In response to your costs article (The costs Top 40, QS News, 21 October) – where does the BCIS source these rates? Most are OK (plus or minus 10%) but several of them are way out.

Plasterboard and skim ceilings for £9.50? The going rate is £12-£12.50. The same goes for hardwall plaster. 150 PCC floors are circa £40-45, not the £31.75 stated.

Ceramic (coloured) wall tiles will cost £18-20/m2 labour only these days, then there is the BAL and tiles themselves – I can assure you that you won’t get them on a wall at the £25 stated. More like £35.

Steel is more likely to cost £1,400 per tonne and not £1,200.

Excavate to reduce levels is the other way round – more likely to be £0.60-1.00 than £2 on a £1m project, for reasonable quantities.

I appreciate the BCIS has a job on its hands stating rates in an overheated market but the above rates are ridiculously inaccurate and if a QS used them for a cost plan at pre-tender stage then he would be risking a lot of egg on his face when his client opened the bids.

David Hamilton, senior estimator, Gleeson Building

Source

QS News