Construction Defect Management System | ACCEDE

Successful Construction Project Management: the Practical Guide

Guest blog: Construction quality – deliver a project that exceeds client expectations

Construction quality: Why do it wrong if you can do it right?

Take pride

An important lesson to me came through a Foreman who was probably one of the best I have worked with. Our client tasked us with placing concrete inside a concrete silo built by another contractor. The concrete had to slope steeply to an opening in the centre of the floor and the silo would be used to store rock from a mine. I’d said to the Foreman that this was a rushed job and the client was only concerned with the structural integrity, not the aesthetics of the work, so he shouldn’t waste time with finishing the concrete too neatly. The Foreman was horrified at this statement, and told me in no uncertain terms that as long as he was building something it would be to the best quality possible, and finished off correctly. He would not take short cuts. Even if nobody would see this concrete it would be to the same quality as any other concrete he placed. There was only one way to do a project, he’d said, and that was to do it right.

And, of course, he was absolutely right. This is the way we should all view our work and perform our tasks – with pride!

I’m frequently amazed at how many workers have no pride in the quality of the work they produce. Many homes, hotels, apartments and shopping complexes I’ve visited show signs of poor quality. I regularly see examples of poor tiling, walls that are built out of square and doors not fitted correctly.

Construction quality requires workers to take pride in the quality of their work

 

It’s not only about the paperwork

Unfortunately construction quality control is often forgotten in the rush to complete the project, or sometimes just turns into a paper exercise, and is a task the Project Manager leaves to the Supervisors, or on bigger projects Quality Engineers or Quality Managers. However, it’s the Project Manager’s responsibility to ensure that construction quality control is treated seriously, is not only about paperwork, and that people are delegated with specific responsibilities to deliver the correct quality, understanding what to look for and what the required quality standards are. This is helped considerably when individual tradespeople have the required skills and take pride in the quality of their work.

All the quality paperwork in the world, with all their signatures, will not turn a poor quality product into a good quality product. However the paperwork trail is important in ensuring that proper quality procedures have been implemented and followed.

Construction quality control process using ACCEDE

 

The cost of poor quality work

Poor construction quality results in:

  1. Additional costs and delays when work has to be redone.
  2. A poor reputation for contractors.
  3. Additional costs to clients when defects have to be repaired later, for increased maintenance costs or for disruptions to their operations while defects are repaired.
  4. Can cause injury and death if the structure fails.

Conclusion

Construction quality is about:

  1. Delivering to the client a project that meets and exceeds their standards and specifications.
  2. Constructing the project in accordance with the construction drawings and design details.
  3. The project meeting the local by-laws and codes.
  4. Meeting the code and specification requirements of the state or country (except if the client has particular exemptions allowing deviations from these codes and requirements).
  5. Meeting the construction company’s standards.
  6. Meeting your own standards.

The question everyone should ask is, ‘Would I pay for and accept this quality?’ If the answer is no, then the product doesn’t meet the required quality standards, nor is it a product you are proud of.

Use the ACCEDE defect management system to improve construction quality

 

Written by Paul Netscher the author of the acclaimed books ‘Successful Construction Project Management: The Practical Guide’ and ‘Building a Successful Construction Company: The Practical Guide’. Both books are available in paperback and e-book from Amazon and other retail outlets. This article is adapted from information included in these books. To read more visit www.pn-projectmanagement.com.

© 2015 This article is not to be reproduced for commercial purposes without written permission from the author.

Guest Blog: Closing out construction projects – what you need to know …

Closing out construction projects successfully

Many construction projects are financially successful until the end, when costs suddenly spiral out of control. The main reason for the additional costs is because the project wasn’t completed on time. When I say completed, I don’t just mean handed over, I mean one hundred percent finished. Many Construction Project Managers focus only on handing over the project. However, there’s normally more to a project than this. It includes finalising punch lists, finishing and submitting all paperwork (including as-built drawings, quality data packs, guarantees and warranties) and concluding all the contractual obligations (such as commissioning and testing).

