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SERVICES

Project Management Owner's Representative

 

  • Both private and public sector work.

  • Project planning and scheduling. 

  • Design team selection and managment.

  • Permitting assistance. 

  • Bid strategy and contractor selection.

  • Value engineering as required.

  • Schedule and attend pre-con meetings and site meetings as required.

  • Monitor contractor performance.

  • Monitor project costs and schedule.

  • Project reporting. (MIS)

  • Manage contractors punch work and commissioning.

  • Assist with certificate of occupancy.

 
 
PROJECT HISTORY
 

Construction Management:

 

A measure of a Construction Manager's effort is of course successful outcomes and client satisfaction.  Highland has managed both negotiated and hard bid projects over the past 15 years.  Please feel free to contact us about our references.   

 

Building Envelope:

 

None of our past or current clients has contacted us regarding building envelope failures or issues on any of our projects.

Not one of our clients has ever been litigated against due to building envelope failure. 

Building Envelope Consultant

 

  • Both private and public sector work.

  • Existing property assessment.  Destructive investigation if required.

  • Systems and materials selection.

  • Constructability review.

  • Detailing as required by RCW.

  • Schedule and chair pre-con meetings.

  • Schedule third party inspections as required by RCW.

  • Schedule manufacturers inspections and reporting.

  • Trades assessment. 

  • Verify installation standards are in compliance with detailing and manufacturer's specifications. 

  •  Inspection reporting. 

  • Close out letter as required by RCW.

  • RCW 64.55 Construction Defect Disputes. http://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=64.55&full=true

  • WSEC Publications. http://www.energy.wsu.edu/BuildingEfficiency/EnergyCode.aspx#PUBS

 
 
STRATEGIES
 

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.  Robert Burns (Poet / Pragmatist)

 

Construction Managment:

 

  1. Select the right team.

  2. Be realistic; acknowledge and plan for any and all challenges associated with each project. Having an experienced team is critical to identifying project specific issues as well as current construction trends that may impact a successfull outcome.

  3. Have a realistic project budget.  Unanticipated costs are often associated with jurisdictional issues, site issues as well as construction cost trends.   

  4. Outline your project strategy, develop a front end plan utilizing your project team and stick to it.  A project that starts out badly ends badly. (Always) 

  5. The project type, location and bid strategy will have an impact on the design and detailing.

  6. Build a realistic owners schedule.  The more detailed the better.  Do not accept a contractors schedule without spending time reviewing the logic and the means by which it meets the owner's goals.

  7. Contractor hype is great but check thier references, verify they have the right team in place to work on your project.  If the work is negotiated, have them work up a schematic budget, etc. 

 

Building Envelope:

 

  1. Select the right team.

  2. Select the right materials.  Let the other guys use the latest and greatest products.  Use products that have withstood the test of time. 

  3. Don't overthink details.  Many manufacturer's have very good details in CAD format.  The more complicated and time consuming the detail the more it will cost and less likely that it will be installed correctly.  Keep it simple. 

  4. Identify one of a kind detials that are critical to correct installation. 

  5. Understand the installation requirements for the chosen materials and make sure the crews understand the installation requirements.  Confirm materials are compatible.

  6. Sequencing of work is critical.  Your contractor has to have the project and schedule organized or crew moral will suffer, subsequntly the quality of the work will suffer. 

  7. Understand that bad things happen on site every day.  Production workers / piece workers often don't take the time to get it right and may skip critical details.  Not always but frequently. 

  8. Do your best to mitigate crew turnover.  Once you have a crew trained up to perform the work correctly, try not to lose them.

  9. Trade damage is a fact of life, re-inspection is critical to a successful project.

  10. Verify that all testing as required by the RCW is being performed.  Have the GC include the testing on thier project schedule. 

  11. Hugh's rule:  The last 2% of the project takes 10% of the time.  Plan the critical close out phase.     

 

​

"Hugh –

I’m continually impressed by your thorough reports and yet nauseated by the number of mistakes you catch on site.  Is this degree of  error/correction typical on your projects, or is the size and scope of this project leading to unusually large numbers of issues?  

Thanks -"

 

Comments from another consultant on one of my projects:

 

  • Yes it was a complicated project.

  • Yes we had the best local building envelope subs on our project.

  • Yes we lost 4-5 siding crews due to turnover.

  • And yes the error correction ratio is always the same on my sites.  I know the work and know the trades and have a great set of eyes that catch errors that others frequently miss. 

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