You have a tender due and no estimator free. Buildesk prepares detailed Bills of Quantities for contractors bidding and building in Dubai and across the UAE — measured from your drawings, itemised trade by trade, and delivered in a format you can price and submit.
Most BOQ services in this market are written for the project owner. Read their pages and you will see it: “compare contractor bids fairly”, “avoid mistakes made by contractors when pricing works”. Useful if you are the client. Useless if you are the one holding the tender.
We work the other side. Buildesk is the technical office for contracting companies that do not have one — or whose one estimator is already buried under three live tenders.
BOQ preparation for contractors bidding in Dubai
Our clients are main contractors, subcontractors and fit-out firms across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and the Northern Emirates. The work usually starts in one of three situations:
- You are bidding. A tender came in with drawings and a deadline. You need quantities you can trust before you put a number on the table.
- You have won and need to build. You need a working BOQ to procure against, to control what leaves the store, and to measure progress claims.
- The client issued a BOQ and you do not trust it. We re-measure it and tell you where the quantities are short — before those shortfalls become your loss.
What you receive
Every job leaves our office with four things. Not a single figure in an email — a set of documents you can defend line by line.
- The BOQ itself, in Excel. Two versions where useful: unpriced for your own rate entry, and priced if you have asked us to apply rates.
- Marked-up drawings. Every measured item colour-coded on the drawing it came from, so you can see exactly what was counted and what was not.
- Takeoff backup sheets. The working behind each quantity — dimensions, multipliers, deductions. Auditable, so when a consultant challenges a quantity you have the arithmetic ready.
- An assumptions and exclusions register. A written list of what we assumed where drawings were unclear, and what is deliberately not in the number. This is the document that stops arguments later.
Formats: Excel (.xlsx) for the bill and backup, PDF for submission, DWG for marked-up drawings. If your client works in CostX, we deliver in that too.
Measurement standards we work to
This matters more than most people realise, and almost nobody in this market states it. The measurement standard determines whether your rates are net or gross, whether formwork is measured separately from concrete, and whether you can recover for waste. Price a POMI bill using NRM assumptions and you will lose money on your own tender.
- POMI (Principles of Measurement International) — the most common basis on Gulf projects, and the default we assume unless your tender says otherwise.
- NRM2 — used where the consultant is UK-aligned or the client specifies RICS practice.
- SMM7 — superseded by NRM2 but still named in older UAE specifications. If your document says SMM7, we measure to SMM7.
- CESMM4 — for civil and infrastructure work.
Tell us the clause and we match it. If the tender does not name a standard — which happens often — we will tell you which one the bill appears to have been drafted under, and measure consistently with it.
Trade-by-trade scope
This is where a BOQ is either useful or decorative. Generic bills that say “concrete works, electrical, plumbing” in three lines cannot be priced. Here is what we actually itemise.
Concrete, formwork and reinforcement
Concrete by grade and element — blinding, footings, pile caps, columns, shear walls, beams, slabs, staircases, water tanks, retaining walls. Formwork measured as contact area by element type, since column formwork and soffit formwork do not carry the same rate. Reinforcement by bar diameter in tonnes, with laps and wastage stated separately rather than buried in the rate.
Bar bending schedules
Where you need it, reinforcement goes beyond tonnage into a full bar bending schedule — bar mark, shape code, cutting length, bending dimensions and weight, scheduled to BS 8666 or to whichever standard your specification names. Because the BBS and the BOQ come from the same office and the same drawings, the tonnage in your bill reconciles with the tonnage in your schedule. Nobody else in this market offers both from one set of measurements.
Blockwork
By square metre and by block count, split by thickness (100/150/200/250mm), by type (hollow, solid, AAC, thermal), and by location — internal partitions and external walls do not price the same. Openings deducted, lintels and ties itemised.
Plaster and render
Internal and external, measured in square metres by coat build-up and location, with reveals, bands and drips taken separately. On a typical villa this is one of the largest single quantities in the bill and it is routinely under-measured.
Ceramic, porcelain and stone
Floor, wall, skirting and threshold areas by finish type, with cutting and breakage wastage stated as a visible allowance rather than hidden inside a rate. Adhesive, grout and waterproofing to wet areas itemised.
Electrical
Not “electrical works — lump sum”. Point-by-point counts: light points, switch points, socket outlets, data and TV points, isolators. Distribution board schedules, circuit counts, cable runs by size and containment lengths by type. This is how a UAE electrical subcontractor actually prices a villa or a fit-out.
