An investigation into the current practice of elemental cost planning

Elemental cost analysis is perhaps the best known product-based cost model and provides the data upon which elemental cost planning is based (Ferry et al., 1999). Quantity surveyors have been using this technique to base their predictions during the design stage since the 1950s (Morton and Jaggar, 1995). However, there has been no recent attempt to establish the extent to which practicing quantity surveyors use this technique (if indeed they do so) and the manner in which cost analysis is currently carried out. These factors have prompted research into the field of cost analysis at UMIST. The results of a nationwide questionnaire survey of UK quantity surveying practices are presented, which detail the percentage of the projects for which elemental cost estimates are prepared. Furthermore, the format used to prepare these estimates is investigated together with the extent to which the BCIS standard form of cost analysis is still used. Finally, the way that factors such as the time-stage of the estimate or the size of the project affect the use of elemental cost estimates and the level of the detail to which these estimates are analysed are examined.