How to calculate the cost of a measured survey?
In this video I explain how to calculate the cost of a measured survey and the consideration taken to produce a quote using a 3D scanner or Total station.
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Transcript of the video
[00:00:00] Bhavesh Ramburn: Today I’m gonna show you how to work out the cost of a measured survey. For this example, we will start with a specification of, say, floor plans. There’s two of them, and area is say, a hundred square and we need one section. and say three elevation.
[00:00:33] And we also need one topo graphical survey and of roughly say, 1,200 square. So it’s a fairly large project with two floor plans, one section three elevations, and a topographical survey. Now the first thing we want to do is start pricing [00:01:00] the amount of time it would take to do the surveys. So normally, A surveyor could do roughly
[00:01:13] 600 square meters a day per survey project. So what we’ll do is, because there’s two floor plans that works out two, 200 square, but you have to also consider. You gotta pick up the externals of the property, which would be picked up in a topographical survey. Just as a reminder, this is a calculation base for a 3D scan of the property, so the quality is quite high.
[00:01:45] So. for this example, we’ll go from high to low based on my experience pricing, the measured surveys. So we would have a surveyor we’ll count as a day, [00:02:00] roughly a survey as cost in terms of employment. Cost is between. 24 to 35,000. So what I’m gonna do is do 30,000 divided by 220 to work out the daily cost of the individual, which is around hundred 36.
[00:02:22] For the purpose of this exercise, we will wrap around it after two or around 150. This includes additional costs that the business incurs such as. Personal protective equipment and other fees associated with surveyor.
[00:02:44] So, because it’s gonna take him roughly a day, because we work out roughly around 600 to 500 square a day. So that’s gonna be this times this. Now the other thing that he needs [00:03:00] is his equipment. So the 3D scanner costs on hire by, say, Sunbelt is around 350 pounds a day to 400 pounds, depending if you are running through a company or not.
[00:03:17] And your credit score. The current going rate for faro scanner is around 350 or around those mark in terms of material he wouldn’t need as such material, but a travel expense. In terms of other costs. So to travel to sites, say it’s within, you know, 20 to 40 miles. We’ll give him an allowance of let’s say 20 pounds a day.
[00:03:46] To roughly allocate his fuel to also cover for parking expenses. So let’s, let’s give it travel expense. I’ll say one [00:04:00] sum of, let’s be a bit more generous around 30 pounds a day, which is within a reasonable amount.
[00:04:13] So the next thing that we want to do is also work out how long it’s gonna take the process. So undertaking in a survey of using a 3D scanner would require a registration engineer of roughly. Looking at the size of it, so 400, the 200 square plus the topographical survey, it would take him around three to four hours.
[00:04:49] So we’ll just say four hours to complete. And one thing I’ve forgot to calculate is the topographical survey [00:05:00] because we’re taking 200 plus 2003 by 600. It would roughly be two engineers in that sense because. Ideally you can do around 700 to 800, so let’s call it 800 for now. So we’ll take in one day, two and a bit days to work out.
[00:05:32] So what I’m gonna do is put in for two surveyors with the equipment to do the job for that particular activity and. The other thing is going back to registration engineer. So registration engineer is around say 25 to 30,000. So we’ll put in 28,000 divided by two 20. [00:06:00] So we’ll call it one 30 for this example and.
[00:06:06] I forgot to divide this by nine eight hours. So this is the hours that we’ll be charged against and cad technician time or CAD time. So we can use this five by eight. So it, it’s roughly this figure per hour. For t he cad time to undertake the works. So the other thing we’ll probably have is s a profit I’ve put in 20%, which is fairly reasonable for a small to medium size surveying firm.
[00:06:44] The CAD time it will depend on the number of plans . So let’s clear this up. Hours for drawing. So normally a floor plan would take three to four hours, depending on the complexity and the [00:07:00] amount of rooms in that floor plan. So if it, let’s just say it is just standard two to three room, it would take the surveyor three to four hours.
[00:07:11] So we’ll just put four hours as a max. Again, elevation sections, but photo photographical survey might take a a bit more time depending on the features. So I’m gonna do take this times. The remainder. Then we’ll just sum this up. So I’ve got 29 hours to complete the drawing. So that’s the cost so far now with quality assurance.
