How to Get Best Value on Your Build
Value engineering is a term more frequently used on commercial sites, but can bring real benefits to self-build and renovation projects. Project manager Bob Branscombe explains all
Imagine a process whereby you can be sure that your building project is delivering the most efficient means of fulfilling your needs, while costing you the least amount of money.
In other words, you’re achieving best value, you’re using money efficiently (rather than wasting it), and you’re not ending up with a cheap, nasty finish that needs replacing in two years — welcome to value engineering!
What is Value Engineering?
In essence, value engineering is a thorough assessment and examination of the design and usage of the building in relation to its cost. The idea is to assess the project – together with the team you have gathered around you (your designer, structural engineer, builder, etc) – with a view to achieving the correct and desired product and function, at the lowest possible cost.
The key to this is understanding that you are looking at value, not making the project cheap or less able to fulfil the brief. In simple terms, value engineering is about looking at what you want and trying to find the best and most efficient way of getting it.
However, if your budget fundamentally does not work in the first place, value engineering will not fix it. Value engineering is a sensible way of finessing your budget to ensure maximum benefit for each penny you spend on the build.
It can also be used to increase value for the same cost, seeking out enhancements or synergies which can be incorporated into the building work without significantly affecting the budget. Sometimes this may mean we have to reinvent the wheel to see if our preconceptions were wrong.
Take one project I was recently involved in. The proposed scheme was for an extension to a large house to provide additional living accommodation and a new kitchen at the rear. The existing house had been extended previously and was in good condition, but did present challenges in terms of creating flow and introducing light when adding the large extension proposed.
The project team took another look at the scheme, and one idea came to the fore. Rather than extend significantly, by demolishing the previous extension and building a new, slightly smaller extension than planned, the overall accommodation area would be the same, but with a lot less ‘cutting and carving’. This new scheme would also produce a more efficient flow of space.
This process highlighted significant savings in the demolition and enabling works (much less hand demolition and isolated works), a much more efficient and coordinated extension, and the remaining garden was of course larger.
The process of value engineering in this instance simply took a preconceived idea and went back a step to first principles, rethinking and altering the scheme to give the same level of function, specification and quality. The scheme did not cost any more but it gave greater value in terms of the overall finished product.
It’s not About Being ‘Cheap’
That said, value engineering is not about altering or changing the design for its own sake. Nor is it about being cheap. Saving money is about doing things cheaper, which usually, in reality, results in doing less or having lesser quality materials.
Value engineering is the means by which we sense check our design and ensure that the correct amount of money is spent to achieve the scheme we want. The aim here is the balance point between the least amount of money spent against the best level of specification and materials.
As a further example, on a recent project, the high plot cost paid by the self-builder impacted on his available build budget. The subsequent ‘short- ➤
fall’ needed to be addressed, and the design team were able to look again at the project. The initial brief included a list of must-haves which were of paramount importance to the owner, and the team were able to keep these to the front of the process to ensure they were not imperilled.
This left other items open to examination. The ceiling heights could be rethought to enable a standard off-the-shelf staircase to be used, for instance. Power floating the concrete in the garage alleviated the need for an epoxy resin-based floor paint. Cheaper units in the utility room could be used, as they would not need to be as durable as those in the main kitchen. Flooring was selected that met the original requirements for lifespan, appearance and cost, but had a lot less wastage due to the component size and layout.
None of these tweaks made the scheme feel less well built, nor did they detract from the form and function of the house. The exercise simply ensured that the most efficient design was flushed out, along with the lowest level of cost to achieve it.
What does it Involve?
Value engineering is often treated rather glibly, with the self-builder simply deciding that the budget is too high, therefore deciding to ‘value engineer it down’ — this is code for doing less and spending less. This is not value engineering, it’s simply spending less and getting less for it.
The process of value engineering is as complex and involved as the design process itself. Essentially a five-stage workshop-style process is carried out to assess and understand the project and come to a conclusion. This includes:
• Information. Gathering together the design, your original brief (which will include a list of must-haves which are essential to your dream home), your specification and your programme/ time constraints, your planning permission and the Building Regulations. These are the ‘raw materials’ which can now be examined.
• Brainstorming. This entails an ‘anything goes’ approach, not restrained by practicality, cost or preconceptions. It’s more of a free-thinking assessment of the scheme within the constraints that are immovable, such as planning permission, Building Regulations, site and space, and that list of must-haves. This produces a series of ideas and suggestions to be further examined and explored.
• Evaluation. Each idea is then subjected to further rigour in terms of cost impact, fulfilment of the design brief, impact on the project (in terms of time and quality), and confirmation that it still fits ➤
inside the constraints of the scheme. Each idea can then be promoted or discarded accordingly.
• Development. The successful or most promising ideas can be nurtured, with costing and design running in tandem to ensure that the project brief is not compromised. Further discussion and liaison with subcontractors, suppliers etc, can be carried out to further ‘firm up’ the proposals.
• Implementation. The design and project plan can now be amended to incorporate the value engineered changes — the impact on budget can be ‘banked’ and the works proceed.
While this process is driven by you, the selfbuilder or renovator, the whole team is required. Your architect/designer is key, as they will ensure the ‘vision’ and overall form still aligns with your brief. The structural engineer acts as a sense check on the proposals, while the builder or main contractor can advise on timings, product availability, costs, etc. All the team members need to be brought along, and everyone can then ‘buy in’ to the process.
What’s more, the impact of value engineering should be felt throughout the project — planning and knowing the effect of the design and specification choices that are made early on.
From a project planning point of view, the greater the understanding of the scheme prior to being on site, the better the project will run. Leaving design decisions to a later stage will only ever result in increased pressure on budget, perhaps a compromised fit and finish, and a sense of increased stress as the work proceeds — rather than excitement and relief that the build is progressing well.
The Benefits
There are several benefits for self-builders and renovators, including:
• Cost — obviously, the achievement of maximum value is advantageous. For every good decision a self-builder makes, there will inevitably be a slightly ‘less helpful’ one — this is the nature of the more hands-on involvement and the challenge of self-build. Therefore, the achievement of maximum value for least cost builds in a little bit of protection for other ‘less wise’ decisions or mistakes that may well occur.
• It gives an unparalleled level of knowledge about your build. If you have examined the project fully, from both technical and cost perspectives, you will understand and recall every piece of timber, brick and floor tile that goes into it. You will have understood the impact of a cheaper tile over an expensive one in terms of cost, fixing requirements, availability, durability, life cycle cost and environ-
mental impact. All these factors enable a full and informed decision over selection to be made.
• It helps the inexperienced builder make informed choices and avoid excessively cheap solutions which may not be cheap in the medium term.
Value engineering is a posh way of confirming that you take a good look at your design, processes and construction, and make sure that you are getting the best value for money possible. Nothing more, nothing less. Remember, value is efficient, cheap is nasty!