Main contractors and their quantity surveyors do not buy promises, they buy a process they can see. This is ours, stage by stage: how we read a tender, how we price, what happens before the first day on site, how the job is coordinated and valued, and what you get at handover and through the defects period.
Published 8 September 2026 · By AMPM Building Services
The first thing we do with an enquiry is read the documents rather than the covering email: the drawings, the specification, the employer's requirements, the programme and the preliminaries. We are looking for what the package actually includes, where design responsibility sits, what the interfaces with other trades are, and what the programme assumes about access and sequence.
Where the documents are silent or contradict each other we raise it as a tender query before pricing, not as a claim after award. A short list of clarifications and exclusions, written in plain English, goes back with the price. If the package is not one we should bid, we say so early so the estimator is not waiting on a number that is not coming.
We price from a measured scope: quantities taken from the drawings, plant and materials priced from current supplier quotations, labour built up by activity and sequence rather than lump-summed. Long-lead items such as switchgear, air handling units, heat pumps and cladding systems are identified and their lead times stated, because on most packages they set the programme.
The price carries its assumptions with it: the programme it is based on, the working hours, the access assumed, the attendances expected from the main contractor (builder's work, hoisting, welfare) and the design stage the drawings are at. Provisional sums are used where the information genuinely does not exist yet, and they are labelled as such. The aim is a price that survives the first commercial meeting.
Between award and mobilisation the package is turned into a plan. Design responsibility is confirmed in writing: what the consultant has designed, what we are developing to construction stage, and who signs what. Coordination drawings are produced or reviewed against the structure, ceilings and other services, and clashes are resolved on paper.
Risk assessments and method statements are written for the actual activities and the actual building, not copied from the last job. Under CDM 2015 we produce our contribution to the construction phase plan, confirm competence and supervision for each trade, and agree permit-to-work arrangements for hot works, isolations and work at height. Procurement of long-lead items starts here, with delivery dates written into the programme.
One project manager is accountable for the package from mobilisation to handover, and the client team knows their name. Progress is reported against the programme weekly, with a look-ahead so interfaces with other trades are agreed before they become a delay. Quality is checked against inspection and test plans at defined hold points, and the evidence (photographs, test sheets, certificates) is filed as the work proceeds so the O&M manual is assembled rather than reconstructed.
Variations are raised when instructed, priced promptly and agreed before the work is done where the programme allows. Where it does not, the instruction and the record are kept so the valuation is not an argument. We would rather have an awkward conversation about scope in week two than a dispute in the final account.
Applications for payment follow the contract's dates and the Construction Act's notice regime (the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 as amended). Each application is supported by a measured statement of the work done, the materials on site, agreed variations and any claims, so the quantity surveyor can assess it without a site visit to check what has been claimed.
Retention, if the contract carries it, is tracked and released on the dates the contract sets. Where the client operates a project bank account or a payment portal we work to it. Commercial surprises are avoided by keeping the account current every month rather than settling it in a lump at the end.
Systems are commissioned to the design, witnessed by the client's engineer where the specification requires, and the results recorded. Electrical installations are inspected and tested to BS 7671 with full certification. Water systems are flushed, chlorinated and sampled. Mechanical systems are balanced and their performance recorded. Snagging is walked with the client and closed before handover, not after.
The handover pack includes the operation and maintenance manuals, as-built drawings, test and commissioning records, certificates and warranties, and product data for everything installed. On buildings where the Building Safety Act's golden thread applies, the pack is structured so the accountable person can drop it into the building's safety information without re-formatting it.
The defects liability period is written into the contract and we work it as a service, not an obligation to be avoided. Defects reported in the period are attended, fixed and recorded. Where a maintenance contract follows, the handover information becomes the first asset register and the defects period runs alongside the planned maintenance, so there is no gap in who knows the building.
That continuity is the point of doing projects and maintenance under one roof. The team that installed the plant is the team that is answering the phone at 3am when it trips, and they already know where the isolators are.
It depends on the procurement route and it should be written down before award. On a traditional contract the consultant designs and we install to that design, taking responsibility for workmanship and for developing details where the specification asks us to. On design-and-build we take design development from a defined RIBA stage and carry responsibility for coordination and performance. We confirm the split in writing at pre-construction so nobody discovers it in a dispute.
Raised when instructed, priced promptly from the same rates and build-ups as the tender, and agreed before the work where the programme allows. Where it does not, the instruction and the record are kept and the variation is included in the next application with its supporting evidence.
Operation and maintenance instructions for every system, as-built drawings, commissioning results, inspection and test certificates, product data sheets, warranties and a maintenance schedule. Where the building has a golden-thread requirement the pack is structured to fit it. The manual is assembled during the job from the quality records, which is why it is complete at handover.