James Hill is a quantity surveyor and director of Cost Estimator Ltd. He writes Cost Estimator guidance for homeowners, builders, developers and architects who need clearer construction pricing before money is committed. His articles focus on practical estimating issues: drawings, scope gaps, quantities, labour and material allowances, preliminaries, exclusions, tender pricing, quote comparison and cost drift. You can also find and connect with James Hill on LinkedIn.
A practical UK guide to measuring construction materials from drawings, applying package-specific waste, converting supplier units and preparing order-ready information.
A practical UK guide to the costs a self-build extension budget should include, the information needed for a measured estimate, and how to control assumptions, allowances, exclusions and VAT.
An annotated UK construction cost estimate showing work sections, preliminaries, labour, materials, overhead and profit, programme, wastage and total reconciliation.
A practical guide for property developers in England covering CIL, Section 106, biodiversity net gain and the Building Safety Levy, including cost-plan and programme allowances.
Refurbishment and rebuild options need to be tested against the same brief. Compare scope, assumptions, differential costs and unknowns before committing to a route.
How subcontractor and supplier failure can affect replacement prices, reattendance, preliminaries, programme risk, exclusions, validity periods and contingency.
Before cutting your price to match a cheaper building quote, check the scope, exclusions, preliminaries, programme assumptions, allowances and OHP position.
A builder-facing guide to making groundwater and site-water risk visible in estimates, tenders, preliminaries, programme allowances, temporary works and exclusions.
A practical builder-facing guide to pricing weather delay risk into construction quotes, including preliminaries, programme allowances, exclusions and margin protection.
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