The Site QS

What does a site quantity surveyor actually do once the project is live?

Formal training explains measurement, valuation and contract procedure. Live projects add moving design, incomplete information, overlapping scopes, programme pressure, disputed change and a forecast that must still be credible.

The Site QS closes the gap between knowing the terminology and being useful on site. Written from the perspective of a UK main contractor in high-end residential construction, it provides a realistic guide to the decisions, records and routines that shape the commercial outcome.

Inside the handbook, readers will learn how to:

• Interrogate the tender, contract, drawings, programme and scope before committing money.
• Procure and administer subcontract packages with clear commercial records.
• Control applications, variations, dayworks, over-measures, preliminaries and final accounts.
• Track cost, value, cash flow, forecast and margin honestly.
• Recognise delay, weak evidence and the point at which an issue must be escalated.
• Build dependable weekly and month-end commercial routines.

This is not a theoretical textbook or a substitute for the project contract and senior advice. It is a practical working handbook for trainee, assistant and junior quantity surveyors who want to understand how commercial management is carried out on live UK main-contractor projects.