Whole-of-life Costing

As Quantity Surveyors, we are familiar with capital costs, but the total costs of a project from start to finish can often be ignored.

Whole-of-life costing is the process which determines all of the costs of owning a building including initial capital expenditure, operational and maintenance costs and disposal costs. These costs will occur over the lifetime of a building and the decisions made at the start of a project will affect these costs.

Whole-of-life costing is necessarily a forecasting exercise and, as such, can be a black art. The uncertainty of future costs necessitates that risk analysis be undertaken. The risks in the estimation of future costs can be reduced by the application of forecasting techniques. The main technique used is to apply historical costs from similar projects.

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