Bill of Quantities

Because every scope item is individually priced and quantified, you can see exactly where money is allocated and make informed trade-offs before work starts. A detailed BoQ also lets you compare contractor quotes on identical scopes, eliminating hidden inclusions or exclusions that cause costs to escalate once a project is underway.

Costs generally range from AED 500 for a basic cafe fit-out to AED 1,500 or more per square foot for premium fine-dining fit-outs. The final figure depends on concept, material quality, MEP complexity, and kitchen specification. A BoQ produced from your actual drawings gives you a project-specific number rather than a generic estimate.

For a typical restaurant or cafe fit-out scope in the UAE, Make My Restaurant delivers the initial BoQ within 3 to 5 business days of receiving approved drawings. Complex multi-floor or dark-kitchen projects may require an additional 2 to 3 days. We also provide revised BoQs within 24 hours when drawings change during the design process.

Accurate quantity take-off requires dimensioned, trade-specific drawings rather than concept sketches, because sketch-level plans lack the detail needed to measure MEP runs, partition lengths, or ceiling areas reliably. We can produce a preliminary cost plan from concept drawings to guide your budget before design is finalised, then update to a full tender-ready BoQ once approved drawings are available -- typically within 3 to 5 business days of receiving them.

A cost estimate provides a lump-sum or elemental summary (civil, MEP, finishes) based on rates applied to gross areas. A BoQ is a line-item document where each material, labour task, and trade package is individually quantified and priced. For tendering, a BoQ is essential: it forces every contractor to price an identical scope so bids are directly comparable. Without it, contractors include different items and comparing quotes becomes meaningless.

Our standard BoQ covers the civil, structural, MEP (electrical, plumbing, HVAC, kitchen exhaust), interior finishes, joinery, and kitchen infrastructure (hood canopies, grease traps, gas pipe-work, drainage channels). Loose kitchen equipment -- ovens, fryers, refrigeration units -- is typically procured separately through catering equipment suppliers and can be priced as a separate equipment schedule within the same document on request.

A signed, priced BoQ becomes the contractual reference document for every scope and rate in the project. When a contractor submits a variation claim, the BoQ provides the agreed unit rates against which any additional quantities are priced, and clearly documented exclusions define what was never in scope. Without a BoQ, variation negotiations are subjective and typically favour the contractor, often adding 15 to 30% to the original budget.

Yes. Our BoQs for UAE restaurant fit-outs include line items for DM-compliant grease-trap installation, HVAC kitchen exhaust systems meeting DM ventilation standards, Civil Defence-approved suppression system rough-in provisions, and fire-rated partition specifications. Omitting these from the BoQ and tender is a common cause of expensive late variations when the contractor needs to upgrade systems to pass authority inspections.

Yes. Our quantity surveying team covers all seven UAE emirates. Unit rates for materials and labour are benchmarked to the relevant market -- Abu Dhabi contractor rates and Abu Dhabi Municipality compliance specifications differ from Dubai norms, and Sharjah subcontractor pricing reflects the Industrial Area supply chain. We adjust rates and authority-compliance items to the specific emirate for every project.

A provisional sum is a budget allowance included in the BoQ for scope items that cannot yet be fully designed or specified at tender stage -- for example, a custom bar unit pending final design, or specialist MEP work awaiting authority approval. It reserves budget without committing to a fixed price. Once the scope is confirmed, the provisional sum is replaced with a firm priced item and the overall BoQ cost is adjusted accordingly.

A contractor's self-prepared pricing is inherently conflict-of-interest: they will price to their margin and may bundle or omit items to win the job at a lower headline figure, recovering the difference through variations. An independent BoQ from our quantity-surveying team gives you a pre-tender benchmark and a fixed scope document that any contractor must price against. Clients typically save 10 to 20% on final fit-out costs compared to contractor-led pricing with no independent BoQ.