NRM2 vs SMM7: what changed and what it means

Published on 10 July 2026

In short: SMM7 was the UK standard method of measurement for building works for over two decades. NRM2 replaced it as RICS best practice in 2013. Both do the same job, giving everyone a common rule set for measuring and describing work, but NRM2 uses a numbered structure, adds more guidance, and is designed to line up with modern cost planning. If you are measuring a new bill today, you measure to NRM2.

What SMM7 was

SMM7 is the Standard Method of Measurement, seventh edition. For years it was the rule book UK quantity surveyors used to decide how each item of building work should be measured and described in a bill of quantities. It used lettered work sections, A through to Y. Plenty of older bills, and some organisations, still reference it.

What NRM2 is

NRM2 is the New Rules of Measurement 2: Detailed Measurement for Building Works, published by RICS. It took effect as the recommended method in July 2013 and now sits within the wider NRM suite, alongside NRM1 for order-of-cost estimating and cost planning, and NRM3 for maintenance and whole-life costs. NRM2 is the part you use to produce a tender bill of quantities.

The key differences

• Structure. SMM7's lettered work sections (A to Y) become a numbered set of sections in NRM2, running with appendices. The order and grouping of work were reorganised at the same time.
• Alignment with cost planning. NRM2 was written to sit alongside NRM1, so a detailed bill can be traced back to the earlier cost plan more cleanly. SMM7 stood on its own.
• More guidance. NRM2 gives fuller direction on how to compile a bill, on coding and work breakdown, and on how to describe items, where SMM7 was terser.
• Risk and non-measurable work. NRM2 deals openly with preliminaries, contractor-designed work, provisional sums and risk allowances, giving them a defined place in the bill rather than leaving them to convention.

Which one should you measure to?

For any new bill, measure to NRM2. It is the RICS-recommended method and the one clients, contractors and cost consultants now expect. SMM7 is not banned, and you will still meet it on legacy documents and long-running frameworks, so it is worth being able to read a bill measured either way. But new work is NRM2.

What it means for your bills and your software

In practice the switch changed how bills are laid out and coded more than how you physically measure a length or an area off a drawing. A metre of skirting is still a metre of skirting. What matters is that the descriptions, units and section coding follow NRM2 so your bill reads consistently and prices like for like. Any tool you use to generate a bill should output to that structure, not leave you renumbering sections by hand.

NRM2 output with Kestrel™

Kestrel is built by a working UK estimating firm and exports takeoffs as an NRM2 Bill of Quantities in Excel, with the codes, descriptions, units and live formulas already in place, so you are pricing rather than reformatting. It runs on Windows with a 14-day free trial. Read what an NRM2 bill of quantities is, or download Kestrel to try it.