One of the highlights of every quantity surveyor’s year is upon us as the 2012 editions of the Spons Pricing Books are about to go on sale.
(FYI: the 2011 editions are still available – see our review of the Spons 2011 editions)
Published by Taylor & Francis, and edited by Davis Langdon, Spons provides a detailed source of price information for all elements of building and construction works. Now in the 137th editions, they cover a range of areas of construction cost from bricks & stick,s and civils, through to MEP and external works.
In the Spons 2012 editions, as well as the annual overhaul of prices, they have combined and rationalised the major and minor works sections. Economies of scale have always been an issue when assessing the appropriateness of a particular rate and so its useful to see the addition of some clear guidance as to how to adjust rates depending on project scale.
We commented last year on the limitations of what is essentially a book of average prices in a flluctuating market and the comment remains relevant this year as we have seen economic uncertainty continue. Spons continues to provide their tender index feature which is an index that is updated and released throughout the year to allow prices to be adjusted upward or downwards depending on how much actual market conditions vary from those that were assumed at the time of publication. Not the perfect solution but a positive and sensible approach to the problem.
The 2012 editions available for pre-order:
Spon’s Architects’ and Builders’ Price Book 2012
Spon’s External Works and Landscape Price Book 2012
Spon’s Civil Engineering and Highway Works Price Book 2012
Spon’s Mechanical and Electrical Services Price Book
Technology continues to infiltrate all areas of our lives and the good old fashioned harback book is under-threat from e-readers and ipads. On top of that, the big consultancies continue to develop there in-house cost databases and benchmarking tools. So its good to see spons keeping up with technology as after purchasing the book you can also download it in ebook format and also get access to spons new approximate estimates rate data. Would be nice to see it available as an app in future years as well.
Whatever the format its distributed in, few would dispute that Spons data can frequently act as a crucial benchmarking and reference tool which means that there will be a need for them for some time to come. The evidence is there in the year on year demand for the latest editions.
See you next year for more excitement at the launch of the 2013 editions. No doubt all the quantity surveyors are already ‘counting’ down the days …
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