Quantity surveyor

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A Quantity Surveyor (QS) is a professional person working within the construction industry. The role of the QS is, in general terms, to manage and control costs within construction projects and may involve the use of a range of management procedures and technical tools to achieve this goal.

The profession developed during the 19th century from the earlier "Measurer", a specialist tradesman (often a guild member), who prepared standardised schedules for a building project in which all of the construction materials, labour activities and the like were quantified and against which competing builders could submit priced tenders. Because the tenders were each based on the same schedule of information, they would be easily compared to find the most suitable candidate.

The professional institution with which most English-speaking Quantity Surveyors are affiliated is the UK based Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Institution of Civil Engineering surveyors (ICES).

1 The Professional Quantity Surveyor
2 The Contractor's Quantity Surveyor
3 Pop Culture
4 Note
5 External links

Although all QSs will have followed a similar course of education and training (for those entering the profession today, this is usually to degree level), there are many areas of specialisation in which a QS may concentrate. The main distinction amongst QSs is between:

Those who carry out work on behalf of a client organisation: often known as a "Professional Quantity Surveyor", "Professional QS" or "PQS".
Those who work for construction companies: often known as a "Contractor's Quantity Surveyor".

[edit] The Professional Quantity Surveyor

The functions of the Quantity Surveyor are broadly concerned with the control of the cost on construction projects. The methods employed, however, cover a range of activities which may include cost planning, value engineering, feasibility studies, cost benefit analysis, lifecycle costing, valuation, and cost estimation. Some senior quantity surveyors are known as construction economists, cost engineers or construction managers.

Quantity surveyors control construction costs by accurate measurement of the work required, the application of expert knowledge of costs and prices of work, labour, materials and plant required, an understanding of the implications of design decisions at an early stage to ensure that good value is obtained for the money to be expended.

The technique of measuring quantities from drawings and specifications prepared by designers, principally architects and engineers, in order to prepare Tender/Contract Documents, is known in the industry as taking off. The quantities of work taken off typically are used to prepare bills of quantities, which usually are prepared in accordance with a published standard method of measurement as agreed to by the QS profession and representatives of the construction industry.

[edit] The Contractor's Quantity Surveyor

The Contractor's QS is responsible for commercial matters within the contracting organisation - in fact their commercial leaning has meant that in many organisation they are now termed commercial managers rather than QS's

[edit] Pop Culture

This fairly obscure profession is familiar to some who would otherwise not have heard of it because it is referenced twice in sketches by Monty Python:

In "Bookshop Sketch" the sketch ends when a bookshop owner, infuriated by a troublesome customer's requests for ridiculous books, is able to satisfy the customer's request for "Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying" (this sketch was originally from "At Last the 1948 Show" but was performed by the Pythons on stage).
In "Bicycle Repairman", in which everyone is a Superman but no one can repair a bicycle, the Pythons parody the famous "Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it's Superman!", line with "Oh look - is it a Stockbroker? Is it a Quantity Surveyor? Is it a Church Warden? No! It's Bicycle Repairman!"

In series 2 of "A Bit of Fry and Laurie", the "Dancersize" sketch features Stephen Fry pretending to be a Quantity Surveyor, using the line "Good morning, do you have any quantities for me to survey?"

In Not the Nine O'Clock News, there is a sketch lampooning Ask The Family, in which the Brainie and Smaughtarse families (played by the exact same actors in different costumes) are all Quantity Surveyors.

[edit] Note

The use of the term "Professional QS" with regard to surveyors who work on behalf of a client does not indicate that those surveyors are, in some way, more professional than their counterparts working in construction companies, it is more a reflection of the fact that in the past it was less likely for a contractor's QS to become a member of a Professional body. As the number of contractor's QSs holding memberships of Professional organisations has increased, the "Professional QS" tag has become somewhat archaic although it continues in use as an easy identifier for those working on behalf of a client.