Thibaud Pastor is a construction economist and the founder of Quostra, which publishes these resources. Based in Paris, he has worked in construction for more than 10 years. His job is to establish the cost of a project, defend it and keep it under control, from the budget envelope in the brief to the variation quotes on site.
Career
He started out with a builder of detached houses, then moved on to civil engineering sites. He has since held all three positions where the cost of a project is decided:
- On the design side, he set up his own construction economics consultancy in 2019 and worked for a firm of architects.
- On the contractor side, he prepared tender submissions for main contractors and priced projects for a design-and-build contractor.
- On the client side, he was a buyer for a property development group, procuring the envelope and fit-out packages on around 30 schemes.
He therefore reads an estimate with the eyes of the design team that prepared it, a set of tender documents with those of the contractor that will price it, and a bid with those of the buyer who has to select it.
Projects
Over his career, he has worked with architects, design teams, developers and investors on more than 50 public and private projects ranging from EUR 50,000 to EUR 35 million: blocks of flats and detached houses, offices, shops, restaurants, hotels, schools, school complexes and nurseries, business premises, and sports and cultural facilities. His work covers new build as well as extensions, additional storeys, refurbishment, change of use and compliance upgrades, from a 32 m² shop to a hotel of more than 10,000 m².
His estimating rule
A quantity not marked on the drawings is a quantity not included. It must be possible to show every quantity in a cost estimate on a drawing, and every assumption must be written down: that is what makes it possible to defend a figure before a client or a commission d'appel d'offres (the tender committee of a French local authority; in Belgium, the award decision rests with the pouvoir adjudicateur, or contracting authority).
Areas of expertise
- Works budget at brief stage
- Works cost estimates, quantity take-off and marked-up drawings
- Review and counter-estimate of a design team's cost estimate
- Tender documents: DPGF (in Belgium, the summary bill of quantities), CCTP (the technical clauses of the particular specification), review of the DCE (the complete set of tender documents)
- Tender analysis and abnormally low tenders
- Variation quotes and contract amendments during the works
Education
Management économique de la construction (a French state diploma)
His articles
His articles explain what a budget commits the client to, what the rules provide for and which decisions must be taken before costs drift. They are written primarily for those who price, check and defend a client's budget: client-side project managers, architects and design teams. Each article draws on the legislation in force and states the date on which its information was checked.
More than 13,700 people follow his posts on LinkedIn.
His guides
- Construction costs per m² in Belgium: a guide by region
- Measurement and specification in Belgium
- Building regulations in Belgium
- Contracts and liability in a Belgian construction project
- Renovating an existing building in Belgium
- The client's construction budget in Belgium: setting it, checking it, holding it