DTCE 125, Quantity Surveying – Building Up of Unit Rates for Roofing

8.0. Carpentry and Joinery

Timber for carpentry works can be purchased from the timber merchants in sawn state, planned or
planed and moulded. The basic selling unit is a cubic meter but items like joinery rails are always
quoted as per linear meter. If sawn sections and lengths are required which corresponds exactly to
members that are supplied by the manufacturer, the price will be cheaper than if the builder requires
specific length and sections which require to be reduced to the required sizes at site. The emphasis
in modern construction is to fabricate components in a specialist’s sub-contractors workshop
wherever possible and reduce the site labour to a minimum. Examples of such items are roof
trusses, doors and frames, windows, stair cases, cupboards units etc.

8.1. Waste
The cutting and wastage factor on in-situ carpentry and joinery can be set generally at about 10%
but for certain members in some situations it may be higher.

8.2. Factors that are considered in estimating for any carpentry and joinery work
 The size of sections required
 Labour involved
 Type of item being made e.g. roof trusses, door and windows
 Purposes of structure
8.3. Formula for calculating the costs of timber
For timber prices quoted in cubic meters, the costs per linear meter for any scantling size can be
calculated from the following;

Multiplying the cross section area of the scantling member in square millimeters by the price of
timber in say Uganda shillings 450,000/= and move the decimal point six places to the left. The
result is the price of timber in Uganda shillings per linear meter. It is of course necessary to obtain
an accurate price per cubic meter by considering such factors as quantity and the actual sections and
mouldings.

Page 1 of 4
 DTCE 125, Quantity Surveying – Building Up of Unit Rates for Roofing

Example:

Calculate the unit rate of a piece of 150mm x 50mm timber

Let @ cubic meter of timber cost Uganda shillings 450,000

Therefore cost  150x50x 450,000  3,375,000000/  moving the decimal point six places to the
left, the cost of 150x150mm timber is 3,375/= Uganda shillings per linear meter. Alternatively
multiply the scantlings cross sectional area in meters by the cost of a cubic meter of timber. Example
0.15x0.15x450000/=

8.4. Roofing

8.4.1. Roofing in clay tiles

Consider roofing in mangalore tiles of size 400x225mm laid to lap 75mm on the ends and 25mm
side laps laid on and including 50x38mm softwood battens. The battens are fixed on plain iron
sheets of guage 32.

Solution

Number of tiles in a square meter

The number of tiles required can be obtained by dividing the total exposed area of a tile by unity

Area exposed …………………………………….  (400  75) x(225  25)  0.065

Number of tiles ………………………………….. 1
  15.38
Add 2.5% waste………………………………….. 0.065
Total tiles in 1m2  15.38  0.4  15.78  16
16 tiles @1500 delivered …………………………. = 24000
Unskilled hours for offloading 0.3hours @1000…... = 300
Sub Total 1 = 24,300/=
Battens

Consider batten spacing 325mm

Battens in one square meter ………………….. 1
  3.07 say 4battens
0.325
Cost of battens…………………………………  0.05x0.038x450000x4  3420/ 
Add 10% cutting waste………………………… = 342
76mm wire nails for fixing battens. Spacing of
nails is 0.6m, and there are 132nails in one kg

Page 2 of 4
 DTCE 125, Quantity Surveying – Building Up of Unit Rates for Roofing

@3000/=
Number of nails ………………………………. 1
 x 4  7nails
0.6
7
Cost of nails …………………………………..  x3000  159 / 
132
G.I iron sheets say at 4000 per square meter….. =3000
Unskilled hours 0.6 @1000……………………. = 600/=
Skilled hours 0.6 @ 2000………………………. = 1200/=
Sub Total 2 = 8,721/=
TOTAL = 33,021/=
Add 25% profits and overheads………………... 8,255/=
Grand total 41,276/=

Therefore the cost of roofing one square meter in mangalore tiles is 41,276/=

8.4.2. Roofing in corrugated iron sheets

Question
Compute the unit rate for roofing in corrugated iron sheets of size 3000m x 900m with side laps of
114mm and end laps of 150mm. The iron sheets are fixed to timber purlins with nails and washers.
The roofing sheet costs 15000Ush per square meter, roofing nails cost 5000Ush per kilogram having
50 nails. There are 10 nails in a square meter of roof surface and the washers cost 50Ush.
Data
Skilled hours for carpentry (roofing): 1.0

Unskilled hours for carpentry (roofing): 2.0

Solution

Exposed area (3000-150) x (900-114)…………… = 2.24m2

Cost of 2.24m2 …………………………………. = 2.24x15000 = 33,600/=

Add 5% cutting waste ………………………….. = 0.05x33600 = 1680/=

Cost of roofing nails …………………………… = 2.24x10x0.02x5000 = 2,240/=

Add 5% nail waste ……………………………... = 0.05x2240 = 112/=

Page 3 of 4
 DTCE 125, Quantity Surveying – Building Up of Unit Rates for Roofing

Washers………………………………………… = 2.24x50x10 = 1120/=

Add 5% waste for washers……………………… = 0.05x1120 = 56/=

Unskilled hours ………………………………. = 1 x 1000 = 1000/=

Skilled hours……………………………………. = 2x2000 = 4000/=

Sub Total = 43,808/=

Add 20% profit and overheads………………….. = 0.2x43808 = 8762/=

TOTAL = 52,570/=

The unit rate for roofing in iron sheet is 52,570/=.

Page 4 of 4