Rushed or poor planning at the start of a construction project often results in problems later in the construction project. Good planning helps reduce costs, avoid mistakes, and even reduces the construction time.

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This article is from information in the author's book: 'Successful Construction Project Management, The Practical guide'. Find out more about this book

​Paul Netscher has written several easy to read books for owners, contractors, construction managers, construction supervisors and foremen. They cover all aspects of construction management and are filled with tips and insights.
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The books are available in paper and ebook from most online stores including Amazon.

© 2020 This article is not to be reproduced for commercial purposes without written permission from the author.

​Every construction project generates huge amounts of construction rubbish. The cost of disposing of construction rubbish includes the cost of loading it, transport to the dump, as well as the tip fees. These costs can be huge on the average construction project.

In an effort to reduce these costs some contractors resort to dumping the rubbish illegally on vacant lots, which could result in monetary fines and bad publicity, as well as incurring the costs to clean up the mess when they’re reported to the authorities. This is environmentally insensitive – would you want some contractor dumping construction waste in your neighbourhood, would you want your rates and taxes used to clean up someone else’s rubbish? Anyway, some construction waste is dangerous. Asbestos could blow into neighbouring properties, kids could be cut on broken glass and ceramic tiles, and farm animals could choke and die from ingesting plastic, all of which could lead to legal action against the offending contractor.

Other contractors choose to bury construction rubbish on the project site. This is also illegal and will upset clients should they uncover the rubble while they’re landscaping their property or building other structures. Indeed they’re entitled to call the offending contractor back to clean up the mess, or they could deduct the clean-up costs from the contractor’s retainage money or their bonds.

Some rubbish, such as paints, oils, and asbestos, must be disposed of correctly in special locations. Mixing these materials with the general waste on the project will contaminate all the rubbish, requiring all the material that is now contaminated to be disposed in special locations at additional costs.

Construction waste could include packaging from construction materials (including cans, plastic, pallets, timber, strappings and polystyrene), damaged materials which can’t be used, defective work that had to be demolished, broken materials, offcuts, excess materials, materials which were mixed and went hard before they could be used, vegetation which was stripped from the project site, topsoil, unsuitable ground and rock, excess ground from excavations, rubble from existing structures which had to be demolished, as well as the usual trash from workers, such as food wrappers, cans and more.

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• Separating recyclable materials (sometimes scrap steel can even be sold to generate additional income).
• Shredding and chipping vegetation to use as mulch in the landscaping.
• Ensuring that the correct quantities of materials are ordered so there’s no waste.
• Reducing the breakages of materials during handling and installation.
• Ensuring that good quality is achieved and mistakes aren’t made so that work doesn’t have to be broken down and rebuilt.
• Ordering materials in the right sizes to limit wasted offcuts (or plan cutting to reduce offcuts which can’t be used).
• Ensuring that good materials don’t become contaminated with rubbish (every time a pile of rubbish is moved on projects invariably dirt becomes added to the mixture creating more rubbish to be gotten rid of).
• In some cases, where there are lots of demolitions it may be possible to crush the building rubble and use it as fill material behind walls, under floor slabs and in roads (with the design engineer’s permission).
• Stockpiling topsoil to be used for landscaping at the end of the project. Indeed topsoil is often a valuable commodity if it’s uncontaminated. If advertised it might even be sold, or at the least, it will be collected free of charge by someone needing topsoil.
• Seeing if there are other construction projects in the area that could use the excess ground generated from your excavations.
• Only mix a sufficient quantity of material which can be used in the time before the material becomes hard.
• Storing materials properly so they aren’t damaged by wind, rain, heat or construction equipment.
• Some suppliers may be willing to take back some of their packaging, especially reusable pallets.
• Some products like timber may be useful for charitable organisations. Even advertising leftover products for free may get the neighbours taking them off your hands. Of course, always ensure the products aren’t contaminated and don’t have nails or screws sticking out that could injure somebody.

