buildahouse.mu
← All guides

Phase 3

Costing and the Quantity Surveyor

Facts last checked 0 of 10 checklist items done

Costing and the Quantity Surveyor

An architect designs the house. A quantity surveyor (QS) tells you what it will actually cost to build, and checks that what you are billed matches what was built.

1. Do You Need a QS?

For a modest single-storey house, many people rely on their architect's estimate and comparable contractor quotations. For anything larger, or if you are borrowing significantly, a QS pays for themselves.

A QS will:

  • Produce a cost estimate early, so the design can be adjusted before it is too late
  • Prepare a Bill of Quantities (BOQ) — an itemised measure of every element of work
  • Evaluate tenders — spot the abnormally low bid and the missing item
  • Value work in progress for each payment stage
  • Price variations so you are not at the contractor's mercy on extras
  • Prepare the final account

2. The Bill of Quantities Is Your Main Cost Control

A BOQ lists each item of work with its measured quantity and a rate: cubic metres of concrete, square metres of blockwork, kilograms of steel, square metres of plaster.

Why it matters:

  • Every contractor prices the same quantities, so quotations become genuinely comparable — see Choosing a Contractor.
  • Variations get priced at agreed rates already in the BOQ, instead of whatever the contractor asks once you are committed.
  • Progress payments can be measured rather than argued about.

Without a BOQ, you are negotiating every extra from a position of no information.

3. Cost Estimation

Construction cost in Mauritius is commonly discussed as a rate per square foot of built area, varying widely with the level of finish — structure only, standard finish, or high-end.

⚠️ VERIFY — Current Rs/ft² benchmarks are deliberately not stated here, and I was unable to find an authoritative published source for them. There is no official Mauritian body publishing residential construction rates per square foot; the figures circulating online are anecdotal and age quickly. Material prices also move with import costs and the exchange rate, so a stale figure here would mislead someone's entire budget. Get current rates from:

  • Two or three quantity surveyors or architects, for your specific finish level
  • Recent itemised quotations from contractors on your own plans
  • People who have completed a comparable house in the last 12 months

When someone quotes you a rate per square foot, always ask: what does it include? A rate that excludes finishes, boundary wall, and utilities is not comparable to one that includes them.

4. Where Budgets Break

  • Finishes. Tiles, sanitary ware, kitchen, doors, and windows have an enormous price range and are chosen late, when enthusiasm is high and discipline is low. Set a finishes budget early and hold it.
  • Variations. Small changes during the build, each individually reasonable. See Choosing a Contractor on written variation orders.
  • Forgotten externals. Boundary wall, gate, driveway, water tank and pump, landscaping. See Financing Your House.
  • Over-specified structure. As noted in Architect, unnecessarily high-end structural materials inflate cost without improving the house.
  • Material price movement on a long build.

5. Buying Materials Yourself

Some owners supply some materials directly to save on the contractor's margin. Weigh it honestly:

Can work well for: tiles, sanitary ware, doors, windows, paint, light fittings — items you choose anyway and that are easy to count.

Rarely worth it for: concrete, steel, blocks, cement — contractors buy these at trade prices you will not match, and if you supply them, any shortage, wastage, or delay becomes your problem and your excuse-in-waiting for the contractor.

If you do supply materials, make the split explicit item by item in the contract, and agree who bears wastage.

6. Checklist