[00:07:43] So would normally allow for an hour to two hours on this. So we’ll put this in there. So, And that will be the estimated cost of this. The computer and other consumables such as [00:08:00] electricity will be covered in your overheads . So hence that’s why we feel this will be fairly generous at the 20% mark to cover the operating cost of the business. So looking at this, you can range your cost to one point 5K, and with the inclusion of v a t will be 1,900. Now, this is of a high quality, and you’ll get a lot of the details, but let’s say we redo. Quotation with a lot less detail and different methodologies, so without a 3D scanner.
[00:08:41] So let’s start this at a medium to not low, but I would say adequate enough. So let’s.
[00:08:58] Of, so a [00:09:00] total station hire per week. So one a week. So let’s keep it as a day is around 400 a week. So divided by five, you get daily cost of 80 pounds. Now with this, the output changes drastically because now you’re spending a bit more time on site to do the work. So in terms of topographical survey output for my high level estimates, you could do this within so I think they can do around 600, 700 square day.
[00:09:46] So I’ll keep it at 600. Square. But the floor plans now because they are doing it with a mix of total station and a dis meter. Now the purchase [00:10:00] of this equipment is a lot less, so we’ll keep it as 400 divided by two 20, which is the day it is roughly what you’ll get if you purchase it. But if you hire it out, it’d be around 12 to 20 pounds a week.
[00:10:20] So let’s do five. So this is roughly what’s gonna cost you per week. And this is per this diameter. Now because the output you won’t need a registration engineer. The cost of labor would shorten. You do need the quality assurance and you do need some cad time for the surveys Now, for output for the plan.
[00:10:45] It takes a lot. It’s a lot different. So usually it would take I believe it was. 202, so 90 [00:11:00] times three. So roughly 270 square a day depending on a, you know, average property. So that’s two 70. . And now the problem with the sections, it does take a lot more time. So again depending on the number of sections that you are doing, you will probably spend over four or five hours on there per.
[00:11:32] Section elevation would take at least three to four hours. Now, because they’re not based on square meters, you need to calculate it slightly differently. So I would allow a generous three hours for the elevation. Generous, four hours for the. Section because of the complexity and just calculation of them, you can it [00:12:00] does get reduced if it’s an easy one.
[00:12:02] So, You can pick it up just based on the floor plan. Ideally, it’s best to identify it and annotate your section on the day of the survey. So this is kind of a risk factor within this, because I would leave someone to focus solely to do section or. and floor plan. So we did say around two 70. So I would say a full eight to nine hour day.
[00:12:34] Because we’re doing 200 and the topo, we would say two full day. So that would be eight. Then that would be.
[00:12:50] That much, and that’s based on one person. So this is a total amount of hours to do the job. So it is [00:13:00] fairly high number, but the way it works out is that would be roughly the same there dated of station.
[00:13:15] So let’s just call it four days. And as you can see, the calculation roughly comes out the same. However, you’ll be spending a lot more time on site to do the survey. , and that’s something that needs to just be considered when undertaking the survey. Now already they’re doing the survey on site with the cad element of the work because they’re doing the survey and sketches on site, it’ll be a lot less.
[00:13:46] So we did work out roughly a 30 I think 20 to 30% reduction in terms of the hours spent on the drawings, but there is still a substantial amount so, [00:14:00] our, you know, very conservative just put reduction of 15 on there. And, you know, the cost differences from the 1.5 to 1.4 isn’t a massive change, but the quality is Is, I would say a lot more reasonable than usual and you’ll still get a good fundamental survey outfit for your planning permission.
[00:14:30] Now that you’ve understood the calculation, you can play around with this spreadsheet that I will share in the post so you can understand how I’ve worked it out. And you can put some figures. these two play around with, and it was, it’s quite good and gives you a very good indication of how much things cost and you can work it out yourself to budget [00:15:00] your project.
[00:15:01] So I hope this helps you, gives you a good understanding of costing a project now. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to leave a comment on this video.