Plumbing and drainage
Sanitary fixture counts by type, hot and cold water pipe runs by diameter and material, soil and waste runs, floor drains, traps, valves and fittings counted rather than estimated.
HVAC
Equipment schedule (FCUs, AHUs, split units, ducted units by capacity), ductwork by area and gauge, insulation, grilles, diffusers, dampers, refrigerant and drain piping by diameter.
Finishes and external works
Painting by area and system, false ceilings by type and area, doors and windows scheduled by size and specification, aluminium and glazing, joinery, waterproofing and thermal insulation, boundary walls, hardscape and landscaping.
BOQ review and re-measurement
If a bill has already been issued to you, we can check it rather than rebuild it. We re-measure the significant items against the drawings and return a variance report showing where the issued quantities are over, under, or measured on a different basis than the drawings support.
This is worth doing before you sign. On a re-measurable contract a quantity error corrects itself eventually. On a lump-sum contract it does not — it becomes your loss, and you carry it for the life of the job.
Re-measurable versus lump sum: what changes
The contract type should change how the bill is built, and often does not.
On a re-measurable contract, quantities are provisional and the final account is settled on what is actually built. The bill needs to be structured so that remeasurement is straightforward and your interim claims can be substantiated item by item.
On a lump-sum contract, the quantities are your risk from the day you sign. Every item missed from the bill is work you will perform for free. Here the assumptions and exclusions register stops being paperwork and becomes the most commercially important document in the set.
How we work
- You send drawings. Architectural, structural and MEP where available — DWG or PDF. Tender documents and specification if you have them.
- We confirm scope and revision status and flag missing or conflicting information before we start measuring, not after.
- We measure, trade by trade, to the agreed standard.
- We cross-check — a second pass by someone who did not do the original takeoff.
- We deliver the bill, backup, marked-up drawings and exclusions register.
- We stay available for queries through your tender period. If the consultant issues an addendum or revised drawings, we update the affected items.
Software
CostX, Bluebeam Revu, PlanSwift and Excel, with AutoCAD and Revit for drawing work. We also measure directly from PDF tender drawings when that is all that has been issued — which, on Dubai tenders, is often the case.
Turnaround and pricing
[To be completed with your real turnaround bands and pricing basis — per drawing, per built-up area, or per project. This section is a significant competitive advantage: no competitor in this market publishes either figure.]
Recent project
[To be completed with one real project: type, location, built-up area, scope measured, turnaround achieved, outcome. A genuine case study with real numbers outperforms every “why choose us” section on this page.]
Our Dubai office
We are based in Dubai. Not a landing page with an overseas phone number — an office you can call, visit and hold accountable. Several firms ranking for these services in the UAE list US or UK contact numbers and no local address at all. When a tender query needs answering at 9pm on a Wednesday, that difference matters.
Frequently asked questions
Do you price the BOQ, or only measure it?
Both, and they are separate services. Measurement gives you quantities. Pricing applies rates — either your own rates, or current UAE market rates where you ask us to build them up. Most contractors take the measured bill and price it themselves, because the rates are where their commercial judgement lives.
Can you work from PDF drawings only?
Yes. Scaled PDFs are workable and common on Dubai tenders. DWG files are faster and slightly more accurate, so send them if you have them.
What happens if drawings are revised mid-tender?
We update the affected items and reissue, with the changes identified so you can see what moved. Revision handling during the tender period is included; a full re-measurement after a major redesign is quoted separately.
Which measurement standard applies to my project?
Check the preambles of your tender document. Most Gulf projects use POMI; UK-aligned consultants often specify NRM2; older UAE specifications sometimes still name SMM7. If nothing is stated, send us the documents and we will tell you what the bill appears to be drafted under.
Do you work with contractors outside Dubai?
Yes — across Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and the Northern Emirates. Measurement is measurement; what changes between emirates is the authority framework around the project, and we work to whichever applies.
Is my tender information kept confidential?
Yes. We routinely work for multiple contractors and will not measure competing bids on the same tender package. If you are concerned about a specific project, ask before you send drawings.
How is this different from hiring an estimator?
A full-time quantity surveyor in Dubai is a salary, a visa, a workstation and software licences, carried year-round whether or not you are bidding. We are capacity you turn on for the tenders that matter and off in between.
Do you handle bar bending schedules as well?
Yes, and it is worth combining them. When the BOQ and the BBS come from the same measurement, the reinforcement tonnage in your bill and the tonnage in your schedule agree — which is not true when the two are done by different parties from different drawing revisions.
Send your drawings
Send the drawings and the deadline. We will tell you what we can measure, in what time, and what it costs — before you commit to anything.
