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Elemental cost format for building conservation works in Malaysia

Wee Li Woon and Lim Yoke Mui
School of Housing, Building and Planning, University Sains Malaysia, Gelugor, Malaysia
Abstract
Purpose This paper aims to propose a new format to present the cost of building conservation works which will better reect the actual cost components and have a higher relevance to building conservation works. Design/methodology/approach To achieve the studys aim of presenting a new format suitable for building conservation works, a total of 16 conservation projects were selected and work items of the highest frequency were identied and aggregated into the relevant elemental component to formulate a new elemental cost format. Findings Work items of the highest frequency identied are partitions, doors and ironmongeries, followed by roof nishes and rainwater goods, oor nishes, external walls and windows. In addition to the usual building works, new work items such as scientic analysis, archaeology excavation and temporary roof are also found to be important. Research limitations/implications The proposed format has yet to be tested in the local industry, which is necessary to ensure compatibility with industry needs. Practical implications This new cost analysis format includes a list of work items that are specic to building conservation works, which may guide the quantity surveyor in preparing a budget/cost estimate with higher accuracy by reducing the risk of omitted work items that are pertinent in building conservation works. Originality/value Owing to the lack of cost data information for building conservation works, estimating and controlling the cost in this area of work is very challenging. The proposed new format of elemental cost analysis designed for building conservation works seeks to ll this void by providing a guide in estimating costs for building conservation. Keywords Building conservation, Cost estimates, Heritage, Malaysia Paper type Research paper

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Introduction Heritage buildings are icons for a country and reect the cultural background and the national identity of that country. For this reason, heritage buildings should be conserved as important monuments for future generations. Article 1.4 of the Burra Charter (Australia ICOMOS, 1999) states that conservation is dened as all processes of looking after a place so as to retain its cultural signicance. It encompasses the activities that are aimed at the safeguarding of a cultural resource so as to retain its historic value and extend its physical life. Mustapa et al. (2007) argue that
Structural Survey Vol. 28 No. 5, 2010 pp. 408-419 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0263-080X DOI 10.1108/02630801011089182

The authors would like to express their thanks and appreciation to Universiti Sains Malaysia for funding this research. Part of this paper was presented at the 13th Conference of the Pacic Association of Quantity Surveying.

conservation, although dened as a general meaning of preserving and conserving historical buildings as a national heritage, can be specically categorised and each category carries a different meaning, outlining and dening the difference on the scope of works that are associated with it, such as restoration, rehabilitation, preservation, reconstruction, repair and maintenance. It is a fact that there are many heritage buildings of different eras in Malaysia that should be conserved. Recent large-scale urban development continues to threaten pre-war buildings, while other historic buildings are simply deteriorating due to age, neglect, and the high cost of maintenance (Kamal et al., 2007). The listing of George Town and Malacca as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the year 2008 has increased the amount of conservation work in these sites. However, Kamal et al. (2007) pinpoint that building conservation practice is relatively new in Malaysia compared to some other countries. As such, research on conservation works, especially in the costing aspect, is rather limited. The lack of complete costing information for conservation projects has led to the difculty of preparing a cost budget for conservation projects. The lack of information, coupled with the quantity surveyors lack of understanding in the intricacies of conservation works, may cause the estimated cost budget to miss out work items that are pertinent in conservation projects. Thus, to further improve the competence of quantity surveyors in this area, this study aims to formulate a new format of cost analysis that is specically tailored to building conservation works. The insight gained from this study may help quantity surveyors to prepare a more accurate cost estimate of for conservation projects in the future. Overview of cost analysis Elemental cost analysis (ECA) is one of the most widely used cost estimation techniques. It provides the same function with the standardised work section in a building independent of quantity, work specication and rate, which allows meaningful comparisons to be made (Seeley, 1996). The purpose of preparing a cost analysis for a building project is an attempt to reveal the cost relationship between the various sections of a project, and also to allow for some comparability with other schemes (Ashworth, 1988). Cost estimation is important in the preliminary stage of any construction works. The purpose of preparing a preliminary cost estimate is to produce a forecast cost of the future project before the building is designed in detail and other particulars prepared (Ferry et al., 1999, 1999; Seeley, 1996). It is required during the inception stage of the design process in order to provide clients with an indication of possible costs associated with a proposed construction project. They are also required at various levels of detail as the project proceeds through the design and construction stages (Ashworth, 1988). Hence, the cost data to be used during cost estimation should be reliable and updated so that the cost estimation can reect the reality (Tas and Yaman, 2005). The basis of cost planning and cost control is cost analysis (Ferry et al., 1999). In fact, cost analysis could help quantity surveyors in preparing cost estimation for a project by providing useful sources of cost information. It could also be used to predict the project cost throughout the construction phase for cost control purposes. In general, cost analysis is usually conducted using bills of quantities (BQ), which are costing documents prepared by the quantity surveyor based on standard methods of

