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Working with the National Building Specification (NBS) provides several benefits for construction professionals and the construction industry as a whole. Some of the key benefits include: 1. Standardization: NBS provides a standardized set of specifications that can be used by all parties involved in a construction project. This helps to ensure consistency and clarity in the requirements for materials, workmanship, and other aspects of the project. 2. Quality: NBS specifications are developed by experts in the construction industry, ensuring that they are comprehensive and up-to-date with the latest industry standards and best practices. This helps to improve the overall quality of construction projects. 3. Time-saving: Using NBS specifications can help to save time in the planning and design phases of a project, as they provide a ready-made set of specifications that can be easily customized to fit the specific requirements of a project. 4. Cost-effective: By providing detailed and accurate specifications, NBS can help to reduce the risk of errors and omissions in construction projects, which can lead to cost overruns and delays. This can ultimately save time and money for all parties involved in the project. 5. Collaboration: NBS specifications can facilitate collaboration between different parties involved in a construction project, such as architects, engineers, contractors, and subcontractors. By providing a common set of specifications, NBS can help to ensure that all parties are on the same page and working towards a common goal. Overall, working with the National Building Specification can help to improve the efficiency, quality, and collaboration of construction projects, ultimately leading to better outcomes for all stakeholders involved.

What are the reasons for extra costs in the Design-Build construction delivery method? Extra costs can be from two sources.   1.   Owner-initiated changes.   2.  Changes resulting from unavoidable circumstances, such as conditions underground or other situations that could not have been foreseen. It may also involve changes initiated by an independent party, such as a building department or governing authority. Changes initiated by owners can and do happen. The total cost in terms of money and time associated with these changes depends entirely on one question. How effectively do the project definition documents convey the owner’s requirements? Specifically, do the documents minimize the need for owner-initiated changes and how effectively do they reduce the possibility of disputes involving design interpretations? Although it is impossible to predict the answers, an owner can influence the effectiveness of the project definition process thus reducing the possibility of changes and disputes. The effectiveness of project definition documents in minimizing changes and disputes can only be evaluated after the building is constructed. Ideally, owner-initiated changes or disputes about design interpretations should not occur. Therefore, the more development of project definition a prospective facility is given, the less chance there is for changes or disputes. A clear definition of project requirements reduces the need for assumptions and interpretations.

Subcontractor tender activity is on the rise, as per the latest survey of around 150 package contractors by leading framework provider Southern Construction Framework. The survey reveals that tender activity improved by 3.2% in the first three months of 2021. Despite lingering concerns about projects crossing the line to start construction, this positive growth trend is promising for the industry.

What is a provisional sum? A provisional sum is an allowance included in a fixed price construction contract for an item of work that cannot be priced by the contractor at the time of entering the contract. How do provisional sums work? Whereas all other elements of the price in a fixed price contract are set, provisional sums are adjusted to reflect the final cost of performing the provisional sum work, once their final cost is known. In other words, where a lump sum contract price includes a provisional sum, the final amount payable by the principal will be adjusted to reflect the actual cost of the provisional sum work. Provisional sums are used where the principal wishes to enter into a contract to enable the project to commence, even though the design for parts of the project is not yet finalized. (Early Contractor Involvement or 'ECI' is another form of contracting that allows principals to commence without a fully completed design.

Material Take-Off vs Bill of Quantities: Which Saves You More Money? Are you overspending on construction projects? Learn the key differences between a Material Take-Off and a Bill of Quantities, and discover which one helps you save the most money! 👉 Check out the blog: https://buff.ly/4hfw6DU #ConstructionManagement #CostEfficiency #MaterialTakeOff #BillOfQuantities #ProjectSuccess

Common mistakes in construction tenders that can be avoided before submission of your tender package.

An architect’s guide to tender drawings & construction documents Unsure about what kind of architectural drawings you need to actually get your building built? We give you the inside track One of the things that can be confusing when you work with an architect is the different types of drawings you might need at different stages of a project. Why, you might be asking, can’t there just be one set of drawings and accompanying documents to cover everything from planning to building? Some small firms sometimes do this for very small projects. Most architects we know would never advise it, though: it’s far better to have the right kind of drawings with the right amount of detail and focus on the right things for planning permission, building regulations approval and for what we are going to talk about here: tender and construction. A quick note: the tender process is part of what is often known as traditional procurement – it’s one of the ways you can use for deciding how and when you want to get a building contractor involved in your project.  What follows is a comprehensive look at everything you need to know about tender drawings, schedule of works and project management for construction.

Methods used by the contractor to obtain a extension of time for the project: - The contractor takes advantage of mistake in the design (As we know that the project owner saves money in the design stage and the design always poor some coordination details between the engineering departments) here the contractor takes advantage of this point to delay submitting the shop-drawing to the consultant to obtain his approval. - He also exploits errors in the difference between specifications and bills of quantities previously approved in the tender, and exploits this point by submitting financial claims for the price difference between them, which results in studying such matters by the consultant and the owner to gain time for the contractor, and through them the contractor can change the project specifications and increase his profit in the materials difference. - The contractor always takes advantage of the delay in approving materials, to obtain the opportunity to rely on products from other companies that are not approved by the vendor list of suppliers, by exploiting the supply of materials for the project and contracting with other suppliers to earn more profits from the materials that he will supply from other suppliers to the project at lower prices. - Randomly submitting requests for on-site receipt and taking advantage of the poor of approval of shop-drawing or approval of materials that will be used in construction. Which leads to the consultant being besieged and accused of delaying the delivery of the works or making the consultant agree to carry out the works in an incorrect manner and earning sums of money from re-executing the works again.

In this article, let us go over all the steps you need to take to learn construction estimates, from reviewing a bid package to considering profit and possible problems. https://bit.ly/3TlCwHe

Changes are an unavoidable aspect of construction. Although thorough effort and coordination are required in preparing the original project contract, specifications and construction drawings, there will still be changes. This is why owners are provided the right to make changes to the work under a typical contract changes clause. #construction #contractlaw #constructionlaw