Base cost estimate

The New Rules of Measurement (NRM) are published by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). They provide a standard set of measurement rules for estimating, cost planning, procurement and whole-life costing for construction projects.

According to NRM1: Order of cost estimating and cost planning for capital building work, the term ‘base cost estimate’ means:

‘…an evolving estimate of known factors without any allowances for risk and uncertainty, or element of inflation. The base cost estimate is the sum of the works cost estimate, the project/design team fees estimate and the other development/project costs estimate.’

Such that:

‘The base cost estimate is the total of the building works estimate, main contractor’s preliminaries estimate and main contractor’s overheads and profit estimate, project/design team fee estimate and the other development/project costs estimate. The base cost estimate is to contain no allowances for risk or inflation.’

NB. NRM3: Order of cost estimating and cost planning for building maintenance works, defines the 'base cost' or 'benchmark cost' as; '...the cost of an existing or selected situation against which other options or a specific solution can be compared or benchmarked.'

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

• Approximate quantities cost plan.
• Benchmarking.
• Bills of quantities.
• Budget.
• Cash flow projection.
• Contingencies.
• Cost-benefit analysis in construction.
• Elemental cost plan.
• Estimate.
• Initial cost appraisals.
• NRM1.
• NRM3.
• Post tender estimate.
• Pre-tender estimate.