The Most Critical Phase of Construction Projects

What do you think is the most critical phase in a building or remodeling project? The construction drawings/plans phase? The permitting process? The construction phase? We firmly believe that the point between construction drawings and actual construction is the most important.

The Pre-Construction Phase comes after your construction drawings are complete and before construction begins. It might coincide with permitting or happen afterward. It's the process by which your construction plans are converted to a project plan.

Primary bathroom at Farmland 8 Project

At Walker Building Company, we set aside two to six weeks for this phase depending on the project size and scope. Investing a bunch of time and energy up front allows the construction phase to go more smoothly. Before construction ever begins, we create a detailed project plan that focuses on scope, costs and schedule.

Some of the main action items during the pre-construction phase include:

• reviewing the construction drawings again and again, and again.

• conducting client meetings and asking a lot of questions.

• mapping out the entire project by itemizing the scopes of work for every trade

• meeting with subs to go over the project in depth

• preparing bid packages for subs and suppliers

• reviewing all bids and determining the various subs to hire

• assisting clients in making selections via our Selections Worksheet

• shopping for selections

• performing takeoffs for all the materials needed in the project

• setting up the project in Buildertrend

• plugging all costs into final cost-to-build estimate

No construction happens on the job until the pre-con phase is complete and our client has reviewed the final cost-to-build estimate. If all looks good, we convert the estimate to our budget. The client pays a deposit and this officially kicks off the construction phase.

Risks to Building Without an Official Project Planning Process

With no official project plan, it can be hard to determine where the project is at in terms of schedule and budget. You're likely to be over budget. If the order of operations is not clearly laid out, time can easily be wasted and delays can happen. Clients can often be forced to make last minute decisions that they otherwise should have had more time to make, and the construction process can feel chaotic and stressful.

Benefits of the Pre-Construction Phase on our most recent project

Our first client project in Bellingham is currently in the post-construction phase. This project is 4.4% under budget and on schedule. Carrying out the construction management and project management on this job was smooth. There is no doubt that putting in a lot of time and energy before construction made the entire project enjoyable, streamlined and efficient.