FLEMING RUSSELL STENT
NEWS
FLEMING RUSSELL STENT
Fleming Russell Stent has recently prepared tender documents including a detailed schedule of works for alterations and extensions to existing offices in Hackney, London. The works are to be undertaken in multiple phases to allow the owner to remain in occupation throughout the conversion of the existing fourth floor and construction of a new fifth floor, both for residential use, at a total estimated construction cost of £2 million.
Phased refurbishment of an existing five-storey property in Cheyne Walk, London including construction of new basement and ground floor extensions at a total construction cost of £3.25 million has recently been completed. A swimming pool with a moving floor is incorporated in the basement to create a dual function room and maximise the useable floor space of the property. The groundworks were executed in stages to allow for archaeological investigations, which resulted in the discovery of a sixteenth century baker's brick oven and an in-filled well some three metres down, together with a few artefacts including a meerschaum pipe.
We have recently developed and are now successfully using on our building projects the following measurement approach where bills of quantities are required for multiple buildings on a site with similar specifications, principally multi-million pound schemes comprising blocks of flats and houses. The individual blocks are measured separately as normally required by the client's pricing schedule, but initially we prepare a single consolidated bill for each element in Excel and CITE compatible formats for the complete project (i.e. an amalgamation of all individual accomodation blocks) for pricing.
This provides the following advantages:
Reduction in the number of individual bills resulting in contractors and sub-contractors pricing items once only instead of multiple pricing of the same item in individual bills. This saves valuable time during increasingly imposed shorter and pressurised tender periods and achieves consistency of pricing throughout all blocks and culminates in an easier, simpler and more manageable measurement and pricing process.
Total project quantities become immediately apparent, thereby allowing sub-contractors an opportunity to offer better rates.
While tendering contractors are obtaining prices from the market place based on our single consolidated bill, we create a fully functional matrix spreadsheet in Excel replicating all of the bill descriptions vertically and the individual blocks horizontally which we populate from our measurement of the individual blocks complete with formula and failsafe alarms alerting the user to anomalies in pricing. This enables the total financial effect of any rate changes to be immediately assessed and an easy comparison of the individual buildings on a cost per m² basis, and assists in identifying any obvious errors in pricing.
Where tendering contractors use a proprietary estimating system that exports rates to an Excel worksheet, then additionally we are able to link it electronically to the matrix rates column to allow automatic transfer of the rates to the matrix spreadsheet. This offers a significant time saving to tenderers over manual entry of rates into the matrix spreadsheet and reduces the opportunity for human error. We do not need to see tenderers' rates to achieve this.
New classroom buildings for an independent preparatory day school in Epsom have been constructed in a phased development for which Fleming Russell Stent provided quantity surveying and CDM co-ordinator services. The first phase included a two storey classroom block with gross internal floor area of 242 m² completed in 28 weeks at a total cost of approximately £500,000. The second phase comprised two single-storey buildings with gross internal floor areas of 170m² and 70m² respectively completed in 19 weeks at a total cost of approximately £475,000 following negotiations with the first phase contractor. As this work was carried out during the school term in close proximity to the existing occupied temporary classroom buildings it was necessary to adopt protective and procedural measures to maintain the safety of staff and pupils at all times.
Fleming Russell Stent have recently completed project management, quantity surveying and CDM co-ordinator services for a roof refurbishment scheme at a south London primary school. To minimise noise and disruption to the school and neighbouring properties the existing asphalt roofs at different levels were repaired and a fibre reinforced cold-liquid over coating system was applied with a 15 year guarantee. We also obtained planning permission to relocate the existing air conditioning units on Bigfoot supports to the upper levels to create additional play space. The works were carried out during the school summer holidays and included approximately 600m² of roofing at a construction cost of £80,000.