Construction Phase - 2

As your construction project is nearing its completion, there are a myriad of items to follow up on in order to be able to move into the building. Within 60 days of the anticipated completion you should be in communication with the contractor about the suitability of the Work in place, note any defects that need correcting and reviewing the quality control reports. Communicate any unsettled claims with a recommendation for closing those issues. All of these items can be relayed through your design professional. The contractor should be checking the status of the various State and Local Agency's and jurisdictions for any outstanding items. The most important is to secure the Certificate of Occupancy from the city. With out this document completed, you will not be moving into your building! Within 30 days of completion you should be able to establish the date of 'Substantial Completion'. This is the date that you as the owner take over the building. All parties will sign the Substantial Completion form, owner, contractor and architect. This is the contractual end of the project in regards to the time frame, so this document is very important. It also establishes the day and time that the owner's building insurance takes over. Contractually, substantial completion is the day that the owner can 'use the building for it's intended use'. Attached to the substantial completion form is the punch list. The punch list is a list of all of the uncompleted items or items that need to be repaired, replaced etc. For example, the contractor needs to touch up the paint in room #1, or the base board in room #2 is defective and needs to be replaced. These are usually minor items that do not affect the moving in of the owner. Once all of the items on the punch list have been completed, and the architect receives all of the close out documents from the contractor, then the contractor can be paid the final payment. The close out documents include all of the warranties and guaranties of all of the equipment and products in the bldg, air conditioning equipment, roofing, carpet, doors, security systems, data systems etc. Also it includes affidavits that all the contractor's bills have been paid and that there are no outstanding liens on the project. One final item that we always specify is that the air quality of the building be tested prior to occupying the building. You must leave time for the building to breathe. By this I mean allowing the glues and paints to dissipate so that the building is safe to occupy. Contractors are required to use products that have low volatile organic compounds (VOC's). There will be however, a time period when even these products will smell bad. The worst offenders seem to be furniture manufacturers and the glues that they use to build with. Some of the glues off gas formaldehyde which takes approx 2 weeks to dissipate. You need to plan accordingly and leave enough time between moving in the furniture to your new school and then occupying it. Test the air quality of the building after 6 months of occupancy and again at 11 months to establish a base line. This way there can be no disputing that the air quality is safe and no damage has been done to students and staff that are using the building. With all that, now that you are finished with this project, let's get started on the next one! Michael D. King AIA