Contractors’ Planning and Estimating

Contractors must provide accurate estimations for the cost of a specific project. These ideas listed below will delve into the current research and help you to create a title for your own dissertation:

Example contractors’ planning and estimating dissertation topic 1:

A case study of quality surveying, renovation and restoration: York Minster.

Noting the central roles of quantity surveyors with regards to issues such as conducting feasibility studies to estimate materials, time and labour costs, preparing, negotiating and analysing costs for tenders and contracts, and the co-ordination of work efforts, this dissertation explores and evaluates the multi-faceted roles of the job at a national monument: York Minster. Beyond the immediate repairs and restoration that followed the devastation wrought to the south transept in the fire of 1984, the Minster (the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of St Peter in York) has undergone almost 30 years of continual repair and maintenance and thus it provides a rich and diverse tapestry from which to measure the continuity and changes in the professional lives of quantity surveyors involved in its upkeep over a sustained period.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Ashworth, A. (2004). Cost studies of buildings. Harlow: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
• Brown, C. (1989). York Minster after the fire. Structural Survey, 7(3), pp. 328-333.
• Feilden, B. (2012). Conservation of historic buildings.London: Routledge.