Alfa Builders
Who Am I – General Contractor, Consultant, or Designer?
These days, the typical construction contractor is forced to wear many different hats during the course of a project. This begins during the design phase and continues all the way to completion.
There are many factors which can contribute to this necessity – some are customary and expected, some are not. Here are a few that come to mind.
Construction Consultant
This is a common pre-construction role for many contractors these days. It seems that so many companies in the design field (architects and engineers) develop their designs based on historical data that even Frank Lloyd Wright would consider old!
By the time the design is at 80% completion, the budget is blown and the architect is calling looking for some help.
That is where the contractor puts on his value engineering consultant’s hat and begins to look for ways to trim the fat. It is not uncommon for a project to be as much as 15% over budget, so the VE process becomes a foregone conclusion as an expected part of the job.
When the contractor has assisted the designers in matching the building with the budget, then we move on to construction and prepare for our next role.
Design Coordinator
Now that the individual parts and pieces of the design are fitting more closely with the owner’s pocket book, the project shifts to the construction phase.
At this point, the submittals and shop drawings start piling up on the contractor’s desk, and it becomes obvious that we have some problems.
The architectural design doesn’t match the structural design, and neither resembles the mechanical and electrical design too much.
Unfortunately, construction is already underway, so each day that passes is now burning up the contractor’s overhead. So we grab our design coordinator’s hat and get to work making sure the building systems match each other.
Do we get paid a fee to figure out this construction jigsaw puzzle? No.
Do we do it anyway so that we can get the project moving forward again? Yes.
We do what we have to do in order to save overhead dollars. Thankfully, this “hat” is not worn on every project. However, it is becoming a more common occurrence.
Design Engineer
We have the building and budget in line with each other. Check!
We have the various building systems harmoniously intertwined. Check!
So our project is clipping right along and the project is taking shape. Then we hit a roadblock.
Something that looks beautiful on paper is impossible to construct without a supernatural miracle! What do we do?
Well, we call our project architect or engineer for a solution. After careful study and days of waiting for a response, we finally get our answer.
“Can you please provide us with some alternatives that will fix that problem and let us select the option that we like the best?”
So we knock the dust off our design engineer’s hat and draft some solutions based on common sense and accepted construction practices and make our presentation to the owner and architect.
Should the contractor who doesn’t have an engineering degree be designing solutions to problems? No.
Is it a necessary part of the process to ensure the project finishes on time and within budget. Most definitely.
We can’t afford to upset the apple cart at this stage of the game.
In Conclusion
Depending on what day you choose to be a fly on the wall, the contractor may be mistaken for one of a handful of players on a construction project. I am not sure if this makes the contractor a genius or simply crazy.
But all of the hats we wear are done in an effort to get the project completed. In a perfect world, we would prefer to wear the one that fits the best – General Contractor.
But since the construction world is far from perfect, we will keep our bag of hats on standby for the next time they are needed.
Please leave a comment if you know of other aspects of this topic that I haven’t covered or feel free to contact me.
