The four elements
Every item must carry them, without exception. These elements identify the work and its unit.
The description, setting out the work unambiguously.
The unit, indicating the quantity by which the work is measured.
The quantity, established by the design team from the project.
The reference to the applicable requirement, tying the item to the technical clauses.
The fourth element is the most often omitted, although it saves having to describe the work in full within the schedule.
| Element | What it states | Effect if missing |
|---|---|---|
| Description | The nature of the work | Divergent interpretations |
| Unit | The quantity measured | Incomparable bids |
| Quantity | The extent provided | Contested final account |
| Scope | What is and is not included | A run of additional works |
The question of what is and is not included
This is what decides comparability.
An item must say what it includes and, where useful, what it does not.
Ancillary work is the commonest source of divergence: substrate preparation, protection, cutting, sealing, waste removal, cleaning.
If the schedule does not say, each contractor decides, and prices become incomparable with nothing to signal it.
Two methods coexist: stating ancillaries item by item, or dealing with them globally in the particular technical clauses.
The second is leaner and less repetitive, but it requires the cross-reference to be explicit in every item concerned.
The wordings to avoid
Four turns of phrase that transfer the decision to the contractor. They make the bids incomparable with one another.
In accordance with good practice, used alone, which says nothing verifiable.
Including all necessary ancillaries, which leaves the contractor to define what is necessary, and therefore its price.
Or equivalent, with no criterion of equivalence, which makes objective comparison impossible.
For information only, which lists a work without pricing it, and therefore without its being due.
These wordings are not wrong in themselves, but used without qualification they produce incomparable bids and disputes of interpretation.
The link with the technical clauses
Three rules of consistency.
The item never contradicts the requirement. Where they diverge, the hierarchy of documents decides, covered in the article on general and particular.
The item does not repeat the requirement. It refers to it, which avoids divergent versions.
Every work specified must find an item, failing which it is described but not priced.
This last point deserves a systematic check, covered in the article on checking a schedule.
The drafting test
Four questions, on each item written.
Would a third party understand exactly the same thing as I do.
Do they know what is included and what is not.
Do they know by what rule the quantity was established.
Do they know which requirement to refer to.
If a single answer is no, the item will produce a price difference, and that difference will be put down to the market when it comes from the drafting.
What this means for a professional
Four rules.
Carry the four elements in every item, without exception.
Address ancillaries expressly, item by item or globally, but never implicitly.
Avoid open wordings used without qualification.
Check that every requirement has its item, and vice versa.
This article sets out a method of professional orientation. It reproduces no content from normative documents.