Element unit rate
The New Rules of Measurement (NRM) are published by the Royal Institute 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 'element' refers to:
'...a major part of a group element (e.g. the elements that create group element 3:
Internal finishes are 3.1: Wall finishes, 3.2: Floor finishes, and 3.3: Ceiling finishes).'
The term ‘element unit rate’ (EUR) means:
‘…the total cost of an element divided by the element unit quantity (EUQ). For example, the EUR for external walls is the total cost of the external walls divided by EUQ for external walls. EURs include all the cost of all materials, labour, plant, subcontractor’s preliminaries, subcontractor’s design fees and subcontractor’s overheads and profit. EURs exclude main contractor’s preliminaries, main contractor’s overheads and profit and other allowances, such as project/design team fees, other development/project costs, risk allowances and inflation. These items are to be assessed separately.’
Where, the ‘element unit quantity’ (EUQ) is:
‘…a unit of measurement that relates solely to the quantity of the element or sub-element itself (e.g. the area of the external walls, the area of windows and external doors and the number of internal doors).’
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