INTRODUCTION

With the rising of the development in our country, there are a lot of construction
building. Many upcoming projects building of houses (terraces, villas, apartments and
condominium), offices, theme park and shopping malls. Before the projects have been
conducted, there are some procedures that need to be taken such as proposed project,
preparing document tender and project approval.

The purpose of our group project report is to introduce our selected building project.
We have included the construction project drawings and applied the method of taking off
quantities by performing the calculations and measurements from the selected building.

We have choose single story houses that were built by Syarikat Perumahan Negara
Berhad (SPNB) Mesra Sdn.Bhd., a project under the Rumah Mesra Rakyat 1 Malaysia
programme. They were built in land area of 1000kps that cost of RM65000 with a RM20000
subsidy and 2% of interest given for each unit. A unit of the house consists of three bedrooms
and two bathroom. The objective of SPNB in building up the houses were to help
unaffordable people to buy their own house.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this project are :

1) to learn how to perform taking off quantities for all items under work below lowest
floor finish.
2) apply taking off quantity scale in this project.
3) to know the specific details in plan drawing and know how to interpret in calculation.
4) to form bill of quantities that are a part of the tender document.
5) to provide sufficient information on the quantities of works to be performed to enable
bids to be prepared efficiently and accurately.
6) to provide a priced bill of quantities for use in the periodic valuation of works
executed.
TAKING OFF QUANTITIES

Taking off quantities is the quantification process that involves recording dimensions.
This process involves reading or scaling dimensions from a drawing plan and entering the
information in a standard manner on purpose ruled paper called dimension paper. This
process is an important part of the cost estimate. It must be as accurate as possible and should
be based on the drawing plan.

The importance of taking off quantities process are for cost estimating and often
establishes the quantity and unit of measure for the costs of labor and contractors’ equipment.
This process need to be done because for the owner perspective, the process is important for
the initial (preliminary) estimate of the project costs at the different stages of the project. It is
also important to prepare the bill of quantities (BOQ) as a requirement of the contract
documents and estimate the work done for issuing the contractor payments.

Meanwhile, for the contractor perspective, the process of taking off quantities is
important for pricing different work items. This process also help the contractor to identify the
needed resources and prepare the project schedule so they can estimate the duration for the
project to be done. Taking off quantities process help the contractor to prepare invoices for
work done, payments and control of crews’ production rate.

Taking off quantities process is done to establish the correct amount of work to be
executed. Calculating well-presented accurate quantities in a clear manner within a logical
approach will help to reduce errors and will be very helpful if the notes need to be referred to
at a later date. It is also need to have technical accuracy in booking dimensions by rigidly
observed at all times.

Taking off quantities is a very valuable process in order to understand when

Bill of quantities (BOQ) is a document prepared by the cost consultant that provides
project specific measured quantities of the items of work identified by the drawings and
specifications in the tender documentation. It can be measured by number, length, area,
volume, weight or time. In order to prepare BOQ, a complete design and specifications are
required. BOQ is needed to prepare a price for carrying out the works and assists tenderers in
the calculation of construction costs for their tender. The priced will constituted the tenderer’s
offer. It is possible to compare both the overall price and individual items directly with other
tenderer’s offer and allowing a detailed assessment of which aspects of a tender may offer
good or poor value. This information can assist with the tender negotiation.

Usually, BOQ is only prepared on larger projects. The contractor can be expected to
measure their own quantities on smaller projects or alteration work from drawings and
schedules of work. Schedules of work are ‘without quantities’ instructional lists that allow the
contractor to identify significant work and materials that will be needed to complete the works
and to calculate the quantities that will be required. BOQ is most useful for the contractor
when they prepared in work sections that reflect like sub-contract packages. Therefore it will
easier them to obtain accurate and competitive prices from sub-contractors.

The priced if BOQ will assist with the agreement of the contract sum with the
successful tenderer. It also provide a schedule of rates assisting with the valuation of
variations. A basis for the valuation of interim payments and for the preparation of the final
account also provided in the BOQ. Pricing of different items of work are done on the basis of
the cost of material, equipment, labor, overheads and profit.

BOQ is classified into a few categories :

 civil works include earthworks, foundation works, brick works, Skelton reinforce
concrete, water proofing, staircases plastering, flooring, painting and metal works.
 sanitary works includes water feeding systems, internal and external plumbing works
and finishes of plumbing works.
 electrical works includes electrical cables, wiring, accessories and internal
connections.
 mechanical works includes air conditioning systems and elevators.
 BOQ give a lot of advantages such as it can save the cost and time of several
contractors measuring the same design order to calculate their bids for competition. It is also
provide a consistent basis for competitive bids so that the contractor who is the most efficient
and least expensive in providing the items of work is likely to be commissioned for the job.
BOQ provide a very strong basis for financial administration of the contract.
CONCLUSION

The purpose of measuring building work is to establish the correct amount of work to
be executed. Calculating well present accurate quantities in a clear manner within a logical
approach will help to reduce errors and will be very helpful if the notes need to be referred to
at a later date. The quantities are being prepared for tender documents governed by standard
methods of measurement relate to work net as fixed in position. Multipliers are placed in the
time per column and the quantities are computed in the squaring column. Descriptive content
and preliminary dimension calculations are performed in the dimension column. Dimensions
are ideally entered in the order of length, width and depth, figured dimensions should be used
in preference to scaled dimensions. There are a lot of things that we need to be aware when
performing taking off quantities and bill of quantities process. In order to have a good taking
off quantities, all the dimensions and specifications from the drawing need to be accurate.
Therefore, multiply checking need to be done. The most important is the drawing plan of
tender must be complete and clear so all the process are being smooth. By the end of this
project, all the objectives stated above are being accepted by us as a group project.