ASSIGNMENT

The role of the Client's Quantity Surveyor within the construction industry in comparison to the Contractors Quantity Surveyor

The role of the Client's Quantity Surveyor within the construction industry in comparison to the Contractors Quantity Surveyor

Introduction

This paper describes and explains the role of Client and Contractor's Quantity Surveyor role within the construction industry, with possible future assessment of each of these two job roles. To introduce the key concepts stated in the topic, Maarouf (2011) notes that Quantity Surveying (QS) is concerned with the costs and contracts of construction projects, and it is the responsibility of the quantity surveyor to measure accurate construction costs for the work required. It is the quantity surveyor's main responsibility to facilitate the construction's design process through maintaining an intelligent and economical relationship between utility, cost, quality and appearance that helps in achieving the client's requirement within the agreed budget for the construction.

This paper aims to highlight and discuss the role of quantity surveyor's from the respect of the two parties of the client and the constructor and then proceed to discuss about the future potential and role of these two quantity surveyors in the years to come.

Discussion

To begin this section it is however important to gain a better understanding about the key players of the industry. The following figure contrasts the key roles involved in the construction industry and their individual responsibilities or contributions to this sector.

Figure 1: Key players and their responsibilities in the construction industry

(Source: BTEC Resources, n.d.)

Understanding Quantity Surveying

All types of construction contracts, big or small have an expiration time or date by which the contractor must complete their work. However, delays are one of the integral features of all construction projects and the planning process for any new project takes into account the element of the costs and other repercussions involved in the delay of a project. This is often termed as variation and is common amongst all types of construction projects and is responsible for determining the closing time and cost of the projects (Maarouf, 2011). Thus, the latter being one of the integral responsibilities of a quantity surveyor, hence, it is now prudent that the role of the quantity surveyor is discussed in detail to facilitate comprehensive understanding of the topic. According to a renowned quantity surveyor firm, Washington Brown director, the key role of their firm is “...making property investment more affordable” (Washingtonbrown.com.au., n.d.). While, according to another accredited QS firm William O'Brien & Co., believes that through employing a QS directly by the construction project owners would allow them to have “...full control over the cost” and allow them to attain the best value from this decision (Wobco.ie., 2013).

Role of Quantity Surveyor

As a construction industry professional that specializes in estimating cost valuation of different construction projects, Quantity Surveyors are also referred as cost planners. The term quantity signifies the quantification of the various resources that goes into constructing a specific project such as costs of materials, plant, labour and ...