Cost format for building conservation 409

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measurement. In Malaysia the current standard method of measurement in use is SMM2. A BQ is a major source of cost information (Ferry et al., 1999) that contains a detailed breakdown of all the elements used for a project. The standard form of element list is divided into six groups, ve of which cover the building, while the sixth covers external works (Seeley, 1996). Issues in cost estimates of conservation works Cost estimating for a building conservation project is a challenging task due to the lack of information on the cost, complexity of the method of conservation and also the difculty in sourcing the required materials, which may not be widely available. In Malaysia, although conservation of heritage buildings has been ongoing for many years, costing information and documents pertaining to conservation work is still lacking. Lack of understanding in conservation works on the part of quantity surveyors often leads to difculty in preparing a cost budget. A quantity surveyor essentially modies or adapts information or standards from new construction works to be used for conservation works (Lee, 2009). While this method is not totally incorrect, there is the risk of missing out important cost elements that are specic to conservation works and that are not found in new building works. Restoration work commences from the highest point of the building, which is the roof followed by ceiling, oors, walls, columns and ends at the foundation works. The work could also commence from the exterior of the building to the interior. In other words, conservation works differs with new building works in terms of the sequence of work. It must also be noted that there are some special works to be considered when preparing a cost budget for conservation works. Work items specically for conservation works such as archaeological excavation, scientic testing and analysis and temporary roong should be included. Also, it is common to see certain work items combined and categorised under the same element, such as roof and nishes, when compared to new building works, where these work items are separated as roof structure and roof nishes, respectively. The reason for combining work items under the same category in building conservation works is to make it easier and convenient for the contractor to appoint sub-contractors or specialists to restore the specic parts of the building, especially where the damaged parts are interrelated to each other, such as roof and roof nishes. Owing to the different nature of work between conservation and new building, some work items frequently used in conservation works are not used in new building works, and vice versa. Since the current cost analysis format commonly used in the industry was designed for new building works, the existing cost analysis format is not suitable for conservation projects because of the differences in part of the scope of work between conservation and new building works. Hence, a need has arisen for a new form of cost analysis that can cater for the specicity of work in a building conservation project. It is hoped that with the new format, many of the issues mentioned above may be resolved. Methodology of study A quantitative approach was adopted in this research. As the research was carried out in George Town, Penang, the project samples collected are conservation projects from the same city. According to the Penang Municipal Council, there are approximately

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3,700 buildings in Penang that are listed as heritage buildings either in Category I or II by the state government. Although there are thousands of heritage buildings in George Town, there are not many buildings that have been properly restored. Amongst those that are restored, a total of 16 buildings with distinct building classication were selected for this research. The selection of the projects is based on one important criteria: the project must have a complete breakdown of costing information. As such, many projects are not selected due to the incomplete costing information, as some projects did not follow the full tendering procedures. From the costing data of each selected project, the main cost items were extracted from the BQ in the contract document. Thus the completeness of the BQ used is critical in this research to identify the cost items that are pertinent to building conservation works. Although only conservation projects in George Town were selected, the ndings are postulated to be reective of the building conservation scenario in Malaysia as heritage buildings in Malaysia are quite similar in typology and construction. The selected buildings in this study comprise of shops, commercial buildings, religious buildings, private houses, and government buildings. The selected heritage buildings are prestigious and major conservation projects in Penang. A variety of buildings was chosen to ensure that the proposed ECA format would essentially capture the various variables found in the different building types and the nal product can be used for the various types of buildings. The details of the project samples for this study are as shown in Table I. The percentage of each type of buildings is indicated in Figure 1. These buildings were selected because the cost documentations are proper and complete with breakdown information that is in compliance with the study criteria mentioned above. Data for the research were extracted from the BQs, collected either from the consultant rms or contractor rms that were involved in the selected projects. Both consultant and contractor would have the same set of documents so there would be no risk of discrepancies although the data came from different sources. The data extracted from all the BQs was then collated and processed using descriptive statistics to obtain
No. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Public/private Private Private Private Private Private Public Public Public Private Private Private Public Public Public Private Public Building category Commercial Commercial Private house Government Commercial Religious Government Religious Shop Religious Commercial Government Government Government Commercial Government

