Cost control, from feasibility to final account.
Friel Welch provides Quantity Surveying across the full project lifecycle, from order-of-cost estimates at feasibility through to final account agreement at completion. Our team brings years of experience across residential, super-prime, fit-out, turnkey, and mid- to high-value development schemes, working alongside architects, developers, and private clients who need a commercial partner who reads design fluently, holds the cost position with rigour, and acts in the client’s interest at every stage.
Experienced advice calibrated to the project
Every project arrives with its own commercial shape. A different programme, procurement maturity, risk appetite and design intent. Our team has worked across enough of them to know that the answer is rarely the one from last time. We bring the experience to read each scheme on its own terms and the discipline to recommend the route that fits. The cost plan, the procurement strategy, and the post-contract reporting are all shaped to the project in front of us, and to the client we’re shaping them for.
Impartial advice aligned to the client’s position
Friel Welch is independent. We hold no tied affiliations to contractors, suppliers, or referral networks, and the commercial advice we give reflects the project. That independence shows up in how we interrogate cost plans, how we evaluate tenders, and how we test contractor claims through delivery. Our client’s commercial position is the position we hold, defended with evidence and reported with clarity at every stage of the programme.
Cost planning that interrogates the design
A cost plan is only as useful as the design it tests. Where the elemental quantities don’t reconcile, we say so. Where the specification carries cost the brief doesn’t need, we flag it early, before it’s drawn into the package. Our team reads drawings as a first language, which means cost planning at Friel Welch is a design-stage discipline, used to shape the scheme alongside the architect, not a measurement exercise run in parallel to it. The client arrives at tender with a cost plan they can rely on and a design team that has had its assumptions stress-tested by an experienced commercial partner.
The Quantity Surveyor the architect chooses
Our team reads design fluently and holds an independent commercial position. That combination shapes how we work alongside the architect protecting the design intent the brief was built around, interrogating the cost without redrawing the scheme, and finding genuine value where the cost does not justify the design choice. We push back where we need to, agree where we can, and arrive at a cost plan the architect and the client can both stand behind.
Post-contract control reported in a format the client can read
Once on site, the commercial position is held through monthly valuations, change control, and forward-looking cost reporting. Variations are assessed against the contract and the design intent. Contractor claims are tested. Risk and contingency are tracked openly, with a clear view of what’s been drawn, what’s been released, and what’s exposed. Our reporting is a one-page picture, written so a director can read it in five minutes and know exactly where the project stands, what’s being protected, and what needs a decision.
Pre-contract
- Order-of-cost estimates - Feasibility cost advice at RIBA Stage 0 to 1.
- Cost planning through design development - RIBA Stage 2 to 4.
- Market intelligence and benchmarking - Real-time rates, current tender returns, cost drivers.
- Procurement strategy and tender documentation - Routes, package splits, structured pricing documents.
- Tender review and contractor recommendation - Evaluation, clarification, equalisation.
Post-contract
- Post-contract cost control - Cash flow, monthly valuations, certifications.
- Change and variation management - Cost assessment, contractor claims, employer instructions.
- Cost optimisation and option appraisal - Identifying savings without compromising design intent.
- Risk and contingency management - Tracked through delivery with regular reporting.
- Cost reporting - Reports in a format the client can understand.
Close-out
- Final account agreement and close-out - Negotiation, agreement, sign-off, and archive.
How this connects
Quantity Surveying often pairs with Contract Administration on JCT Standard schemes, or with Employer’s Agent on JCT Design and Build schemes.