Quantity Surveying
Quantity Surveyingin Lincoln andacross Lincolnshire
Know what your project costs while it is still a drawing. In-house cost planning, tender analysis and variation control keep the design and the budget in step from the first sketch to the final account.
Quantity surveying in-house, not subcontracted · 30 years in design and build · Rated 5.0 on Google
30 years
In residential design and build
5.0
Average rating from Google reviews
Included
Planning and building regs on every project
£5m
Public liability insurance
In-house
Quantity surveying for cost certainty
The Service
Cost control that runsalongside the design
Quantity surveying is the discipline of knowing what building work costs and controlling it as a project develops. It covers cost planning at design stage, measuring quantities, preparing and analysing tenders, valuing work as it proceeds, pricing variations and settling the final account.
Most residential clients never see a quantity surveyor, which is precisely why so many projects run over. Design happens, tenders return, and the shortfall is discovered at the worst possible moment. We have a quantity surveyor in the practice, one of the three core professionals alongside design and project management, so the cost is attached to the scheme from the beginning.
That means when you ask what a larger rooflight, a different foundation solution or an extra bedroom will do to the budget, the answer arrives in days rather than at tender return. Decisions get made on information instead of hope.
We provide cost input on every project we design, and can also act as quantity surveyor on projects designed elsewhere: tender analysis, interim valuations, variation control and final account work on a scheme already underway.
Who this is for
Anyone with a hard budget ceiling
A figure you cannot exceed, and a design that needs to be steered to land inside it.
Self-builders
Cash flow modelled against mortgage stage payments, so the money and the programme stay aligned.
Clients comparing quotes
Three prices, wildly different, and no way of knowing what has been included, excluded or forgotten in each.
Small developers
Cost per square metre, build cost against end value, and a contingency that is calculated rather than guessed.
The Risk of Getting It Wrong
What happens to projectswith no cost control
Where these projects go wrong
The classic failure is the unpriced design. Months of drawing, an approved planning application, then tenders that come back a third above the figure in your head. Now you are value engineering, which in practice means deleting the features that motivated the project, or abandoning it and writing off the fees.
The second failure is the misread tender. Builders' quotes are rarely comparable: one includes the kitchen, another excludes groundworks, a third carries provisional sums that will inevitably rise. The lowest number frequently ends up the highest final account, and without measurement there is no way to see that in advance.
The third is uncontrolled variations. On a live site, changes are priced by the contractor with no competitive pressure and no benchmark. A run of variations, each individually reasonable, is how a fixed price becomes an open cheque, and how a contingency intended for genuine unknowns is consumed by ordinary decisions.
Common mistakes
Budgeting from a cost-per-square-metre article
National averages ignore your ground conditions, access, specification and site. They are a starting point, not a budget.
No contingency
Ground conditions, existing structure and services are never fully known. A plan with no contingency has no room for reality.
Accepting the lowest quote unexamined
The cheapest price usually has the most exclusions. Without measurement, you are comparing three different projects.
Approving variations without a price
'We'll sort it at the end' is the most expensive sentence on a building site.
Our Process
Five stages, one team,no gaps in between
01Budget setting
We establish what you can spend, what you want, and where those two are already in conflict, before design absorbs any of the budget.
02Cost plan during design
An elemental cost plan developed with the drawings, updated as decisions are made, so the effect of each choice is visible immediately.
03Tender documentation and analysis
Quantities measured and tender documents prepared so contractors price like for like, then quotes analysed for exclusions and provisional sums.
04Valuations during the build
Interim valuations of work properly completed, so payments reflect progress rather than the contractor's cash flow.
05Variations and final account
Changes priced and agreed before instruction where possible, and the final account measured and settled against the contract.
What You Get
The practical differenceon your project
No shock at tender
The scheme is priced as it is drawn, so tender returns confirm the budget rather than destroy it.
Comparable quotes
Measured tender documentation means builders price the same work, and the cheapest number is genuinely the cheapest.
Informed design decisions
You see what a specification change costs while changing it is still free, not after it is built.
Variations kept under control
Changes priced against a known baseline instead of negotiated on site without leverage.
Cash flow you can plan around
A cost plan mapped against the programme, which is what self-build lenders and stage payments require.
In-house, not outsourced
The quantity surveyor sits in the same practice as the designer, so cost advice reflects the actual drawings.
In Detail
What quantity surveyingcovers in practice
Cost work changes character as a project moves from idea to completion. Here is what each stage involves and why it matters on residential work in Lincolnshire.