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Table I. List of project samples used in this study

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412
Figure 1. Percentages of types of building studied

the frequency of each of the work items. The work items were duly identied and ranked according to the frequency of their occurrence in the selected projects. The analysis from the rst part were then rearranged and grouped into an appropriate cost component according to the building function to produce the proposed elemental cost format. The ndings of this research are presented in a combination of tabular and graphical form with supporting discussions in the following sections of the paper. A total of 40 work items that are frequently used in conservation works were identied and are listed in Table II in descending order according to the frequency of occurrence. These work items are then grouped according to the appropriate group component as shown in Figure 2. Results and discussion Analysis conducted on the data collected found that the top ranked work item is Partition, internal doors and ironmongeries (100 per cent) while demolition works has the lowest frequency score with a percentage of 75 per cent. This indicates that demolition may not occur in all building conservation works. On the other hand there are three items that are ranked second, i.e. Roof nishes and rainwater goods, Floor nishes, and External walls, doors, windows. Meanwhile, Internal wall nishes and Ceiling and nishes are ranked third among all the work items, having a frequency of 88 per cent. Roof construction, Staircase nishes and balustrades and External wall nishes are on the bottom rung of the most common work items in building conservation works. However, a frequency of 81 per cent indicates that they are still important work items. The top ten work items identied for building conservation works are found to be also common for new building works. Common structural repairs of work items such as staircases, walls and columns are found to have a higher frequency in all projects. As a wall is connected to most other elements such as a column and beam, ceiling or oor, repairs in other parts of the building may cause some cracking to a wall, thus requiring remedial works to the wall during restoration works. The same is also true for the oor element. Usually, the staircase and railings are badly decayed or damaged and have to be totally replaced. Hence, these two items are also in the top ten most frequently occurring work items in conservation projects, with a frequency of 63 per cent. Likewise, the roof is always badly damaged due to exposure to weather for prolonged periods, and thus requires remedial works. In some projects, it is also found that external works contribute a

No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

Work Items Partitions, internal doors Ironmongeries Roof nishes and rainwater goods Floor nishes External walls, doors, windows Internal wall nishes Ceiling and nishes Roof construction External wall nishes Staircase nishes and balustrades Painting Demolitions/dismantling works Plumbing and sanitary installation Scientic testing and analysis Decorations (cornice) Timber roof trusses Staircase construction Sundries Electrical system installation Roof covering Upper oor Anti-termite treatment Substructure Structural steelwork Furniture and ttings Walkways, driveways, car parks, etc. Lighting system Frame Waterproong Security and sound system Fencing and gate Archaeology excavation Surface water drains, sump and culverts Water and sewer mains, foal drainage, manholes Adjoining property wall/boundary Pavers Flooring Fire ghting Fence wall Landscaping

fa 16 16 15 15 15 14 14 13 13 13 13 12 11 11 11 10 10 8 8 7 7 7 7 6 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2

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Note: aFrequency

Table II. Ranking of work items in conservation works

small portion to the cost of conservation. However, the data collected did not clearly indicate the distribution of work items for external works, thus hindering further analysis of this particular work item. The restoration of historical buildings often includes the installation of new electrical services including lighting installations and re alarm systems to comply with current safety regulations. The study found that close to half of the 16 projects have included works of electrical and lighting installation, as well as re ghting for safety purposes.

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Figure 2. Frequency of work items in conservation projects

The item Scientic testing and analysis could also be found in most conservation projects. This is due to the requirement set by the local authorities that required the investigation of defective works in a building before restoration work. The study showed that 11 out of 16 projects had conducted scientic testing on the buildings to determine the defective works. These tests included Anti-termite, Salt contamination and rising damp, Timber test, HABS dilapidation survey and XRF test. Other tests may also be conducted based on the requirement set down by the project conservationist. It must be clearly noted that the percentages shown above only represented work items that are frequently used in conservation projects and it does not depict the signicant costs of the work items in conservation project. In order to determine a new elemental format for conservation works, all the work items identied earlier will be grouped under its relevant elemental component. From the 40 work items identied earlier, those items with the same functional use are grouped under the same elemental component. Table III shows the grouping of 40 work items according to their functional use in a building. In total, 14 major elements were formed from the rearrangement of the work items into the relevant elemental component. As the works for new build and conservation are quite similar, with some exceptions, the grouping of items for conservation work are also rather similar to the grouping for new building works. Having said that, the study also found that there are some elemental components that are not the same with new building works. For example, External wall, doors and windows is combined and listed as an item due to special consideration for building conservation works where the restoration works for

