Refurbishment Carries Risk
That New-Build Schemes Do Not.
Existing fabric conditions are not fully known until work begins. Consequently, the quantity assumptions in a refurbishment cost plan carry a level of inherent uncertainty that only independent verification can properly identify and manage.
What are your needs?
Incomplete Survey Data
Existing fabric conditions are not fully known before work begins. Furthermore, the gap between what the survey shows and what the contractor finds on site is where most cost overruns originate.
Hidden Conditions
Structural elements that appear straightforward in drawings are not always so in reality. Additionally, when hidden conditions emerge on site, the cost impact is disputed because the quantity basis did not account for them.
Evolving Specifications
Refurbishment specifications change as the reality of the existing building becomes clearer. Moreover, when those changes are not tracked against the cost plan, the budget carries assumptions that no longer reflect actual scope.
Contingencies Consumed
Large contingencies are the standard response to refurbishment uncertainty. Therefore, without clear scope definitions and re-measurement triggers, those contingencies are consumed rather than managed at final account.
The Most Complete Quantity Picture
the Available Information Supports
On refurbishment projects, the response to uncertainty is often to carry large provisional sums and hope the contingency covers what the survey missed. That approach transfers risk into a budget line. It does not manage the risk itself and it does not produce a cost plan that is useful for decision-making or defensible at final account.
In practice, Reltic reconciles survey data, point cloud information and partial BIM models to produce the most complete quantity picture that the available information supports. Subsequently, we identify where uncertainty is genuine and where it is the result of information gaps that can be closed before procurement. Furthermore, provisional sums are structured with clear scope definitions and re-measurement triggers, so that construction cost control during works is based on evidence rather than on whoever argues most effectively when a hidden condition emerges.
Before Procurement
Independent quantity verification reconciling survey data, point cloud and partial BIM models. Applied before the contractor prices their own version of the same uncertainty.
On Site
Provisional sums with defined scope boundaries and re-measurement triggers. Hidden condition costs managed on evidence, not on whoever argues best when they emerge
Independent Quantity Verification on Refurbishment Schemes across the UK.
Pre-identified conditions
Survey, point cloud, BIM
Pre-tender verification
Feasibility to final account
When quantities are established independently, traced to the model and documented from the start, the final account is not a negotiation. It is a reconciliation.
That is the difference between a cost plan that holds and one that does not.
A Contingency Is Not
a Quantity Strategy.
On refurbishment projects, carrying a large contingency is not commercial control. It is the absence of it. Consequently, when that contingency is consumed by conditions that were never properly identified, quantified or documented, the final account dispute that follows is fought without evidence on either side.
Furthermore, the projects where Reltic adds most value on hidden cost exposure and quantity assumption risk are precisely the ones where the standard response to uncertainty was a contingency line rather than a proper quantity baseline. That is a recoverable position before procurement. It is a very expensive one after the contractor has already priced their own assumptions.
Quantity Certainty Before
the Contractor
Prices Uncertainty.
› Survey data reconciled before quantities are issued for tender
› Provisional sums structured with defined scope and triggers
› Hidden condition costs managed on evidence, not negotiation
Independent Quantity Verification on Refurbishment Projects. Before It Matters.
If your refurbishment cost plan is built on survey data that has not been independently reconciled, the quantity assumptions your contractor prices to are their assumptions, not yours. As an independent quantity surveyor working exclusively on the client side, we verify that data before procurement. See how this applies on projects with hidden cost exposure and incomplete design information.
Contact With Us!
Office 676,60 Tottenham Court Road,Fitzrovia,LondonW1T 2EW
Call us: 020 3576 2851
Email: office@reltic.co.uk
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