The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
The cost to the contactor is the attendance allowance required to assist the client in carrying out the work or unloading their materials.The estimator adds profit and an attendance allowance to each of the nominated sub-contractor’s prime cost (PC). The profit, expressed as a percentage, does not have to be the same as added to the builder’s work.When selecting the profit margin it should be noted there is probably less risk associated with those nominated as the onus is on the client in terms of the reality of their price. This can be taken into account when deciding on the amount to be added.
The attendance allowance may vary between sub-contractors depending upon the amount required. It may be specified that the contractor has to provide special attendance such as the provision of a mobile crane and its operative for fixing precast cladding panels or the steel structural frame. This
can be easily calculated based on hire rates and predicted duration. Other than any special attendance, attendance for provision and use of general facilities is added as a percentage of the PC sum.
The procedure for calculating daywork is to record the amount of labour,materials and plant that has been used to carry out an operation. This record is signed by the architect or clerk of works to confirm the details recorded are correct. At a later stage the client’s QS and the contractor can agree some other method of valuation and the daywork sheet discarded. If the daywork procedure is continued, the data is priced. This has to comply with the definitions prepared for building works as published jointly by the by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Construction Confederation.
The definition for building works of prime cost of daywork states that the component parts that make up a daywork are: labour, materials and plant.The contractor then adds for any incidental costs, overheads and profit at the tender stage. The effect of doing it then is it creates competition for daywork.The prime cost components are calculated as follows.