Feasibility estimates and elemental cost plans
At the earliest stage, a feasibility estimate uses floor area, storey height, specification level and site factors to give a realistic range. It exists to answer one question honestly: is this project affordable before we spend money designing it?
As the design develops, that becomes an elemental cost plan, breaking the project into substructure, frame, roof, external walls, windows and doors, internal finishes, fittings, services and external works, each with its own allowance. Because it is elemental, you can see exactly which element is driving the total and where an adjustment will actually help.
Measurement, tender documents and analysis
Measured quantities turn drawings into numbers: cubic metres of concrete, square metres of blockwork, linear metres of beam. That measurement is what allows contractors to price consistently, and what allows a tender return to be tested rather than accepted.
Tender analysis compares returns line by line, identifies exclusions and qualifications, and interrogates provisional sums: the allowances that are not fixed prices and routinely grow. A low tender with three large provisional sums is not a low tender; it is an unfinished one.
Contingency, risk and ground conditions
Contingency is a calculated allowance for what cannot yet be known, sized against the risk of the specific project. A new build on a virgin plot, a conversion of an agricultural building and a straightforward rear extension carry very different levels of unknown, and the allowance should reflect that rather than a habitual round percentage.
In Lincolnshire, the recurring cost risks are shrinkable clay and mature trees driving foundation depth, high water tables in the fens affecting excavation and drainage, off-mains drainage requiring treatment plants, and existing structures whose condition is only revealed once opened up. Naming these risks early is what stops them becoming disputes later.
Valuations, variations and the final account
During construction, interim valuations measure the work genuinely completed and value it against the contract sum, which protects you from overpaying against progress and protects the contractor's legitimate cash flow. Retention, where used, is held and released in line with the contract.
Variations are priced against contract rates where they exist and agreed before instruction wherever possible. At completion, the final account reconciles the original sum, agreed variations, provisional sum adjustments and any claims into a single settled figure: the document that ends the project cleanly instead of leaving it in dispute.
Residential and commercial differences
On residential work, budgets are personal, fixed and emotionally loaded, and the client is spending their own money. Clarity and early honesty matter more than contractual sophistication, and the most valuable single output is a cost plan produced before the design is finished.
Commercial projects bring formal contract administration, more complex payment provisions, phasing around an operating business and a return-on-investment case behind every decision. The measurement discipline is the same; the reporting and the contractual framework are heavier.
Questions
Quantity Surveyingquestions, answered
What does a quantity surveyor actually do on a house project?
They establish what the design will cost before it is built, prepare documentation so builders price the same work, analyse tenders for exclusions and provisional sums, value work as it proceeds, price variations and settle the final account. In short, they keep the money side honest and visible.
Do I need a quantity surveyor for a home extension?
For a modest extension the value is mainly in the cost plan and tender comparison. For anything above that, a large extension, a new build, a conversion or a project with a hard budget ceiling, proper cost control usually saves more than it costs.
Is quantity surveying charged separately from your design fee?
On projects we design, cost input runs alongside the design as part of how we work. Where we act as quantity surveyor on a project designed by someone else, the scope and fee are agreed up front. Call 07876 566781 to discuss what you need.
How accurate is a cost plan at design stage?
A feasibility estimate is a range; an elemental cost plan on a developed design with known ground conditions is considerably tighter. Accuracy improves as unknowns are removed, which is precisely why the survey and site investigation come first.
How much contingency should I allow?
It depends on the project's risk profile rather than a standard percentage. A conversion of an existing agricultural building carries far more unknown than a new build on a clean plot, and the allowance should be sized accordingly and stated openly.
Can you review quotes I have already received?
Yes. Tender analysis is one of the most useful pieces of work we do: comparing returns line by line and exposing exclusions, qualifications and provisional sums that make a cheap quote expensive later.
Can you act as quantity surveyor on a project designed elsewhere?
Yes. Cost planning, tender analysis, interim valuations, variation control and final account work can all be provided on a scheme we did not design.
How do you handle variations during a build?
Priced against contract rates and agreed before the work is instructed wherever possible. The point is that no change reaches the final account without having been valued and approved first.
Will cost control delay my project?
No: it runs in parallel with design rather than after it. The delays happen on projects without cost control, when tenders return unaffordable and the scheme has to be redesigned.
Which areas do you cover?
Lincoln, Lincolnshire and Newark, plus Gainsborough, Louth, Horncastle, Sleaford, Scunthorpe and Grimsby, generally anywhere within about an hour of LN8 3SB.
Know the number beforeyou commit to the design
Cost planning that runs alongside the drawings, from a practice that builds as well as designs. 7am to 5:30pm.
£5m public liability · all build staff CSCS carded