How to Build a Pre-Construction Team That Saves Money Before the Plans Are Done

On most projects, the biggest cost decisions are made before anyone breaks ground. By the time plans are permitted and out to bid, changing them is slow and expensive. A pre-construction team exists to make the important decisions while they are still cheap to change.

Who belongs on the team

• The owner sets the goals, budget and schedule, and makes the calls.
• The architect leads the design.
• The Engineer of Record designs the structure and, with the civil engineer, the foundations, grading and drainage.
• The geotechnical engineer reports on the soil and rock and sets requirements such as caisson embedment.
• The surveyor documents the site as it really is.
• The builder or construction manager brings cost, schedule and constructability.
• Key trade contractors on the work that carries the most risk. On hillside and underground-heavy sites, that is the civil and underground contractor.

When to bring each one in

The design team comes first. The geotechnical report and survey should come early, because so much depends on them. The builder and the key trade contractors add the most value at the schematic stage, when there is enough design to review but nothing is locked in yet.

What early contractor input catches

• Unknown existing conditions. Buried utilities, old septic systems and undocumented lines. Field verification, potholing and locating turn assumptions into facts before the design goes further.
• Access. Whether the trucks, rigs and pumps the design assumes can actually reach the site.
• Ground risk. Rock, caving soil and groundwater that change how caissons, shoring and excavation get built.
• Export and haul-off. How much soil leaves the site and how.
• Sequence. What has to happen first, and what can't happen until something else is done.

Budgets with written assumptions

A schematic-stage budget is only useful if you know what it assumed. We write down every assumption, flag the site risks, and price items like caisson depth in scenarios when the final answer depends on the ground. When the design changes, everyone can see which assumption moved.

Value engineering the right way

Good value engineering keeps what the design is meant to do and finds a simpler or less costly way to build it. Every alternate goes to the Engineer of Record for review, and if it isn't accepted, the project is built to the approved plans. The design always stays with the designers.

How we help

We do field verification, constructability reviews, schematic budgets and value-engineering alternates, and during construction we can act as the owner's representative or construction manager. Call (800) 606-3880 to talk through your project.