Recommended quantity surveyor: how to choose one for your project
A recommended quantity surveyor is not whoever comes up first in a search, but an engineer or a registered building technician, like Yaakov Avital, whose work holds up against contractors, against a tender and against design changes. A good recommendation helps, but a deliverable you can check helps more. This guide sets out what to check, what to ask and when to stop.
How to recognise a recommended quantity surveyor: five things to check
- Experience on projects of your type. A private house, a residential building, TAMA 38 (Israel's national plan for strengthening existing buildings against earthquakes, usually with added floors), a public building and a tower are different worlds. Ask about projects similar in size and type, not only about the number of years of experience.
- Construction experience. A quantity surveyor who has worked on site or for a contractor knows what is missing from the drawings and how a contractor will read each item. That is the difference between a list of numbers and a bill that works in a tender.
- Working with the material you have. If there is a Revit model, look for a quantity surveyor who can produce quantities from it and explain them. If there are only DWG or PDF files, it is worth hearing how they intend to work, and what will be written about this in the document.
- A sample deliverable. A serious quantity surveyor can show a sample bill of quantities without identifying client details. The sample shows the structure, the level of detail and the way assumptions and gaps are marked.
- Clear scope and terms. What is included, how many update rounds there are, how a change is priced and how the payment is split. Whatever is not written in the quote will come up in the middle of the work, usually at the least convenient time.
Not all five need to be perfect. A private house does not need a quantity surveyor who has worked on towers, and a residential building does not need a specialist in private houses. What matters is the fit between the experience and your project, and a deliverable that can be read and checked.
Questions to ask before you hire
Send the same questions to everyone you are considering, and ask for written answers:
- Which chapters and phases are included, and which are not?
- Are the consultants' BOQs, such as electrical, HVAC and plumbing, integrated into the bill?
- Is a cost estimate also needed, or only quantities? And is it included in the price?
- How are assumptions and missing data marked?
- Will every quantity have a source: a sheet, a drawing or a model element?
- What happens when a new design version arrives in the middle of the work?
- In what format is the deliverable provided, and can it be sent to contractors as it is?
- How many update rounds are included, and how is a change priced?
- Is there valid professional liability insurance? What is the scope of cover, and does it meet your requirements?
- What needs to be prepared to get started?
Leave the question of price to the end. Without answers to these questions you cannot know what exactly you are paying for. How to compare several quotes is covered in the guide to comparing quantity surveyor quotes.
Warning signs worth stopping for
- A final price before anyone has seen the drawings.
- A commitment to an accuracy percentage or to a timetable before the material has been checked.
- A single quantity for each chapter, with no breakdown into items and no descriptions.
- Missing data recorded as zero, with no marking at all.
- No sample deliverable, and no explanation of how the work is done.
- No written scope: what is in and what is out.
None of these signs necessarily means that the quantity surveyor is not good. They mean it is worth asking one more question before you sign.
How to check a recommended quantity surveyor without relying only on recommendations
A recommendation from a friend or a colleague is a good starting point. You can also check for yourself:
- Ask for a list of projects by type and size, like my project list, and check whether it includes something similar to your project.
- Ask the quantity surveyor to explain one item from the sample: where the quantity came from and what the item includes.
- Ask what they need from you, and check whether the list makes sense. A quantity surveyor who asks for orderly material knows what they are going to do with it.
- Professional liability insurance. Ask for confirmation of valid professional liability insurance, and check that the insurance period, the scope of cover and the areas covered meet your requirements. If there is a client, a developer or a financing bank (the bank that funds and monitors the project), check against their requirements too. This matters especially when the same professional also provides construction supervision.
Also pay attention to the questions the quantity surveyor asks you. Someone who asks about the contracting model, the current revision of the drawings and the purpose of the bill intends to build a bill that suits your project, not one template for everyone.
In my work as a quantity surveyor for construction projects you can ask for a sample without identifying details, and the quote sets out what is included, which deliverables will be handed over and how the payment is split across the stages.
Pick one item from the sample and ask for an explanation: which drawing or which model the quantity came from, what the item includes and what it does not. A clear, short answer says more than any recommendation.
What a professional quantity surveyor adds here. A recommended quantity surveyor also shows in the questions they ask. Ask to see a sample of a comments and questions sheet, not only a bill of quantities, and check whether it marks gaps between the soil report and the drawings, missing schedules, or a specification that does not match the drawing. A quantity surveyor who comes from the field, an engineer or a registered building technician who worked on site, like Yaakov Avital, records these before pricing. More on a professional bill of quantities.
When you choose a professional, ask to see a quantity takeoff they prepared in the past, including the calculation sheet and not only the final bill. Whoever shows how the quantity takeoff was built also shows how they work.
What to require from a quantity surveyor and an estimator: experience and qualifications
A bill of quantities, a cost estimate and pricing all rest on site knowledge: how the work is actually done, how long each task takes, what safety requires and what later comes back as a variation. Ask to see construction and tender experience, and next to it qualifications you can check in official registers (the registers are in Hebrew):
- A registered building technician or an engineer. This can be checked in the Ministry of Labour's register of certified technicians.
- A certified works manager. Someone who has managed works on site knows the sequence of the works, the crews and the durations. This can be checked in the Ministry of Labour's register of service providers. More on the construction works manager page.
- Safety officer and work-at-height instructor courses. Someone who has taken them knows what site safety requires, including work at height and scaffolding, and what it costs. More on the pages on site safety and work at height.
- Construction defects inspection. Someone who knows the defects that keep recurring can expect them in the budget already, as explained on the home inspection and budget page.
Like Yaakov Avital: these qualifications are listed in the "About the author" box at the bottom of this page, with links to the CV and to the official registers. Experience costs money: a quantity surveyor with deeper site, safety and tender experience charges more, and usually sees in advance more of what would otherwise come back later as a variation.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find a recommended quantity surveyor in my area?
Most of the work is done on drawings and digital files, so distance matters less than it seems. Experience with your type of project and a deliverable you can check matter more.
Is a recommended quantity surveyor necessarily the most expensive?
Not necessarily. A high price alone does not indicate quality, and a low price does not mean the work will end up cheaper. But experience costs money: a quantity surveyor with deep site and tender experience usually charges more. Compare the scope and the experience first, and only then the price.
Should I ask for a sample bill of quantities?
Yes. A sample without identifying details shows the structure, the level of detail and the way assumptions are marked. It is the best tool for comparing quantity surveyors before you hire.
What if I do not have complete drawings yet?
You can start with what you have. A recommended quantity surveyor will tell you what is missing, what can be calculated right now, and what will be marked as an assumption until the material arrives.
Have a project? Tell me briefly what the project is and what already exists. When the project is a good fit, I usually reply with focused questions and a written quote.
Contact me for a quote* Created with AI for marketing, for illustration only. Not reviewed by Yaakov Avital and not professional advice. Every project must be checked on its own by a professional quantity surveyor and an engineer.