Document downloads - Measurement
Available downloads
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Code of measuring practice
Published: September 2007
Reinstated: 23 January 2018
Effective from: 23 January 2018
Please note this document is in the process of being updated in 2025.
During this interim period, when using the 6th edition of the Code and/or IPMS: All Buildings (https://www.rics.org/profession-standards/rics-standards-and-guidance/sector-standards/real-estate-standards/international-property-measurement-standards), RICS members and RICS-regulated firms should continue to adopt the appropriate measurement basis so as to satisfy the requirements of the instruction. The basis of measurement used should be documented.
Code of measuring practice became globally effective in May 2015.
Please note, the RICS Property measurement standard 2nd edition has been archived and should only be used as a reference. -
Measured surveys of land, buildings and utilities
Published November 2014
Effective from 8 December 2014
Reissued April 2024
This professional standard is designed for use by land, engineering and measured building surveyors who are acting in an advisory capacity and by survey knowledgeable clients who specify their own surveys.
This third edition supersedes the second edition. One of the primary changes from the second edition is the use of survey accuracy band, which takes into consideration client requirements for scale independent metadata and digital data handling environments.
This professional standard covers:
- project information
- survey accuracy, control, coordinate grid and datum
- topographic surveys
- measured building surveys
- underground utility surveys
- monitoring and deformation and
- deliverables. -
SMM7: Standard method of measurement of building works (ARCHIVED)
This document has been archived and is available on isurv for information purposes only.
SMM7 has been superseded by NRM 2 (see www.isurv.com/downloads/download/1472/new_rules_of_measurement).
ARCHIVED: The 7th edition of the Standard Method of Measurement was published in 1988. Following experience in use and in consequence of queries raised minor amendments were made in September 1988, May 1989 and May 1992. In 1998 further changes were required. Three amendments were also issued in May 2000 (1 and 2) and in June 2009 (3).
Copyright for SMM7 is now held by RICS. -
Definition of Prime Cost of Daywork
The Definition of Prime Cost is published by RICS and the relevant trade body for convenience and for use by people who choose to use it. Members of the relevant trade body are not in any way debarred from defining Prime Cost and rendering their accounts for work carried out on that basis in any way they choose. Building owners are advised to reach agreement with contractors on the Definition of Prime Cost to be used prior to entering into a contract or subcontract.
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New rules of measurement
Published October 2021
Effective from 1 December 2021
Reissued October 2022
New rules of measurement (NRM) provides a standard set of measurement rules and essential guidance for the cost management of construction projects and maintenance works.
For the first time, all three volumes of the NRM suite have been published at the same time. The updated suite consists of three separate volumes:
- NRM 1: Order of cost estimating and cost planning for capital building works
- NRM 2: Detailed measurement for building works
- NRM 3: Order of cost estimating and cost planning for building maintenance works
The primary development in recent years has been the publication of the International Cost Management Standard (ICMS) (formerly known as International Construction Measurement Standards). Together with the Cost prediction professional standard, there now exists a hierarchy of cost management standards and tools from the high-level and global ICMS, through the more detailed principles of all aspects of cost prediction in the professional standard, to the detailed rules and guidance in the NRM suite.
Other recent developments that have resulted in the need for a revised edition include the publication of a new RIBA Plan of Work (2020), which provides a framework for the analysis of construction costs.
A mapping tool between NRM and ICMS will be provided here shortly, mapping the new NRM with ICMS 3, launched in November 2021. While NRM is based on UK practice, it provides a framework for a common set of rules and guidance with global application.
A number of other supporting documents are also being provided alongside the new NRM suite, which are designed to assist users with their understanding and use of the new NRM suite. These will be available from, or shortly after, launch.
These documents were reissued in October 2022 as practice information. They had previously been published in October 2021 as guidance notes. No material changes have been made to the documents. -
Overview of a 5D BIM project (ARCHIVED)
Published August 2014
Effective from 20 August 2014
Archived 20 June 2018
This document has been archived and is available on isurv for information purposes only.
Through consultation with RICS, Henry Riley LLP was invited to write an information paper based on its experience of 5D BIM throughout 2012 and 2013, with particular focus on a project in which an RICS NRM 1 pricing document based on quantification from a BIM model was issued for tender.
This 1st edition information paper includes: project details, key problems identified, process and solution pre-tender, post-tender review and lessons learnt. -
RICS property measurement (ARCHIVED)
Published January 2018
Effective from 1 May 2018
Archived 9 June 2025
Please note this standard has been archived and should only be used as a reference.
RICS members and RICS-regulated firms should adopt the appropriate measurement basis from IPMS: All Buildings (https://www.rics.org/profession-standards/rics-standards-and-guidance/sector-standards/real-estate-standards/international-property-measurement-standards) or RICS' Code of measuring practice (https://www.rics.org/profession-standards/rics-standards-and-guidance/sector-standards/real-estate-standards/code-of-measuring-practice) so as to satisfy the requirements of the instruction. The basis of measurement used should be documented. -
BIM for cost managers: requirements from the BIM model
Published: August 2015
Effective from: August 2015
This global guidance note should be used as a source of reference for quantity surveyors or cost managers when BIM has been implemented in the life cycle of a project. It offers an awareness of BIM and provides readers with recommendations for good practice when producing measurement outputs.
This guidance note covers:
- working in a BIM environment
- background information on naming structures conventions/data drops
- internal practice procedures and
- BIM measurement.
This guidance note is effective from publication in August 2015. -
Residential property measurement practice – evidence from world regions (RICS)
Published September 2016
The report by University of Ulster investigated local property measurement practice across five world regions and attempted to quantify the measurement choices made locally.