Factors Affecting Accuracy of Early Stage Building Cost Estimates and Elemental vs Trade Cost Breakdown Comparison

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Part 1 Factors affecting accuracy of early stage building cost estimates
Part 1 Factors affecting the accuracy of early-stage building cost estimates
Estimation is part of any project and the accuracy of the estimate is very crucial in determining
the success of any project. Accurate estimation of the construction cost of a project is important
from an early stage. The accuracy of estimating the construction cost of a project depends on
several factors such as project characteristics, client and consultants, material markets, labor
market, the financial market as well as many other external factors such as weather effects,
industrial regulations, and government regulations. There several studies and literature that have
explained how these factors influence the accuracy of building cost estimation at an early stage
of a project, (Ashworth and Perera, 2015). This part we are going to discuss how other external
factors influence the construction cost estimation in a project. These external factors such as
weather effect can cause an alteration in the budget estimated, therefore, they should be
considered during early stage construction cost estimation.
Government regulation plays a role in determining the accuracy of the estimated construction
cost of a project. This is because all major construction projects must comply with several
regulatory standards such as environmental standards before they are approved. Acquiring these
approvals from the mandated regulatory agencies is a costly process and that may include hiring
experts such as surveyors and structural engineers to access credentials of the construction
project, (Khodakarami and Abdi, 2014). Evading these government regulations could call for
legal fines and affects with the proposed timeline of the construction project. Therefore, in order
for accurate estimation to be achieved, all the government regulatory requirements should be
identified and their cost should be included as part of the construction cost at an early stage of
the project.
Weather conditions cannot be predicted accurately and these conditions have an adversative
bearing on the overall cost of a construction project. In order to come up with accurate
construction cost estimates and realistic schedule for a construction project it is very crucial to
consider the possible weather effects on the project. Poor weather condition can either cause a
partial or complete loss in a construction project (Lee, Kim, and Yu, 2014). The partial loss is
associated with the reduced labor productivity caused by poor weather while the complete loss is
associated with a complete work stoppage that interrupts the construction activities. In
construction projects there are hired equipment or machinery and other standing charges that
must be paid for even when the construction activities have stopped due to poor weather
conditions. The prevailing and expected weather patterns during the project execution period
should be analyzed and considered in the scheduling and planning of the construction activities,
(Fellows and Liu, 2015). Considering the potential impact of weather on the cost of construction
is very important since it facilitates proper brisk management in the project and this allows the
project to run within the projected budget allocation.