No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

Work items Demolitions/dismantling works Roof covering Roof construction Timber roof trusses Roof nishes & rainwater goods Flooring construction Floor nishes Ceiling and nishes External wall nishes External walls, doors, windows Fence wall Painting Partitions, doors Internal wall nishes Ironmongeries Decorations Staircase construction Staircase nishes and balustrades Structural steelwork Upper oor Frame Substructure Sundries Furniture and ttings Electrical system Lighting system Security and sound system Walkways, driveways, car parks, etc. Pavers Fencing and gate Surface water drains, sump & culverts Water and sewer mains, foal drainage, manholes Fire ghting Adjoining property wall/boundary Landscaping Plumbing and sanitary installation Archaeology excavation Scientic testing and analysis Anti-termite treatment Waterproong

Elemental component Demolition works Roof and rainwater goods

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Floor structure and nishes Ceiling and nishes External wall, doors & windows

Internal wall, column and nishes

Staircase and balustrade Structural works

Sundries Furniture and ttings M&E works External works

Services Conservation treatment Table III. Grouping of work items

these three elements are inter-related. Likewise, this reason also applies to the item Internal walls and doors, where the deterioration of a wall may also affect its surroundings, such as doors. Thus, the combination of these two elements as an item is suggested as above. The same analysis was also carried out on the preliminaries section but only ve projects of the 16 samples were used due to the lack of breakdown in costing information in most of the samples. From the analysis, temporary works appear to be the most frequently occurring work items, accounting for 16 per cent of all preliminaries items. These works include Temporary water and electricity supplies,

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Temporary telephone, General scaffolding and staging temporary, Temporary roads and Temporary lighting. These work items are required before and during the execution of work to ensure the safety and stability of the building. Research and documentation is also an important part of conservation works because it is a tool to provide proper documentation of the conservation works. Scientic testing analysis and reports of the proposed building to be conserved is prepared by a conservationist, architect or structural engineer to determine the level of defective works and to provide suggestions of remedial works to repair damaged items. From our study, we found that four of the ve sample projects had included this item in the preliminaries section. Other preliminaries items include the preparation of scaled photographs, which are essential before conservation works begins. This is in line with the local standard guidelines. In the same guidelines, the preparation of Historical Architectural Building Survey (HABS) report is also required. A report is prepared in the three different stages of work, before, during and after the conservation works. The documentation requires a building analysis report, illustrated with drawings, photographs, and other relevant details. The condition of the buildings, defective works, and original materials are also recorded. From the study, it is concluded that the preliminaries work items for conservation works have some similarities with new building works except for some additional items that are only applicable to a conservation project. These new items include the preparation of a dilapidation survey or HABS report, scientic testing and report, colour scheme testing and video recordings. It shows that most projects did strictly follow the local authoritys guidelines in conserving a historical building. A summary of the research and documentation works as required by the National Museum Antiquities Department for building conservation works is shown in Table IV. From the above analysis, the study proposes a format for cost estimates and analysis based on an elemental form for conservation works. The proposed format is explained in the next section. Proposed new ECA format for conservation works Table V shows the proposed elemental cost analysis (ECA) format for conservation works. It is derived from the literature review ndings and the analyses conducted. The recommended ECA format for building conservation works consists of six main portions: (1) Preliminaries; (2) Research and documentation; (3) Dismantlement works; (4) Temporary works; (5) Conservation and restoration works; and (6) New building works. It is designed on the sequence of works for conservation works, in accordance with the same functional use of the items. In conservation works, the restoration begins from the roof and proceeds downwards to the foundation works. Although this is not a standard guideline by which the work for conservation should be measured, it is practical to follow the work items sequence as listed in Table V when preparing measurement and cost estimation for conservation

No. Special/additional items 1 Scientic/chemical analysis

Work description Scientic testing on: Archeological excavation Local temperature and relative humidity Timber Species and strength Paint colour scheme Compressive strength Using datum point/datum line Using grid line 1 m 1 m for photograph Three main stages: before, during, and after conservation works Preparation of building analysis report in the form of photography, scientic testing, drawing plan, etc. Colour scheme testing to determine the original painting of buildings wall A requirement set by the Museum and Antiquity Department of Malaysia In-depth analyses of the building defects Determine the probable causes and propose methods and techniques of building conservation Record all details of the buildings as well as the process of conservation work for future reference

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2 3

Preparation of scaled photograph Preparation of Historical Architectural Building Survey (HABS)

