Contract · For Quantity Surveyors

A contract is a role. The work gets you the next one.

Most contract QSs pick their next role on rate and start date. The ones who move up pick it on what they will be able to say they did.

Quantity surveyor reading through documents at a desk in a brick-walled office

Delivery

Brought in for a named piece of commercial work. The variations that have not been priced. The compensation events nobody has submitted. The final account nobody has agreed. Hired for the piece, paid for the piece, delivers the piece, and leaves when it is done.

Cover

A seat-holder. The shape of a permanent employee at contract rates. Same expectations, no defined outcome, no end date anybody has written down. Keeps the books tidy. Keeps the reports going out.

It is about what you were bought for. That is the question almost nobody asks before they buy, and you are the one who lives with the answer.

The best contract QSs are not in it for the rate.

They are in it because they would rather be measured on a piece of work than on being in the building. Because they are good at one hard thing and want to spend their time on it. Because they like turning up to something that is stuck, unsticking it, and leaving.

If that is you, this is the work.

The bit nobody costs properly.

The gaps. The IR35 position. The pension you are now running yourself. The six weeks between contracts you did not plan for.

We wrote all of it down in the handbook, with the actual rates in it, and you can have it for nothing.

Email address only. Nobody rings you.

How we work Contract.

We keep Delivery QSs by name and by what they are actually good at. When a brief matches, we ring one person. Availability is the last question we ask.

You hear from us less often, and it is worth answering when you do.

Assistant Quantity Surveyor to Commercial Director, Contract, UK wide

Hiring rather than moving? The same lane from the other side

What people have said · Google reviews

Matt helped us place a freelance QS whilst we had an opening for a new full time position.


Andy Pickering · June 2026

Matt sourced the freelance position at the company I wanted to work for, and negotiated terms perfectly.


James Hughes · May 2026

They came highly recommended from a close friend. When I was ready for my next commission, I reached out.


Matthew B · August 2026

  • How do I become a freelance Quantity Surveyor?

    Have something specific to be hired for. Put money aside for the gaps. Work out your IR35 position and how you'll be paid before the first contract, not after it.

  • Limited company or umbrella?

    Limited company. It's how serious freelance QSs run themselves: your own business, your own name on the invoice, and the right set-up for work outside IR35. Get a contractor accountant from day one. If a contract comes in inside IR35, it's taxed like employment whichever way you're paid, and the company is still there for the next one.

  • How long are the gaps between contracts?

    Longer than people plan for, and nobody can promise there won't be any. Delivery QSs with a name for a particular kind of work get the next contract through word of mouth. Cover QSs wait for the next seat.

  • Can I go back to permanent afterwards?

    Yes. It's easier if your freelance work was Delivery, because you can name the job and what came of it. A CV of seats held is harder to argue from.