A commonly used or encountered document in construction is the AIA B801/CMa-1992 Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Construction Manager. This document identifies the basic duties of the Construction Manager (CM). These services are called out for the preconstruction period in Article 2.2 while Article 2.3 covers the construction period services. Article 5 of [...]
On a previous blog I brought up the construction managers “bidding” on a design build project with a low bid mentality. Many problems were identified with the prices because of the independent estimates prepared on the project. These could be correlated to one another and to the bids submitted by the construction managers. During our [...]
In my last blog, I discussed a project that split one building into two bids even though there was only one set of plans and specifications. I decided to go into more detail my last statement of “The only thing they are accomplishing with all of this garbage is more headaches for the Owner in [...]
On a recent project the owner decided to go with a construction management approach on a design build project. They solicited bid proposals from two contractors. In addition to this they retained the services of two independent estimating firms (yes, mine was one of them). The estimating firms both developed estimates that were comprehensive in [...]
I just finished up a meeting with a sub/supplier that needed some assistance in pricing for a project budget. The construction manager sent them the 60% design documents. They also gave them 5 days to develop a budget. The entire project is over $500 million and this portion is well into the millions for scope. [...]
My previous blog on the First Step of this subject left off with a question about the cost for a “cheap and wrong” estimate compared to an “expensive and right” estimate. There are several stakeholders on each project that rely on having the right numbers on the project besides the owner/developer. These include the architect, [...]
The construction industry is full of risks at the job site that can affect your company. After reading an article by Kirk Johnson and Jeff Barrett on the risk of renting a car, I realized another risk a manager or estimator can have before ever even arriving at the jobsite. The summation of the article [...]
Every estimator I know would rather be a weather forecaster than an estimator. True! Weather forecasters are paid a handsome amount of money. They get all of the attention with headlines when right and little when wrong. They are not expected to be right all of the time. If they were right most of the [...]
Expecting a contractor to spend time and resources to produce a free budget estimate is wrong! Just recently, I helped a client rebid a project that originally bid the end of January. In January the plans were only 60% complete and the bid form forced the contractors to honor their quote for 180 days by [...]
Unqualified estimators do exist in the industry. I do not have a firm count on them but in my experience there are quite a number of them. They are not just with owners or architects, but also with construction managers, contractors, subcontractors and suppliers. How can you tell you are dealing with someone that is [...]
