Oh! and can we have it by Christmas?
If the client has an unrealistic budget the QS will give him two choices 'back to the bank' or 'back to the drawing board'.
But, for some reason, when a client has unreasonable expectations about time the QS, and indeed the whole industry, has a tendency to look the other way and suck their teeth.
I am of course exaggerating (if not in a Blog then where?) and I know many QS firms have construction programme planning experts giving splendid advice, but as a profession we have tended to concentrate on the cost of construction and think less about the construction duration.
Time and cost are different. If costs overrun then the additional cost can be allocated between the parties. If time overruns the client always suffers the loss. You cannot buy back the time with any financial retribution.
Until now there has been little information available on the actual time taken to complete buildings. However over the past few years BCIS has collected a database of the actual duration of over 4,500 projects.
From this information we have developed an online calculator, which uses a model based on the data to estimate the time a project might take to complete.
It is not a programme planning tool but, just as you would look at an analysis of the cost of similar projects for an 'order of cost' estimate, you can now look at an analysis of the time taken to build similar projects to give an 'order of time' estimate.
So instead of sucking your teeth you can say, 'You will be lucky to get it by Easter' or perhaps suggest ways of accelerating the project.
For further details see the BCIS Construction Duration Calculator
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