4 5

Colour scheme testing Preparation of dilapidation survey

Video recordings

Table IV. Research and documentation list

projects. Hence, for the part of Restoration works, 12 work items are listed in accordance with the sequence of conservation works which are work items 5A to 5L. From the earlier analysis, temporary works are found to be common work items in conservation works. Considering the various types of temporary works involved, all temporary works are grouped together under one heading for ease of reference. Demolition work is one of the major work items for conservation works and it cannot be allocated together with other work items due to the different nature of the work, and therefore it is listed under a separate group. Scientic testing and building recording are listed under Research and documentation. Conservation works should always be accompanied by a detailed description of the buildings condition before, during and after restoration works, and scaled photographs are used for this purpose. Scientic testing which is carried out by conservators or architects on defective works and remedial works undertaken are also proposed to be listed under the Research and documentation work group. The HABS documentation should contain photographs taken before, during and after the conservation works and document the conservation works in every stage. New building works in this proposed format are dened as additional new items installed to a restored building. Preliminaries group items include any preliminaries works before the restoration works, but do not include scientic testing and temporary works, as those items are placed in another main group separately as shown in Table V.

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1. Preliminaries 2. Research and documentation 2A. Scientic/chemical analysis 2B. Preparation of scaled photograph 2C. Preparation of Historical Architectural Building Survey (HABS) 2D. Colour scheme testing 2E. Preparation of dilapidation survey report 2F. Video recordings 3A. Demolition works 4A. Scaffolding 4B. Temporary roong 4C. Other associated work 5A. 5B. 5C. 5D. 5E. 5F. 5G. 5H. 5I. 5J. 5K. 5L. Roof and rainwater goods Floor structure and nishes External wall, doors and windows Internal walls, column and nishes Ceiling and nishes Staircase and balustrade Doors and windows Structural works Fixtures and ttings Decoration element Conservation treatment Services

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3. Dismantlement works 4. Temporary works

5. Restoration works

Table V. Recommended cost analysis format for conservation works

6. New building works

6A. New additional works

The way forward Having derived a new elemental cost analysis format for conservation work, the next step would be to test the use of this format in the industry. Feedback is needed to further improve the format to ensure that is has captured all the pertinent cost components and is able to produce an estimate that is a true reection of the work involved in conservation works for a heritage building even before more detailed information is available. In this respect, a second study is now under way to capture the critical cost variables in conservation projects. It is expected that the ndings of the second study could be used to ne-tune the proposed conservation works ECA to ensure that important cost components are included in the proposed format. Summary and conclusion Owing to the limitations of the existing ECA format, there is a need for a new format of elemental cost analysis specically for conservation works. The current analysis format adopted by quantity surveyors may not be suitable to be used in conservation works due to incomplete and also some irrelevant work items. Work items that are specic for conservation works are not included in the current ECA, which is a modied version based on new construction works. Thus this study has attempted to identify all the work items for conservation works and then to suggest a new classication of work items and nally propose a new format of ECA for building conservation works. Apportionment of the work items to an appropriate cost

component has been done to form new groupings on the basis of the items having the same function. The inclusion of new work items and exclusion of some common work items are based on the frequency of the work items encountered in conservation works. The nal outcome of this research is a new standard form for cost analysis formulated and recommended to the building industry for cost estimation or cost planning purposes for building conservation works.
References Ashworth, A. (1988), Cost Studies of Buildings, Longman Group, London. Australia ICOMOS (1999), The Burra Charter: The Australia ICOMOS Charter for the Conservation of Places of Cultural Signicance, Australia ICOMOS, Deakin University, Burwood. Ferry, D.J., Brandon, P.S. and Ferry, J.D. (1999), Cost Planning of Buildings, 7th ed., Blackwell, Oxford. Kamal, S.K., Ahmad, A.G., Ab Wahab, L. and Abdul Karim, S.B. (2007), Understanding the common building defects in Malaysias historic buildings, Proceedings of the International Conference on Built Environment in Developing Countries, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, 3-4 December, pp. 437-43. Lee, Q.Y. (2009), Preparation of tender for building conservation work current practices in Malaysia, unpublished MSc thesis, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang. Mustapa, S., Kamal, K., Zaidi, M. and Wahab, L. (2007), Maintenance approach of historic buildings in Malaysia context, Building Engineer, International News, Spring, Association of Building Engineers, Northampton, pp. 8-11. Seeley, I.H. (1996), Building Economics, 4th ed., Macmillan, London. Tas, E. and Yaman, H. (2005), A building cost estimation model based on cost signicant work packages, Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 251-63. Corresponding author Lim Yoke Mui can be contacted at: limyokemui@gmail.com

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