documentation are used, so greater flexibility is needed

There are problems in mapping / transferring cost data from non-standard documentation into a cost analysis / data base

SMM contained many items that took a long time to measure that were seldom priced by the contractor / sub-contractor.

So What’s Different?

NRM2 has 41 work sections; approximately 20 more than SMM7.

In the main, this is because some SMM trade sections have been split to separate work sections, for example SMM Section D: Groundwork has been split into the following NRM2 sections;

Section 5 Excavation and filling

Section 6 Ground remediation and soil stabilisation

Section 7 Piling

Section 8 Underpinning

Section 9 Diaphragm walls

Section 10 Crib walls, gabions and reinforced earth.

Other SMM Sections have been split down in a similar manner

This arrangement has caused problems in terms of cross-referencing and coding with documents such as the National Building Specification (NBS)

Some work sections offer the measurer alternative approaches to measuring and describing items, namely;

Section 5 Excavation and filling

Section 8 Underpinning

Section 11 In-situ concrete work

Section 38 Mechanical services

Section 39 Electrical services

The implications of the above will be discussed in detail in the chapters dealing with practical examples.

General Arrangement and Layout 🔗 (p 205 - 207)

NRM2 is set out in landscape format

Arranged in columns

Read from the left to the right

Read from the left to the right

Framing a bill of quantities description (Hover mouse over image below for additional information).

Item or work to be measured	Unit	Level one	Level two	Level three	Notes, comments and glossary
Plain in-situ concrete Reinforced in-situ concrete Fibre reinforced in-situ concrete Sprayed in-situ concrete
1 Mass concrete	m3	1 Any thickness.	1 In filling voids. 2 In trench filling. 3 In any other situation: details stated.	1 Poured on or against earth or unblinded hardcore.	1 Mass concrete is any unreinforced bulk concrete not measured elsewhere. 2 The volumes of each type of mass concrete work may be aggregated or given separately.
2 Horizontal work	m3	1 ≤ 300 thick. 2 > 300 thick.	1 In blinding. 2 In structures.	1 Poured on or against earth or unblinded hardcore. 2 Reinforced > 5%.	1 Horizontal work includes blinding, beds, foundations, pile caps, column bases, ground beams, slabs, coffered and troughed slabs, landings, beams, attached beams, beam casings, shear heads, upstands whose height is ≤ than three times their width, kerbs, copings. 2 The volumes of each type of horizontal work may be aggregated or given separately. 3 Work laid in bays shall be so described giving average area of bays.
3 Sloping work ≤ 15° 4 Sloping work > 15°	m3	1 ≤ 300 thick. 2 > 300 thick.	1 In blinding. 2 In structures. 3 In staircases.	1 Poured on or against earth or unblinded hardcore. 2 Reinforced > 5%.	1 Sloping work includes blinding, beds, slabs, steps and staircases, kerbs, copings. 2 Includes any attached beams, upstands, shear heads or similar. 3 The volumes of each type of sloping work may be aggregated or given separately. 4 Work laid in bays shall be so described giving average area of bays.

Deemed to be included

Every work section in NRM2 has a column headed ‘Works and materials deemed included.’

This section lists items that will need to be taken into consideration by the contractor when pricing the work however, deemed included items will not be measured and described separately in the bill of quantities or work-package and the contractor cannot ask or expect extra payment for deemed included items.

General housekeeping

3.2.1.3 The symbol ‘/’ used between two or more units of measurement or within text, means ‘or’.

3.2.1.4 Horizontal lines divide the tables and rules into zones to which different rules apply.

3.2.1.5 Where units of measurement or rules are separated by a broken line ( - - - - - ) this denotes a choice of units or choice of ways of measuring the work. The method chosen shall be the best to suit the particular situation.

3.2.1.6 The use of a hyphen (-) or the phrase ‘to’ between two dimensions in these tables or in a bill of quantities means a range of dimensions exceeding the first dimension stated but not exceeding the second.

Objectives

To understand the process of calculating a centre line or mean girth.

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Mean Girth

NRM2 (Notes, comments and glossary) states that when calculating the length of 🔗 masonry the surveyor must measure work on the centre line; ‘ All walling is measured on the centre line irrespective of construction. There are other occasions, for example, when measuring foundation trenches, when the mean girth has to be calculated. Look at figure 5.1. If the length of the wall is calculated using the external dimensions it would be 42.9m – an over measure. If the length is calculated using the internal dimensions it would be 41.1m – an under measure. To be accurate, the centre line or mean girth, 42.0m must be calculated.

Mean girths can be calculated using either the internal or external dimension and is based on the number of net external angles. Based on the simple plan shape in figure 5.1 which has four external angles and using the external dimensions the mean girth is;

			Mean girth Length 15.000 Width 6.450 2/21.450 External girth 42.900 Ddt. 4/2/112.5 0.900 MEAN GIRTH 42.000	Note: using the external dimensions as a basis; for each internal corner twice times, half times the thickness of the wall is deducted to the external girth. The resulting dimension; 42.00 represents the average or mean girth and this can be used in the measurement of many items such as; trench excavation, masonry, concrete in foundations, etc.

Not all examples are this easy; for example look at figure 5.2. Again the wall is 225mm thick.

			Mean girth Length 2/14.550 29.1000 Width 2/ 6.000 12.000 41.100 Add Inset 2/1.500 3.000 44.100 Add 4/2/112.5 0.900 MEAN GIRTH 45.000	As far as calculating the mean girth is concerned the internal and external angles in the inset cancel each other out, therefore to calculate the mean girth 4/2/ the thickness of the wall needs to be either added to the internal girth or deducted from the external girth.