The impacts of not closing out construction projects on time

Failure to complete construction projects correctly, including completing all paperwork and documentation, results in increased costs to construction companies due to:

  1. the project extending beyond the contractual end date, often resulting in the application of penalties or liquidated damages
  2. construction resources remaining on the project longer than budgeted for
  3. resources not being released to other construction projects where they’re required, which negatively impacts those projects
  4. retention money and sureties being retained longer by the client
  5. insurances remaining in place for a longer time
  6. the contractor incurring additional overheads, such as the costs of facilities, accommodation, vehicles and security remaining on site longer

Needless to say the failure of the construction company to complete all outstanding items can be very frustrating to clients and they usually incur additional costs for their supervision as well as inconvenience and disruption to their operations.

Closing out construction projects - what you need to know

What needs to be considered

Some of the items which should be considered when closing out construction projects include:

  1. obtaining the certificate of practical completion
  2. handing over quality documentation, commissioning data, spare parts lists and warranties to the client
  3. handing over all spare parts and unused client-purchased materials to the client
  4. getting the release of sureties or bonds and returning them to the institution which issued them
  5. requesting the release of retentions
  6. putting items of equipment off-hire and transferring them from site
  7. clearing unused materials
  8. moving personnel records to the head office
  9. sorting, filing and archiving project documentation
  10. agreeing the final accounts with the client
  11. settling accounts with subcontractors and suppliers
  12. moving personnel records to the head office
  13. submitting the final project invoice to the client
  14. demobilising all offices and facilities
  15. reinstating lay down areas and access roads, including obtaining signed acceptance from the client
  16. handing back all accommodation
  17. disconnecting services
  18. transferring or terminating personnel
  19. disposing of project-purchased assets
  20. completing the final cost report

The completion schedule/programme

To facilitate the timely completion of the project, a completion schedule should be prepared near the end of the project. This would typically include:

  1. finishing the outstanding items
  2. commissioning
  3. connecting to existing services and structures
  4. completion of the contractor’s punch-list items
  5. final punch-listing by the client
  6. preparation of hand-over documentation such as quality records, commissioning results, operating manuals and guarantees
  7. clearing of the temporary site facilities and services

Successfully closing out construction projects reduces staff frustration

Conclusion

Closing out construction projects can often be a complicated and time-consuming process often underestimated and overlooked by Project Managers and staff who may already be anticipating moving to their next projects. If proper planning and preparation is done at an early stage the close out process will be much simpler. It will save costs and frustration to both the client and the contractor’s staff.

How you finish a construction project is often how the client remembers the construction company!

Customer satisfaction is enhanced through closing out construction projects successfully.

Written by Paul Netscher the author of the acclaimed books ‘Successful Construction Project Management: The Practical Guide’ and ‘Building a Successful Construction Company: The Practical Guide’. Both books are available in paperback and e-book from Amazon and other retail outlets. This article is adapted from information included in these books. To read more visit www.pn-projectmanagement.com.

© 2015 This article is not to be reproduced for commercial purposes without written permission from the author.

 

Guest Blog: Do you know the true cost poor quality adds to your construction project?

Will your construction project be 100% complete when it’s finished?

Well that appears to be a stupid question? If a construction project’s complete, that means it’s finished? Yet many contractors finish a construction project – hand it to the owner, but then spend months, maybe even years, completing snags and defects. They tell everyone the project is finished, but it’s not.

Many years ago, while on business, I stayed at a hotel which had just been constructed for a major hotel chain. I was surprised to see so many construction workers still working in and around the hotel. Later that night as I showered I was dismayed that water from the shower ran across the whole bathroom floor, soaking everything in its path. I tried to form a dam with the towels and bath mat to keep the water in the shower, but without much success.

Over the course of the next 18 months I stayed at the hotel on many occasions while visiting my own construction project, which we completed in this time. I stayed in many different rooms and most had a similar problem with the shower, together with other snags or punch list items. Over time the number of workers from the original contractor diminished, but there were still some repairing defects when I last stayed there. The construction period for the hotel had been less than 18 months, but here they were still repairing defects 18 months after the hotel had been opened! Imagine what that cost?

But now in the city where I live this almost seems to be the norm. We own an apartment in a large building, and it took 4 years for the builder to repair leaks on balconies, and 6 years after it was completed the owners are still battling with the builder to resolve the leaking swimming pool. A similar story is repeated in many other apartment blocks.

So where does it go wrong?

