Plumbing for a construction cost plan

The Plumbing page for a construction cost plan

Introduction

This is a simple article discussing the various elements of a construction cost-plan to attempt to articulate the best practice for construction cost-plans.

The Plumbing package page is simply one page of around thirty pages that lay out, item by item, the works involved in a construction project.

What is the Plumbing page for a construction cost plan ?

The Plumbing page for a construction cost plan is simply the page that lists out all of the tasks that are involved in the plumbing package of a construction project.

In a typical construction costs plan there will be separate sections for the following elements (trades/work packages):

• Cover page
• Summary page
• Preliminaries
• Demolition & Strip-out
• Foundations & Drainage
• Structural steel
• Brickwork
• Roof
• Upper floors
• External Windows and Doors
• Stairs
• Mechanical (Plumbing)
• Electrical
• Fire services
• Internal studwork
• Internal blockwork
• Internal ceilings
• Skim coat
• Carpentry
• Decoration
• Floor finishes
• Kitchen
• Joinery
• Tiling
• Fixtures and fittings
• External works
• Underfloor heating
• External cladding
• Client supply items
• Contingency for unforeseen items

What is the purpose of the Plumbing page

Its purpose is to summarise and total all of the various costs associated the Plumbing package page.

It means that the Client or any of the team members can see exactly 1) what the final total is 2) where the costs are split through the work packages.

The upper floors page should have the following:

• Logo of the company producing the construction cost plan
• Title of the page e.g. Upper floors
• Address of the project
• Date of the cost-plan
• All of the elements for the upper floors package including supply and installation of the upper floors
• All of the costs for the works above
• A final total

Here is an example that we have mocked up specifically for this article:

Any other notes on the Plumbing page for a construction cost plan

Plumbing costs can be found easily by contacting a local plumbing business.

These businesses specialise in the complete plumbing packages so you can get a fixed price from them for the works.

Some of these companies will price for supplying all of the materials but if you want to provide the materials then they can provide a labour only price.

This reduces your risk for this package as you are sub-contracting the risk out to someone who can handle it better (because they do nothing but plumbing and therefore know their costs a lot better than you would).

Order of measurement for plumbing

It is very important to take a logical approach to taking off quantities for plumbing.

A simply take-off list for plumbing might include:

• Mains connection for water
• Underground service and rising service/main from site boundary up to cold water storage (if applicable)
• Branches coming off the rising service such as cold water to the sinks
• Cold water tank or cistern
• Down services with branches including any stopvalves
• Sanitary appliances
• Traps and wastes  to appliances
• Discharge pipes such as waste, soil and vent pipes
• Any other work such as painting pipes, marking the position of pipes and testing the installation
• Cutting holes for pipes
• Insulation