The budget is one of the most important steps in the process of projecting and building a home. From the perspective of our study, in which architects and constructors work, the document on which a reliable budget can be made is only thanks to a correct and conscientious specification of the work unit to be executed, as well as a correct measurement. This is one of the most important documents both in the drafting of the project documentation and in the construction. In it, each of the components that make up the work are quantitatively and qualitatively reflected: materials, tools, operators, transport … On the measurement, the assessment of each one of the components is carried out, and therefore the total value of the construction, to this is called cost , although it should also be added other values ​​such as industrial profit, VAT, general expenses, work and administrative, financial, fees, etc … The cost must be provided by the construction company.

Therefore the measurement is a complex work, which needs a certain degree of expertise or experience to be a reliable document since the cost of the work is based on it.

Surely many will surprise this long, but very necessary explanation, the usual in many cases is to make budgets on square meters of construction multiplied by hypothetical values ​​depending on the use that is given to the construction and / or the quality of materials. In our opinion as architects and also as constructors, these values are very little exact , not even approximate in many occasions, therefore they are unreliable; any commitment or contract based on such calculations are clear candidates to be a reason for change, source of problems, discussions or even serious conflicts.

The measurement, and in addition the budget, are documents of high reliability, which must be carried out on an execution project, not even on a basic project. Therefore for its realization it is fundamental that the whole project is defined, that includes the choice of qualities by the owners. Another very important factor for its realization is the time, no doubt to correctly write the measurement is necessary to understand that you cannot be in a hurry, often the impatience of customers or even the technicians or builders involved misconduct a good preparation of the document. Once the work has begun, you must also know how to execute the work units at the time.

After executing the work, and having correctly made the budget, we could say that the admissible deviation could be 2% up or down. Meanwhile, if there were no changes in the work, a deviation of more than 5%, both by excess and by default, we could consider it the result of an incomplete study of both the budget and the project.

The measurement is one of the fundamental guides in the correct execution of the projects.