When preparing detailed and summary cost plan reports, you may hear Quantity Surveyors referring to Elements, rather than to Trades. This is part of our training and it is a system of cost planning that allows us to comprehensively measure, price and prepare a cost plan for any building at almost any stage of design.
The Elements system acts as a checklist so that nothing should be missed and also as a consistent way of summarizing and analyzing projects and their costs (and size) so that they can be compared and bench-marked to other, usually similar, projects. It’s a great little system and means that items (i.e. elements) such as floors, walls and roofs may be priced, or a potential price or cost allowed for, even if no trade or construction information is yet available.
The attached list (pdf) are the 46 Elements (excluding the sub-elements – which is a long and more detailed list that I haven’t used) as defined by the National Public Works Conference (NPWC) Cost Control Manual as used by Quantity Surveyors in Australia.
