All elements of procurement, contractual, and project cost management are now covered by the
services offered by the modern quantity surveyor.
Quantity surveyor could be employed by a contractor or subcontractor, works as a consultant, or both.
Construction Industry
 service industry that performs the planning, design, construction, alteration, refurbishment,
maintenance, repair, and demolition of structures.
 an important component of the Philippine economy.
 the construction sector generated a gross value added of around 336 billion Philippine Pesos in the
fourth quarter of 2020.
Building types
• Commercial (hotels, retail stores, banks)
• Offices (private and government use)
• Agricultural (farmhouses, mills, barns)
• Education and research (schools, colleges, research facilities)
• Health facilities (hospitals, surgeries)
• Aged care (homes, care centres)
•Government (embassies, prisons, police stations)
• Tenancy and fit-out (stores, offices)
• Defense (military bases, training, storage)
• Vehicle parking (private and public, single and multi-storey)
• Industrial (factories, warehouses, power plants)
• Entertainment and recreation (theatres, halls, stadiums, zoos, sports centres)
• Landscaping and precincts (soft and hard areas)
• Residential dwellings (public and private development)
• Public and civil buildings (town halls, museums, transit stations, including airports, etc)
• Infrastructure (utility services, railways, roads, bridges, tunnels)
• Religious (places and monuments of worship).
construction business
 a site-based production line for other sectors' products.
Drawings and other papers
 depict the designer's objectives, and skilled workers complete the building and component
assembly on location.
Most of the construction work is done on-site, where it is vulnerable to the whims of the weather and
the state of the ground.
Construction Team
• Project Manager (responsible for delivering the project)
• Main contractor
• Site manager (clerk of works)
• Site engineer
• Sub-contractors
Client’s Team
A client is anyone who requests and pays for building work, whether they be an individual, partnership,
group of people, organization, or firm operating in the public or private sector. The client's responsibility
is to choose an appropriate procurement strategy to acquire a facility.
The design team - This team comprises of consultants from a range of backgrounds engaged by a client
to specify and design schemes suitable for the client’s needs.
The construction team - The construction team is on the supply side of the industry, a term used to
describe those parties appointed to physically construct a project in accordance with the design
requirements. This includes:
• A main contractor (the builder)
• Subcontractors to carry out works for the main contractor
• Material suppliers (including manufacturers)
• Suppliers of plant equipment to assist with the construction operations.
The development team - Members of a client’s development team are an integral part of the client’s
business, and are appointed to issue advice on technical, financial, legal, research and business planning
matters for projects.
Quantity Surveying
the action or profession of a person who estimates the cost of the materials and labor necessary for a
construction job.
The professional quantity surveyor (PQS) oversees and manages costs for the customer throughout the
construction process. Pre-contract cost guidance, which entails calculating construction costs prior to
design for budgeting purposes, is one of the services offered to a client.
PQS keeps track of the various design phases as they are developed, compares them to the budget, and
informs the client's team of any changes that have an effect on the budget. Pre-contract services also
include the creation of trade bills of quantities for the purpose of tendering, reviewing key contractors'
bids, and creating expected cash flow forecasts to cover the cost of the work while a project is being
built.
The PQS may be a sole practitioner, in a partnership or operate as part of a large consultancy. To qualify,
a professional needs to hold an academic degree and/or is a member of the Royal Institution of
Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
In the Philippines, the Philippine Institute of Certified Quantity Surveyors (PICQS) is an organization for
certified QS in the country
A Quantity Surveyor is a construction professional whose main expertise is primarily to carry out an
estimate, project cost control and quantity take off but whose duties also include commercial, risk and
contract management to ensure that the party he works for gets the best value for money and to allow
for a smooth project flow from inception to completion. He can be a Quantity Surveyor working for a
Contractor, a Consultant or the Client.
QS vs CE
Quantity Surveying relates more to building design and construction, while Cost Engineering relates
more to engineering projects and processes. However, Cost Engineers and Quantity Surveyors
commonly work in both areas.
Construction Industry is a service industry that performs the
planning, design, construction, alteration, refurbishment,
maintenance, repair, and demolition of structures
• Construction is a booming industry.
• There is an organization in the construction industry as well as the
Clients Team
• QS is a profession of a person who estimates the cost of the
materials and labor necessary for a construction job
• PQS oversees and manages costs for the customer throughout the
construction process.
• There is a difference of work for QS, CE and Estimator
Technical construction drawings - used to communicate the architectural and engineering design of a
construction project.
