I am a quantity surveyor by trade. That shapes how we price, how we present, and how honest we are about scope.
I am a quantity surveyor by trade, and I did not start out in the specialist world. I was on the main contractor side. That background shapes how I run projects now, and I think it shows in the detail. I understand what a client's commercial team wants and needs, and how they want to see it. Not just what we are delivering, but how information is presented and how costs are shown.
When I submit to a client's quantity surveyor, I already know how they want it to look. That sounds small, but it takes a lot of friction out of a job. It cuts down the toing and froing, the queries and the back-and-forth on information requests, because the information flows the way the receiving side expects it to. You pick some of that up naturally as a subcontractor. After half a dozen projects, you get a feel for how main contractors want things shown. But having actually sat on that side of the table means I know the breakdowns and the level of detail they are after from the start. As an industry, we could all be better at this, and it is not unique to asbestos; it is the subcontractor relationship generally.
That same commercial honesty matters most when it comes to scope and price. At the estimate stage, part of our job is to spot where a scope has been underpriced or where part of the specification simply will not work, and to say so. Clients come to us as the experienced removal contractor for a reason, and we have usually learned those lessons more often than they have. So we aim to capture any shortfall in the main scope, in the order for the works, rather than letting it surface later on a variation account. I never want a client sitting across from me at the end of a job asking why we did not tell them sooner. There is a moral element to that, not just a commercial one, and it runs right through the business.
Which brings me to the race to the bottom. It is a genuine issue in construction, and large clients see it and comment on it. We are a licensed industry, so in theory everyone works to clear, defined scopes and specifications, and everyone should be on a level playing field. The honest truth is that some contractors will use aggressive pricing to win turnover and secure the work, and you cannot really defend against that, because everyone is in a different position at different times of the year. What you can do is be transparent, price the job at the value that lets you manage it properly and safely, and stand by it. In a licensed industry there are no corners to cut, and a price that pretends otherwise is a problem waiting to happen. I would rather have the honest conversation up front and keep the client for the long term.
