Quantity surveyors to launch building standards booklet

By Jackson Okoth

To restore sanity in the building and construction industry, plans are at advanced stages by professionals to launch a booklet on standard method of measurement.

The idea is to ensure drawings by any quantity surveyor are accurate before they are put into a bill of quantities, a document used in tendering in the construction industry in which materials, parts, labour and their costs are itemised.

"We want to ensure that before a building is done, accurate estimates are done before a bill of quantities is prepared. We want to sensitise the industry on the need to use laid down standards of measurement," said Samson Maisiba, a manager at Sakim Consultants, leading quantity surveyors, arbitrators and project managers.

The launch of this Standard Method of Measurement of building works and associated civil works will take place on February 22.

In the past, developers have been conned out of their cash due to lack of adherence to a common standard of doing things and therefore different pricing by contractors.

"The standards booklet will also assist in dispute resolution between quantity surveyors, designers and developers. If a building collapses, it will be possible to establish whether the correct measurements were made," said Maisiba.

A move by the construction industry to launch a standards booklet is coming at a time its reputation is still damaged.

For instance, little appears to have been done even after several incidences involving the tragic collapse of buildings resulting in loss of life and property, have been reported.

The question that begs many answers is why these buildings collapse and how this can be brought to an end.