In my previous post, I discussed how project budgets were established in the 17th and 18th century prior to the evolution of Quantity Surveying as a profession.
By the early 19th century, a new procurement system resulted in price competition BEFORE construction. Quantity Surveyors developed the skill of pre-measuring quantities from drawings and assembling them in “Bills of Quantities BOQ” before construction began.
The first recorded usage of the term "Quantity Surveyor / QS" was in 1859. Also, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) was established in London in 1868.
The process evolved into the following:
1. Building owners demanded 'tenders/bids' before the start of any project
2. Drawings were distributed to selected Master Builders, who would then submit tenders for the total price. Estimating the price required detailed quantification of the work through preparing BOQs
3. Each builder had to prepare his/her own BOQ but soon builders realized it would be more economical for them as a group to hire and share the cost of ONE Quantity Surveyor to measure quantities for all of them
4. Owners subsequently figured that it would be more advantageous to appoint a QS directly, at which point the independent Private QS (PQS) gained consultant status.