Publisher’s version / Version de l'éditeur:
Technical Note (National Research Council of Canada. Division of Building Research), 1956-03-01
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DIVISION OF BUILDING RESEARCH
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA
'fE
C
1HI
!if
II CAlL
NOTIE
No.
208
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
PREPARED BY
W.H.
Ball CHECKED BYFOR INTERNAL USE
APPROVED BY R.F. L. PREPARED FOR Discussion of House Costs DATE March 1956
SUBJECT
A METHOD OF COMPARING HOUSE COSTS
Experience has shown that there is need for a method of comparing house costs which is flexible in its application and which will lend itself to wide areas of use so that local factors such as climate, custom, methods, and material and equipment
use, may not make comparisons difficult. A simple method of comparing the cost of building components and services would, in addition, be most useful in establishing the economic value
of various materials and techniques.
A distinction may be usefully made at this time to
emphasize that this note is not intended to discuss the various methods of determining house costs; rather it is intended that
only the presentation of the breakdown of costs should be
discussed. Once the method of presentation has been established, the methods of cost estimation can then be adjusted to suit the reqUirements of presentation.
For the purpose of presentation of costs a house may be broken down into two major components: the structure and the bUilding services. It is not qUite this simple in practice as
2
the structure must accommodate the service elements and it is therefore affected by them. It is suggested, however, that such a subdivision is practical for general purposes. It is also suggested that such a subdivision of costs should increase the usefulness of the summary of costs, as the serVices provided in a house are generally dependent on such factors as the availa-bility of services, living standards, and climate. Thus it may be possible by such a separation to make cost comparisons of basic structures between areas where there are appreciable differences in the services provided. Service installations are usually provided by specialist trades in most areas and this lends additional convenience to this subdivision.
The House structure
The breakdown of the house structure into components that are capable of a measure of universal comparison with
respect to cost is a more difficult task. Although most houses have foundations, floors, walls, roofs and partitions, the
proportions of such elements vary with the type of house and therefore over-all comparisons between houses of different shape and design may be difficult. For example, it may not be
•
appropriate to compare a single-storey house with a multiple-storey house. However, the comparison of costs in this way will provide useful information as-to the relative costs of various components in houses of various forms, and it would not be unreasonable to ,confine cost comparisons to houses of
similar form when other than relative cost comparison is desired.
