BOQ, Approvals & Documentation

The drawings that make a design buildable

A beautiful design you cannot get approved, cannot price and cannot set out on the ground is not finished. This part of the service produces the documents that make a house real: what the authority needs to approve it, what a bank needs to finance it, what a contractor needs to price it, and what a builder needs to set it out.

Local authority approval

No house can legally be built in Sri Lanka without approval from the local authority covering your land — the Municipal Council, Urban Council or Pradeshiya Sabha, and in some areas the Urban Development Authority as well.

Approval drawings must demonstrate compliance with the rules that apply to your specific plot: the street line and building line, the space left at the rear and sides, permitted floor area relative to plot size, and the natural light and ventilation provided to habitable rooms.

Requirements vary between authorities, and they change. Building without approval creates enforcement risk and causes serious problems later when selling or mortgaging the property.

Bill of quantities

A BOQ measures every material and item of work the house requires — concrete, steel, blockwork, roofing, finishes, fittings — and prices them into a document you can budget and tender against.

It has two uses beyond the obvious. Banks ask for it when assessing a construction loan, which is why Structa lists it as a Bank BOQ. And it lets you compare contractor quotations against the same scope rather than against each other’s guesses — then check during construction whether what is being claimed matches what was priced.

Schedules and setting out

• Door and window schedule — every opening numbered, sized and specified, so blockwork and joinery agree.
• Tile layout drawings — setting out so cut tiles land discreetly rather than in a doorway.
• Bathroom detail drawings — fixture positions, heights, floor falls and waterproofing extents.
• Setting out plan — dimensioned positions to transfer the design accurately onto the ground, with finished floor level referenced to the road.

What this protects you from

Every document here exists because its absence causes a specific, expensive problem: a rejected submission, a stalled loan, a quotation that cannot be compared, a house set out a few inches into a setback. Discovering any of them after the foundation is cast is a serious matter.

See which package includes which documents, or read the full process.