All You Need to Know About Constructability Review
Constructing a building is a time-consuming task. Years of planning and dedication go behind the larger-than-life building that we see on the roads. Numerous professionals come together under one roof to accomplish this task.
With a compressed schedule, the architect and each sub-consultant work feverishly toward the end date. The unfortunate result is that they quite often find themselves in a position from which they have no choice other than to issue whatever they have completed to date for bidding and construction purposes.
This persistent problem of incomplete design documents is further aggravated by the fact that we also lose the ability to perform a final, comprehensive, quality control review of the documents.
Not just money but a great amount of money is at stake. Being so many things at risk it is crucial to ensure that everything falls into its place perfectly. you need to be on your toes throughout the construction process.
To keep things under control, you need to hire professionals to make sure that they review everything at an early stage so that it eradicates the possibility of error and saves the contractor from any major loss.
To further understand the importance of the constructability review, let’s talk about its pros in detail.
Advantages of Constructability Review While Constructing a Building
- Detection of error at the early stage of construction
As was mentioned earlier that construction is a task that involves a great amount of money and time, that is why predicting errors and addressing them is extremely crucial, or else it cost huge. The reviewers must bring all the professionals under one umbrella and ensure that everything is planned and each one of them is working as per the plan.
Talking to every professional whether it is the designer, architecture, or electrician is of great importance as any error in the mid of the construction is bound to cost double what it was expected to cost.
- Enables different professionals to work in harmony
Working with different professionals is not a cakewalk. It demands you to talk to each one of them and listen to their needs and queries. Moreover, the reviewer must resolve their issues to escape any sort of tiff among them.
If these professionals won’t have companionship then it will be tough to carry out such a tedious task as it demands teamwork and proper leadership. This leadership is only possible under the guidance of reviewers who will carry the task of constructability review.
- Get the potential solution at the right time
Employing a competent and reputable third-party firm to perform a constructability review is an excellent management practice. Depending on the size and complexity of the project, a thorough constructability review can take weeks or even months to complete.
Shortening or eliminating this crucial design step only delays the discovery of the problems. It is always advantageous to identify and solve problems as early as possible. Identifying and solving problems early provides ample opportunity for resolution before delays are incurred and many times even before additional costs are incurred.
That is why conducting such reviews at an early stage will help you from any mishappening in the future. A deeper understanding of some of the project’s costs, timelines, and build-ability issues so that adjustments can be made before it is too late.
- Help in coping with the shift in demand of consumers
After the Covid-19 outbreak, there has been a drastic shift in the paradigm. From the demand of the people to the prices of the materials that are used in the construction, things have taken a drastic turn in all the sectors.
The reviewers will not only help in dealing with the paradigm change but also in dealing with dealers to manage the increased prices of the materials. They have connections and great communicational skills to get you the desired outcome.
This will help you in bringing more profits to the table as the material costs of the construction will decrease.
- Take care of the safety of the building
It is important to check whether the building is safe to stay in or not. There will be millions of people that will be staying in the building or visiting it. If these buildings are not built with perfection and keeping in mind the safety of the residents then it can lead to a tremendous mishappening.
There can be numerous hazards such as fire outbreaks, earthquakes, or any other hazards from which the building needs to protect the residents but if it won’t be capable of doing so then it can be dangerous. This can even make the contractor fall into legal trouble. Thus, it is crucial to have a constructability review done to make each and everything crystal clear.
Things to Keep in Mind While Conducting Constructability Review
Now, when you know all the benefits of constructability review, you must keep certain things in mind to conduct a successful building review.
- Look at all the aspects of constructing a building
Just roaming from one site to another won’t help. Avoid viewing a constructability review as an exercise in flipping through the construction documents with a focus on finding the problems, as the problems will not jump out at you.
Moreover, whether it be interior, exterior, or structural, problems are not addressed nearly as frequently within the body of a system as they are at the perimeter of a system where it interfaces with the various adjacent systems and trades.
- Don’t divert from the core topic
Before commenting on the design team, ask yourself two questions.
1. Will this impact the cost, time, or quality of the project?
2. Will the contractor, or subcontractors, require an answer to this question to perform their work?
If the answer to either of these questions is yes, pose the comment. Otherwise, posing the comment will consume the design team's time that could be better spent directed to other issues.
The bottom line is, to be on the track throughout the constructability review as going off track will make you lose your efficiency and focus. So, it is better to go step-by-step and ensure that you have addressed any possible issues and are satisfied with your work.
- Interdisciplinary coordination gives a boost to the efficiency of the construction process
Interdisciplinary coordination is tremendously important, as many change order issues originate from conflicts between the various design disciplines. Conversely, a review performed by a single person for the entire project will be highly effective in interdisciplinary coordination but may lack deep experience in each of the individual design fields.
NOTE
There is a preconceived perception that constructability reviews must be accomplished in time for all solutions to be incorporated into the bidding documents. This is far from the truth.
Incorporating all of the solutions before bidding would be great, but it is not a realistic expectation. Nor should this sequencing concern be a deterrent from performing thorough constructability reviews. It is still greatly beneficial when problems are identified and resolved shortly after the bidding phase.
Summary
Constructing a building is a tedious job that needs to be accomplished with great perfection as a lot of money is at stake. For this conducting a constructability review is a must and shouldn’t be avoided.
