Elemental cost estimating: current UK practice and procedure

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to establish the extent to which quantity surveyors undertake cost planning and the manner in which elemental cost estimating is currently applied. Elemental cost analysis is perhaps the best known product‐based cost model and provides the data upon which elemental cost planning is based. The technique has been used by quantity surveyors to base their predictions during the design stage since the 1950s. There has, however, been no recent attempt to establish the extent to which practicing quantity surveyors use this technique (if indeed they still do so) and the manner in which cost analysis is currently carried out.Design/methodology/approach – A nationwide questionnaire survey of UK quantity surveying practices was undertaken. The survey sought to establish: the extent to which elemental cost estimates are prepared for proposed developments; the format used to prepare these estimates (together with the degree to which the BCIS Standard Form of Cost Analysis (SFCA) is s...