Source: https://www.quantsurv.com/library/glossary/ohp
Content format: Markdown version of the public page.
Content reviewed: 2026-10-10

# OHP (overheads and profit)

The amount added to the cost of work to cover running your business and a profit, usually as a percentage.

by [Jack Butler-Kettle](<https://www.quantsurv.com/about#jack-butler-kettle>) · About 1 min readShare

## Further detail

Read this alongside [NRM 2: Detailed measurement for building works](<https://www.rics.org/content/dam/ricsglobal/documents/standards/NRM-2_Oct2022_Update.pdf>).

Overheads and profit describe allowances within a price, rather than a universal percentage payable on every claim. Rates may already contain these allowances. The contract's valuation rules determine whether a separate addition is appropriate and what it applies to.

Identify what is already included before adding a mark-up. Our [Main-contract tender pricing](<https://www.quantsurv.com/quantity-surveying?service=%2Fquantity-surveying%2Ftender-pricing#client-types>) service makes pricing allowances explicit; our [Change valuation and compensation-event quotations](<https://www.quantsurv.com/quantity-surveying?service=%2Fquantity-surveying%2Fvariations-compensation-events#client-types>) service checks that later valuations do not duplicate them.

## Sources

1.  [NRM 2: Detailed measurement for building works, UK 2nd edition, October 2021 (reissued October 2022 as RICS practice information)](<https://www.rics.org/content/dam/ricsglobal/documents/standards/NRM-2_Oct2022_Update.pdf>). RICS.

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