Quantity surveyors play a crucial role in all construction projects. At least in the M&E sector, there has been increasing demand in recent years that those with quantity surveying jobs are elevated to the professional team, so that the mechanical and electrical elements of construction projects can be adequately handled from the very beginning.

Those with quantity surveying jobs can save their clients a considerable amount of time, money and effort. Particularly in those construction projects where M&E costs are a significant proportion of the whole, quantity surveyors are capable of providing sufficient advice on relevant technologies, their cost implications and advantages. Such advice is crucial in the construction team?s attempt to avoid potential pitfalls.

The inevitable question from today?s clients is how much a construction project will cost, followed by endless and fierce demands that such cost is reduced in every possible way. The result is that cost consultancy provided by those with quantity surveying jobs becomes increasingly important, especially for PFI (private finance initiative) projects.

Specifically, enhanced planning, designing and costing must be given equal weight along with the building and structural elements of a project. Considering the dynamic nature of modern building services installations, as well as the implications this has for the ongoing maintenance cost, it is crucial that those with quantity surveying jobs are capable of providing solid M&E costs from feasibility stage through to final account.

Because the use of every single M&E equipment or service can significantly alter the costs of a construction project, the overall benefits of each need to be carefully weighed and assessed. While the common practice is for M&E design engineers to undertake these specialist commercial and contractual duties, it is in fact quantity surveyors who are professionally trained to do so. Raising the latter?s profile will therefore benefit everyone -- those with quantity surveying jobs, the design engineers, building services managers, and the client.

In short, treating those with quantity surveying jobs as part of the team from the earliest stage allows these professionals to provide sufficient and early certainty in the M&E aspects of all construction projects.