When a client is making plans for a new building, whole-life cost throughout the entire project life cycle is a crucial consideration. At the very beginning of planning process, clients, and clients' representatives (consultants or planning team) should evaluate total cost of a building over its entire life cycle. The building's feasibility study should be accompanied by this (whole life cost analysis).
From beginning to end, owners incur a large number of costs throughout life of a project or asset, which are collectively referred to as whole life costs.
Design and planning phase
In planning and design phase of a building, there are numerous costs involved. A project life cycle's most crucial stage is this one. Design costs may be your largest expense.
Design costs include costs of design consultants and planning engineers. At planning and design stage, costs for tendering and cost consultants also appear.
Costs will be incurred at this planning and design stage if a client wishes to purchase land or develop it in accordance with custom design.
Construction and acquisition
This stage will take up a sizeable portion of entire life cycle, primarily for building projects. At this point, there will also be costs associated with suppliers and your project, in addition to final testing and inspection fees.
Most frequent costs a client will incur at this point are those listed above. Clients may be paying fees for marketing and advertising at this point (to promote finished project). Additionally, clients may pay different types of taxes depending on fiscal regulations.
Operation and maintenance
Longest phase of a building's life is its operational phase. Owners will spend a significant amount of money at this stage for a variety of reasons, making it the most expensive stage of project life cycle. Once construction is completed additional maintenance costs will be incurred for routine upkeep and other reasons.
Renewal and recovery
Owners may need to renew or renovate their project at a later stage of project life cycle. Owners might choose to renovate it fully or partially. Aside from construction costs of rehabilitation, client might also want to evaluate a building's current condition.
Project redesign and assessment report will both require payment of a consultant fee.This evaluation can be easily done by quantity surveyor company, as they specialize in employing experienced quantity surveyors who specialize in handling cost analysis, while promoting quality and a long life for buildings.
Replacement or discarding phase
Since this is final phase of a project, majority of clients will not consider cost of replacement or disposal during planning phase. Or else, the client's estimate for demolition of building won't be adequate. The client will primarily spend money on demolishing and disposing of their building's structural components, so what is covered in this disposal cost is crucial.
When disposing of some components, extra care may be required. One item that needs to be disposed of without endangering both society and environment is asbestos. Dismantling of metal structures is another expense that occurred at this time, aside from service interruptions.
Conclusion
Whole life cost analysis is the process of analysing each of the aforementioned project life cycle stages. According to results of whole life cost analysis, generated by experts from a quantity surveying companyclient can optimize their design to maximize their project's performance or outcome given the budget at their disposal.