New Rules for Measurement

New Rules of Measurement for building works

New Rules of Measurement for building works

Introduction

Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) published the New Rules of Measurement (NRM). This report was prepared by Quantity Surveying and Construction Professional Group. This report offers a standard measurement rules set for cost planning, estimating, whole-life costing and procurement for projects related to construction. Adapting of standard rules of set and methodology of NRM, benchmarking and consistency gets facilitated. Consequently, it assists in avoiding disputes on various issues. NRM is a set of report, consisting of three volumes; Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3. NRM offers best practical guidance for professionals on the detailed description and measurement of building works for obtaining cost planning, tender prices and contract documentation.

Implications of the changes to measuring building works

RICS suggests that the new set of measurement rules document will reflect the manner in which the construction industry works in a better way. These set of rules is considered to be the most important launch in the sector of construction by the RICS. The set of rules written by construction industry's cross-section, views the RICS addressing the long-existing requirement for a measurement standard that was common for comparing costs throughout cost management's life cycle (Earl, 2012, p.n.d.). Majority of the Quantity Surveyors view the activity of measurement as a one-off activity that takes place at the end of design stage. This can be true for creation of bill of quantities, but cost planning is a recurring process. The NRM needs to be at the core of costs controlling as the designing of the project develops.

NRM Volume 1 defines rules for capital expenditure whereas NRM Volume 3 defines rules for operational expenditure. RICS' BCIS (Building Cost Information Service) has created a new edition of SFCA (Standard Form of Cost Analysis) using the same coding structure, definition, and measurement rules as NRM Volume 1 and NRM Volume 3. This enables cost analysis, cost plan reporting, and the benchmarking of life-cycle cost and capital to make us of a format that is common. If customers want to benchmark costs, they are required to do it on a common foundation (RICS, 2008). Unlike SMM7, NRM2 enables scope to produce composite work items' descriptions. Consequently, this removes the contractor's need to price enormous numbers of tasks that hold very low value, adding a very small amount to the exercise of overall pricing.

NRM1 and NRM3 hold great potential. They seek to offer a strong structure for the preparation of cost plans and cost estimates for maintenance and building works. Previously, cost estimating had always been something not very clear. NRM recognized this fact. Therefore it mandated methods such as floor area, unit price, or the utilization of cost plans that were elemental, with large contingencies built in. NRM itself does not offer cost data. However, it offers a toolkit that enables capturing and measuring of data in a standard and consistent manner.

NRM2 simplifies and modernizes existing SMM7 rules and enables Quantity Surveyors to ...