Price the fire strategy before the frame.
The shell looks like an industrial shed and is not regulated like one. Approved Document B limits an industrial building by floor area per storey and a storage building by compartment volume, so the same footprint can be pushed into sprinklers the shed avoids.
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
- —Five points of efficiency, 500m2 you cannot let. Rent is earned on let space, build cost paid on gross. Five points of lettable efficiency on a 10,000m2 store is 500m2 you cannot let. Grid and core decide it at concept.
- —Conversions turn on the slab, not the frame. Order cores and a plate load test before the storage system goes to tender. Mezzanine columns land as point loads on a slab poured for a spread load, not a column grid.
- —Heated-building fabric bought for a store nobody heats. Specifying the envelope to heated-building U-values buys insulation nobody uses. Approved Document L does not treat a store heated only against frost as a heated building. Reception and climate-controlled units are exceptions.
Self Storage preconstruction, answered
Can a self storage scheme be costed off a rate per square metre?
At the first stage, yes. A rate per square metre of gross internal floor area is the right tool under NRM1. If all you have is an industrial shell rate, carry it across and price the fire strategy, the mezzanine and the fit-out separately, because those three are most of the difference. From concept design onwards, take the fit-out off unit schedule quantities: partition run, door sets, lighting and detection. The mix moves through design, so reprice the fit-out each time it does.
Does a self storage facility need Gateway 2 approval under the Building Safety Act?
A standalone facility, no. The higher-risk regime catches buildings of at least 18m or seven storeys that also contain two or more residential units, a care home or a hospital, and storage use meets none of that. A storage podium under a qualifying residential block usually is part of that higher-risk building, and Gateway 2 then sits in front of the start on site. Whether the podium is a structurally independent section is worth settling with the building control approver at concept. The programme difference is months.
What do you need from us to start?
An outline area schedule and a site plan. From those we come back with a first stage cost plan, the fire strategy priced both ways, and the lettable efficiency we have assumed stated on the schedule so you can argue with it. We agree the fee before we start. We do not publish rates per square metre, because a storage rate is worth nothing without the unit mix and the fire strategy behind it, and both are yours to set.
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.