Measurement & Bills of Quantities
Risk mitigationFixed FeeFor Subcontractors & Main Contractors10 working days per package
For bidding or letting work
I take off quantities from your drawings and build the bill or pricing document your estimator prices, with every quantity traceable to a drawing and every assumption stated. A price built on guessed quantities is a guess, however carefully the rates were built.
The problem
A tender lands: drawings, a specification and two weeks to price. Nobody in the business is free to measure it properly, so the estimate gets built on guessed quantities and lump-sum allowances, and the rates, however carefully built, get multiplied by numbers nobody stands behind. Too high loses the tender. Too low wins a loss that surfaces months later in the final account, when the steel is bought, the concrete is poured and the quantities turn out to be what they always were.
The solution
I measure the package from the drawings and hand back a document your estimator can price: a bill of quantities, a schedule of works or a pricing spreadsheet, whichever the tender calls for. Every quantity traces to a drawing number, revision and location, or to an assumption stated in writing. I use AI-assisted take-off where it genuinely speeds the counting, and every quantity is checked by a person before it leaves: I stand behind every number. And if you win, the quantities keep working, feeding applications, variations and the final account from the same measured base.
What you receive
A priceable bill or schedule in the form your estimator works in, with preambles, a drawing register and a boundary list that make plain what was measured, from which revisions, on what assumptions. The covering note says where the design was too thin to measure and what was assumed instead, so the risk left in the price is a known quantity, and it lands against your tender return date with time left to price it. If the job is won, the same quantities go on serving you: applications, variations and the final account all draw on one measured base.
The Handover Pack accompanies the work with its dates and sources, likely outcomes and responses, scope boundaries and ready-to-send correspondence where needed.
Turnaround: ten working days per package.
The working days start when the agreed scope and required inputs are available. Optional items do not hold the start unless the agreed scope says otherwise.
How it works
You tell me what needs measuring
One call or email: the package, the form you need it in and the return date. The first conversation is free, and if the package is too thin to measure honestly, I say so before any fee is agreed.
You send the tender set
Everything below in one go: the measurement clock starts when the set is complete, not when the first drawing arrives.
- A
Drawings and specification, revisions marked
EssentialWithout it: There is no set to measure from, and nothing can be taken off
Where to find it: The tender email or portal download; forward it as received and say if anything looks incomplete.
Why I need it: The only source quantities can come from
- B
Output form and measurement basis
ImportantWithout it: The bill defaults to builder's quantities in a pricing spreadsheet, which may not be the form your estimator actually prices from
Where to find it: Whoever will price it knows; if in doubt, send an example from a past tender.
Why I need it: NRM2, SMM7 habit and builder's quantities are different products
- C
Tender return date
ImportantWithout it: The measurement is worked to the standard turnaround rather than to your actual deadline, and could land after the date you need it
Where to find it: The invitation letter or the tender portal.
Why I need it: Sets the working-back deadline
Copies are fine. Send what you have and I'll tell you what's missing. Download the client request PDF or editable Word version to pass to whoever holds the files.
- A
I fix the basis and register the drawings
The measurement basis is agreed in writing first, your builder's-quantities convention or a formal standard of measurement, and every drawing and revision goes into the register the bill will cite.
I define the package boundary
What is measured and what is excluded, listed in writing and confirmed with you before take-off starts, so the bill's edge is a decision rather than an accident.
Boundary Confirmed in Writing
Take-off starts only once you have confirmed the inclusions and exclusions in writing and every drawing has a fixed governing revision in the register.
I take off the quantities
Drawing by drawing, element by element, with AI-assisted counting where it genuinely speeds the work and a person behind every number that leaves.
I test the bill before it leaves
Independent sense checks against the drawings and blind recounts of the riskiest quantities, because the expensive error is the one that looks plausible.
Every Count Verified
No quantity enters the bill until the sense checks and blind recounts are logged and every AI-assisted count has been verified by a person against the drawing.
I assemble and hand over the bill
Preambles, the drawing register, the boundary list and the assumptions note together, with anything too thin to measure flagged honestly rather than guessed at.
I hand over a bill your estimator can price
Free Service Pack
A step-by-step Handbook, with the templates and working documents you need to carry out the work it covers yourself. You supply your own project information and records.
Follow the Handbook's scope and stopping points, and obtain independent advice where required. The pack is not project-specific advice or independent sign-off.
Tips that raise your odds of success
This service measures; it does not price. When the price needs building as well, Estimating & Tender Pricing prices what this service measures, from your own cost data. And when the quantities are already yours and only the price needs checking before it goes out, that is Tender Pricing Review.