Schools, where the handover date cannot move.
Term starts whether the work is finished or not. Acceleration, phasing and out-of-hours working are priced against a written possession date, so the shift patterns sit in the tender sum instead of in a loss and expense claim.
What we deliver
- —NRM2 bill of quantities as an Excel workbook, with the measurement behind every line and the marked up PDFs it came from
- —A cost plan in NRM order, mapped to your own or your client's pricing document, with cost, mark up, sell and profit broken down on every line
- —Options, exclusions, provisional sums and value engineering, each scheduled on its own line
- —Trade tender packages in eight numbered sections as standard, populated as appropriate: scope of works, pricing document, drawings, specifications, programme, prelims, health and safety, contract
- —Enquiry lists, invitations and a tracker, returns chased, and every quote levelled onto one baseline with the gaps and exclusions clarified
- —Later stage cost plan updates, and the option to take the whole tender stage as a single Tender Win Pack
What we watch for
- —The incoming supply is what gets missed. RAAC is surveyed now, so the question is who carries remediation outside the rooms surveyed. Incoming electrical capacity has no survey at all, so it gets a stated assumption with a number.
- —Exam windows stop noisy work. The summer exam period takes weeks of noisy working out of term time, right before the possession you were relying on. Get the restricted dates in writing and price the hours left.
- —Each phase carries its own damages. On sectional completion every phase has its own handover date and its own liquidated damages. Price acceleration against the phase with the shortest float, and state what the allowance buys.
- —The spec's CO2 target, not the guidance. A naturally ventilated design that meets the guidance can need mechanical assistance to meet the spec, and that lands on the M&E allowance. Price the target in the spec, not the guidance.
Education preconstruction, answered
How quickly can you turn a tender round, and how are you paid?
We agree the return date and the deliverables before we start. Elemental cost plans run from the early design stages through to tender; measured quantities and package pricing schedules are priced to your return date. Fees are fixed and quoted from the drawings before any work begins, so there are no hourly rates.
Can you work on a phased scheme across multiple years?
Yes, and the phasing is where the cost plan usually goes wrong. Each phase carries its own setup, welfare, protection and remobilisation, so a single preliminaries total divided by the number of phases understates it. NRM2 splits preliminaries into fixed and time-related charges, so each return to site carries its own fixed charge instead of disappearing into one total.
Do halls of residence count as higher-risk buildings?
Often yes, and it is a programme problem. In England a hall at least 18 metres tall, or seven storeys, with two or more residential units is higher-risk under the Building Safety Act, and rooms with shared amenities count as units. Height runs from ground level to the floor of the top storey. Pre-construction approval runs twelve statutory weeks for a new building, eight for existing. Treat that as the earliest date, and you cannot let a room until the building is registered.
Not the question you had?
Send us the drawings and the return date. We will tell you what we would need and what we would give you back, before anyone commits to anything.
Let's discuss your project.
Tell us about your tender or project and we'll show you exactly how we can help you win it, and deliver it.