Wright on Quantities

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The great difference we find in bids arises, in my opinion, not so much in the prices or money values placed against the quantities, as it does from errors in the quantities themselves, the accurate preparation of which calls for special training and continuous concentration of mind, which the busy contractor of today can seldom find time to acquire. N ow we will investigate a bill of quantities, such as we are considering. What is it? And how is it used? First of all, it is a document, handed free of expense to each bidder, lithographed or similarly duplicated, in order that all bidders' copies may be exactly alike. It will contain every thing which it is essential for a contractor to know when mak ing up a figure, with a separate section for each trade, such as excavation, concrete, brickwork, and so forth. A general sum mary is provided at the end of the bill, in which is entered the net cost of each trade; this summary is footed up, the profit the bidder expects to make is added, plus the cost of the quantities, the result being, of course, the amount of the bid.