All parties to a construction project can negatively impact quality

The owner

Owners don’t help quality problems when they:

  • specify impossibly short construction project durations
  • select contractors based purely on the cheapest price
  • specify products based only on the fact that they are the cheapest
  • don’t manage their contractors properly

The designer

Designers exacerbate the problem by:

  • accepting the clients decisions even when they compromise their design
  • producing designs which are inappropriate to the level of skills available in that region
  • producing designs which are inappropriate – for instance I know that water creates many of the problems in buildings, yet designers continue to specify falls on roofs and balconies which don’t allow for the water to drain away
  • using designers who aren’t familiar with construction processes and what can go wrong on a construction project
  • not allowing for contractors that don’t (can’t) work in millimetres

The main contractor

Ultimately the quality of construction rests with the main contractor. But main contractors are often their own worst enemy. For example, some main contractors often:

  • accept unreasonable project durations which results in them throwing the project together and then suffering the consequences later
  • employ managers and craftspeople who don’t have the required skills
  • don’t manage the project properly
  • don’t institute the correct quality management systems
  • don’t take pride in their work

But it’s also more than this. Main contractors leave their snagging, or punch listing, to the end of the project, often asking staff to rectify mistakes made by others before them. For the duration of the construction project every one appears blind to the quality problems, accepting that if there’s a piece of paper ticked to say the item’s been inspected it must be ok. So the problem that occurs in apartment 1 probably is replicated through all the apartments to apartment 501! Furthermore the person who allowed the problem to occur in the first place doesn’t have to fix it, so is oblivious to the cost their carelessness has caused.

Do you know what poor quality costs your project and company?

Owners think that poor quality doesn’t cost them anything – after all, the contractor will rectify the problem. But it does cost the owner.

  • there is the inconvenience of having the contractor stay on well past the end of the contract
  • the contractor still has to be managed while they repair their defects
  • a repair of faulty work often results in a weakness which creates maintenance problems later
  • guests, visitors or clients are inconvenienced by the problem and the rectification of the problem (with the hotel problem I described above, think of the unsuspecting guest getting their clothes soaked on the bathroom floor – many guests might not return, or even avoid that hotel chain in other cities)
  • often there is disruption to processes while the problem is resolved (hotel rooms which could not be occupied while repairs are being done)
  • often owners give up in frustration and accept a substandard item

The contractor often does not even begin to understand the costs which are usually far more than just monetary.

  • there’s the actual cost of the repair
  • the cost of the overheads and supervision to do the repair
  • often in repairing the defect something else is damaged
  • harm to their reputation which might prevent them from getting another project (again think of my example of the hotel – if you stayed in the hotel and the bathroom flooded every time you showered would you consider employing that contractor for your project or recommending them to a friend?)
  • the disillusionment of the staff left to rectify someone else’s poor work; people in the construction industry generally want to be building new projects, not spending 18 months rectifying poor work; in many cases they will resign and join another contractor
  • the lost opportunity of having your workers repairing defective work instead of constructing your next project where they could be making money for your company
  • often, as long as there are items remaining to be rectified the contractor doesn’t get all of their retention money released or their sureties and bonds returned

All parties need to understand the true cost of poor quality on a construction project

Conclusion

The action of all parties can negatively impact quality. It’s in all the parties’ interests that they understand the actual costs of poor quality.

Snag, or punch list items should be attended to as the construction project proceeds, preferably by the person responsible for the defect. These items should be tracked so they aren’t repeated. They need to be closed out as soon as possible so the project is completed and staff can move off site.

Often the repairs aren’t managed well, and workers wander aimlessly through the project looking for the item, don’t have the right equipment to fix it, don’t understand what needs to be fixed, or don’t fix the correct item. Sometimes items aren’t repaired properly and result in a defect later or while repairing the item something else is damaged resulting in a new defect.

 

Written by Paul Netscher the author of the acclaimed books ‘Successful Construction Project Management: The Practical Guide’ and ‘Building a Successful Construction Company: The Practical Guide’. Both books are available in paperback and e-book from Amazon and other retail outlets. This article is adapted from information included in these books. To read more visit www.pn-projectmanagement.com.

© 2015 This article is not to be reproduced for commercial purposes without written permission from the author.

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