Construction Administration Services
Typical Project Phases
Construction Administration
Construction Administration
After the design and engineering are complete, permits are secured, and a General Contractor agreement is established, the next phase of the project is construction. During the construction of a home, an Architect will offer Construction Administration or “CA” services. It is important that all parties understand what the typical responsibilities of an Architect, Contractor and Owner are during the Construction process of a home. The construction process can be a complex and difficult if not managed properly. There needs to be clear expectations set with responsibilities of all parties involved.
Below is an outline of the typical Construction Administration services that your Architect will offer during the Construction phase of your home:
Address requests for information issued by the contractor
During construction, there will be questions that the contractor needs answered on detailing, clarifications on design intent or additional information required. These questions will come in the form of RFI’s or requests for information. The architectural team and the contractor should be logging these questions and responses throughout the course of the project to document decisions that have been made.
A system for RFI responses and reasonable response expectations should be established between all parties and the beginning of construction.
Review and approve shop drawings, submittals and substitutions.
During the construction of your home, the contractor will have his sub-contractors produce fabrication drawings on specific components of the home. Common shop drawings on a custom home are steel shop drawings, exterior door/window shop drawings, lighting specifications, interior stone shop drawings, cabinetry/millwork shop drawings and interior door shop drawings just to name a few.
The contractor will review these drawings to check for dimensions, quantity and constructability. He will approve these and send to the architectural team to check for design intent. For example, on an interior door shop drawing submittal, we will check for door finish, veneer species, stain and hardware to be sure these are in conformance with the design intent and construction drawings.
If the submittal requires review of a consultant engineer, the Architect will forward the drawings to his/her consultant for their review and approval. After all required parties have reviewed the contractor will proceed with that specific scope of work.
It is important to note a few critical items regarding shop drawings. First, the contractor must review and approve the submittal before sending to the architect for review. If the contractor has not reviewed the documents and approved, the Architect should not review the documents. Second, the Architect is not checking for dimensions or quantities in these drawings. For example on steel shop drawings, the drawings will often show steel lengths. These correspond to the steel fabricators dimensions on site measurements. It is unreasonable to expect the architect to go out to the site and pull a tape measure to confirm all steel lengths on a project down to the 1/8” tolerance. This is the contractors job.
Perform Site Visitation and Observations
We typically request bi-weekly site observations during construction of our homes. These site visits are usually about 1 hour long and allow the architectural team to walk the job, review the work for design conformance, and answer any in field questions the contractor may have. Our team photographs and documents the work being done and identifies any discrepancies from the design documents. This is also a great time to review and clarify RFI’s as it is much easier to understand an issue when observing it on site.
During site visitations we will also provide sketches to the contractor known as ASI or architects supplemental instructions, which will clarify small details that do not change the project budget or schedule, they are simply to clarify items. These will be copied and documented in the project folder.
Administration of Changes in the Work
Although we advise against making changes during construction, sometimes it does occur. In these scenarios, the Architectural team will need to update the construction documents and re-issue the construction set to the contractor and sometimes to the city/county departments to approve the change. Changing the design or floorplan during construction can often be costly and cause delays in the schedule.
Review and approve requests for payment from the Contractor
From what we have seen in the past few years, this service is rarely requested anymore. However, if requested, the Architect can take the responsibility for reviewing and approving payment requests from the contractor. The contractor customarily would issue certificates of payment requesting pay for work done on site. For example, a contractor would request payment for the concrete foundation after it is poured on site. At the architects bi-weekly site visit, he/she would review that the pour is completed and in conformance with the documents, then approve the certificate of payment that would go through to the owner to make payment.
This is not a service that we have been asked to perform in recent years as we feel with the advancement of online banking, this type of approval process may be antiquated.
This is a brief description of typical Construction Administration Services performed by your architect during Construction. If you have any questions, reach out to us at www.rostarchitects.com.
