Building Cost Information Service
BCIS is the Building Cost Information Service of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). It is described by RICS as ‘the leading provider of cost and price information to the construction industry and anyone else who needs comprehensive, accurate and independent data.’
It was established in 1961 to facilitate the preparation of elemental cost plans, where an 'element' is defined as, ‘a major physical part of a building that fulfils a specific function or functions, irrespective of its design, specification or construction’.
The BCIS website was launched in 1997.
Cost and price information is collected by BCIS from across the UK construction industry, then collated, analysed, modelled, interpreted and made available to the industry to facilitate accurate cost planning.
Information is made available online, by data licensing and through publications. It is broken down into five key areas:
- Construction.
- Maintenance.
- Rebuilding.
- Consultancy.
- Insurance.
BCIS information can be used by clients, consultants, quantity surveyors, contractors and suppliers to help:
- Preparing construction budgets.
- Benchmarking.
- Preparing cost plans.
- Preparing insurance quotes.
- Carrying out options appraisals.
- Value engineering.
- Preparing performance specifications.
- Procurement.
- Preparing maintenance budgets.
- Carrying out market research.
- Forecasting.
- Assessing price movements.
BCIS also offers consultancy and research support and publishes survey-based international cost information.
[edit] Find out more
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
- BCIS elements.
- Benchmarking.
- Budget.
- Cost planning.
- Elemental cost plan.
- International Construction Measurement Standards (ICMS).
- New Rules of Measurement.
- Quantity surveyor.
- RICS.
[edit] External references
Featured articles and news
Post-Grenfell disaster, there have been calls for CPOs on unoccupied buildings. But what are they and how do they work?
Misrepresentation and insurance
Insuring a risk? Absolute frankness is the best policy, as this recent High Court case demonstrates.
A review of a new book exploring the subterranean city.
How to encourage women into engineering
Unless the country can attract many more female engineers, the future of Britain's successful engineering could be in doubt.
Sajid Javid names the core members of the independent expert panel.
An introductory article to the different types of risk in construction projects.
Have a look at this strange experimental building in Chile.
ICE look at what engineers can do to help ensure the UN's Sustainable Development Goals can be achieved.
Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners win RIBA National Award for their British Museum extension.
The story so far.
Here is our list of the top 25 buildings in London. Do you agree with our selection?
Polyisocyanurate (PIR) insulation and how it was tested.
Click here to see more featured articles and news.