Types of technical construction drawings: Pictorial drawings and Orthographic projections
Reading technical construction drawings – gathering of information from a drawing which involves two
principal elements: Visualization and interpretation.
Orthographic Projections - First Angle and Third Angle Projections
Construction drawings – different views of the building (floor plans, elevation) are obtained using
orthographic projections
Plan view – top view of the building - taken at different levels throughout the building - may require
multiple plan views to illustrate construction detail
Elevations - orthographic exterior views of the building showing features - designated as front, right,
left, rear - may also be identified by the plan direction that the elevation faces ie. West elevation interior elevations (where foundation and basement are in hidden lines)
Sections - drawings showing inside of a cabinet, wall, roof structure - are views showing the building /
object as if it were cut apart - an imaginary “cut” through a wall or other feature to show clearly the
construction details
. Details/ Detailed Drawings -due to scale used certain drawings need to be shown in large scale
illustration to provide information necessary for construction -maybe shown at the same sheet of plan
or referenced by detail and sheet number -prepared for complex building components and unusual
construction ie. such as arch, cornice, structural steel connection or a retaining wall.
. Details/ Detailed Drawings -due to scale used certain drawings need to be shown in large scale
illustration to provide information necessary for construction -maybe shown at the same sheet of plan
or referenced by detail and sheet number -prepared for complex building components and unusual
construction ie. such as arch, cornice, structural steel connection or a retaining wall.
Civil Engineering Drawings includes;
• Site plans
• Utilities
• Easements
• Grading
• Landscape details
• Contour lines
• Walks
• Driveways
• Property lines
• Building setbacks
• Utility locations
Structural drawings includes;
• Foundation
• Structural steel
• Building support system
• Roof framing system
• Structural sections and details
• Stair details, sections and elevations
• Structural framing plans
(ie roof, floors, walls)
• Schedules (ie column, beams)
Architectural drawings includes;
Floor plans
• Elevations
• Building sections
• Door and window schedules
• Room finishes
• Floor and Ceiling finishes
• Walls types and finishes
• References for the location of
additional sections and details
• Built-in cabinets
• Detailed or spot drawings
The Floor plan is an important drawing because it provides the most important information and acts as a
reference for the location of additional sections and details. The floor plan shows floor finishes, walls,
doors, stairways, built-in cabinets, and mechanical equipment.
Mechanical drawings includes;
• Heating system
• Ventilating system
• Air conditioning system
• Equipment and panel schedules
HVAC Equipments:
• Fan Coil Unit
• ACCU
• Pressurization Fan
• Exhaust Fan
• Jet Fan
Electrical drawings includes;
• Electrical wiring
• Lighting plan
• Reflected ceiling plan
• Panel or load schedules
• Riser diagrams
• FDAS
Plumbing drawings includes;
• Hot and cold water systems
• Sewage disposal system
• Location of plumbing fixtures
• Riser diagrams (water distribution)
Plumbing drawings includes;
• Hot and cold water systems
• Sewage disposal system
• Location of plumbing fixtures
• Riser diagrams (water distribution)
Technical Specifications – describe the materials and
workmanship required for a development. They do not include cost, quantity or
drawn information, and so need to be read alongside other information such as
quantities, schedules and drawings.
• It compliments the drawings by describing the quality of materials, systems, and
equipment; workmanship on site and off-site fabrication; and installation and
erection.
• It should not overlap or duplicate information otherwise it may cause, confusion,
contradiction or misunderstanding. (unless word for word which is also redundant
Classification of Specifications
Performance Specifications
Prescriptive Specifications
• Having a prescriptive specification when a contract is
tendered gives the client more certainty about the end
product, whereas a performance specification gives
suppliers more scope to innovate and adopt cost effective
methods of work, potentially offering better value for money.
Typically, performance specifications are written on
projects that are straight-forward and are well-known building
types, whereas prescriptive specifications are written for
more complex buildings, or buildings where the client has
requirements that might not be familiar to suppliers and where
certainty regarding the exact nature of the completed
development is more important to the client.
• An exception to this might be a repeat client such as a large
retailer, where a specific, branded end result is required and
so whilst the building type is well known, the specification is
likely to be prescriptive.
• Most projects will involve a combination of performance
and prescriptive specifications
READING MEASURING TOOLS Planimeter - also known as a platometer, is a measuring instrument used
to determine the area of an arbitrary two-dimensional shape (Wikipedia