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Introduction
Elemental cost planning, during the design phase of a project, first came into vogue during the years after the Second World War, when the art of accurate single price estimating became increasingly difficult to practice because of unsettled economic conditions and the use of non-traditional designs ([5] Kirkham, 2007, p. 168). This system is still used, enabling the cost of a scheme to be monitored during design development.
An element is defined as a major part of the building, which always performs the same function irrespective of its location or specification ([5] Kirkham, 2007, p. 173). A series of elements are used to perform a cost analysis, which is a major characteristic of the elemental cost planning. According to [2] Ashworth (2004), cost analysis is the "systematic breakdown of cost data, generally on the basis of an agreed elemental structure". The process of using such an elemental structure, during the estimating process, to calculate approximately the cost of each of the elements, is called elemental cost estimating.
Background
The idea of elemental cost analysis first developed as the need for a design cost-plan emerged. The process is based on the concept of being able to compare the value of a proposed building with other completed schemes in order to ascertain whether or not the amount of money allocated to each part of the building is reasonable, both in itself and as proportion of the total building cost ([5] Kirkham, 2007, p. 173).
How can two different buildings be compared to achieve the above requirements? A simple way would be to compare the summary pages of their bill of quantities. Before doing this, however, one has to account for and/or eliminate the influence due to any difference in the size of the two buildings. To do this, each part of the bill of quantities would have to be divided by the floor area of the respective building. This would give comparable figures (cost/m2 ). Unfortunately, comparing the summaries of bill of quantities does not necessarily provide useful information, as the bill of quantities is separated into trade or work section totals. It would only provide information about how much each work section, such as, excavation, concrete, brickwork, etc. will cost. One building may...