"open book" builder contract?

mymedi

Thank you, everyone, for the helpful comments & suggestions. Sorry for the long delay in getting back to this...

I do appreciate all the issues raised - material costs, dumping extra labour, etc. However, the reason for my question was that I'm not sure what the benefit of a Bill of Quantities would be. Without one, you cannot really do a tender and getting a few quotes without an exaustive list is kind of pointless as the job will change half-way anyway. So, my view was that we could get a schedule of rates from a couple of contractors, which shouldn't be that difficult. And then proceed on that basis with possibly bringing in an architect to supervise in a part-time fashion.

In terms of the schedule of rates, that would include things like laying floors per sq.m., tiling per sq.m., new door facings & skirtings per m, light points/power sockets per item, etc. The way it looks is pretty much 90% of the job can be reduced to such unit/rates which would apply even if the amount of work changes - and these would safeguard against time run up, extra unnecessary labour and material costs since most of the rates are per unit, not per time or amount of work...? Is this thinking flawed?

Thanks!