Always designate specific areas for construction rubbish and ensure that papers don’t blow around the site or into neighbours’ properties or block drains. Check that subcontractor clear their construction rubbish. Get everyone on your project onboard to eliminate unnecessary waste.
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Have a look in your project’s skip waste bins and rubbish piles. You might be shocked at what you see. There could be several hundred dollars of good materials and equipment being thrown away. Consider how you could reduce the amount of waste. How can you save money on your project and improve the environment by managing the waste on your construction project better?

How much trash will your project send to the dump?

This article was first published on the ClockShark website. 

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​Paul Netscher has written several easy to read books for owners, contractors, construction managers, construction supervisors and foremen. They cover all aspects of construction management and are filled with tips and insights.
The books are available in paper and ebook from most online stores including Amazon.
​© 2019 This article is not to be reproduced for commercial purposes without written permission from the author.

​Building Information Modeling is the process by which the AEC industry is accommodating a digital revolution for its different stakeholders. Advancements of BIM services have brought about effective collaboration throughout the entire project lifecycle, leaving behind the traditional communication method for a more improvised and channelled communication online.
 
When we talk about effective project management while a construction project is undertaken, it is BIM technology in current times which is bringing about the effective changes. Some noteworthy aspects to be considered are:

1. Analysis and Decision making: BIM makes available different 3D visualization and analysis to designers and engineers, thereby empowering with better decision making abilities. BIM has created a way to bring about feasible yet beneficial solutions to any/every problem that arises like changing materials, orientation, energy consumption details etc. 
2. QTO: Different project teams and managers are assisted by the Quantity-Take-Off (QTO) made available through the BIM Model. Such data helps them to revise their decisions throughout the entire lifecycle of the project and submit an effective alternative at any time. This is achieved by the estimations which arise when different BIM models and databases are integrated.
3. Constructability: The BIM process used in the construction industry allows easy monitoring of construction projects and also facilitates quick reviewing of constructability of a property or project.
4. 4D BIM/Time: Having 4-dimensional BIM services for general contractors and engineers, they can evaluate and analyse the entire progress of the project and thereby gauge different phases a project might have and then appropriately forecast the results of their decision and bring about modifications.
5. 5D BIM/Cost: Under 5-dimensional the stakeholders bring about the pertinent cost evaluation of the entire project and then find the lowest possible cost solutions befitting every party involved.
6. Clash Detection: One of the major challenges that different disciplines face is the inconsistencies or clashes which crop up among different geometrical designs of these disciplines. Such a thing occurs due to overlap between varied design plans or their feasibility with the overall project; such discrepancies are resolved by involving BIM technology. With these different models/plans like Plumbing BIM, Electrical BIM etc. are bought at a shared space like cloud and resolved by modifying inferences as and when they arise. 

So with this, we can conclude that the BIM project management solution got every party like managers, designers, contractors etc. under one umbrella by integrating their functionalities bringing about a win-win situation for everyone. Having information sharing an integrated intelligent model arises which facilitates the entire project lifecycle, bringing about the success in the Project Delivery Plan too.
 
About the blog sponsor/Author:
ASC Technology Solutions ASC Technology Solutions is a leading BIM outsourcing company in India. They cater to the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Industry.
Website URL: www.asctechno.com 
Please like share or comment

​​Paul Netscher has written several easy to read books for owners, contractors, construction managers, construction supervisors and foremen. They cover all aspects of construction management and are filled with tips and insights.
The books are available in paper and ebook from most online stores including Amazon.

Submitting a variation claim is not a dispute. A dispute arises when the contractor and the client cannot agree that the variation claim is legitimate, or they cannot agree the quantum of the claim. 

Disputes also arises when one of the parties believes that the other party has acted unfairly or they have been prejudiced in some way. 

Disputes are bad because:

• They are time consuming
• They often involve lawyers so they are expensive. Read this case: $3.6M in attorney fees atop $600K suit. Here a subcontractor launched a claim for $3 million against the contractor. The subcontractor has so far paid lawyers $4 million to pursue the claim while the contractor has spent $5 million defending the claim over 13 years. With appeals still to come the fees on both sides are likely to escalate further.
• They can be lengthy to resolve – often months and even years and frequently resolution is after the project is complete. See this article where a claim for $37 million has dragged on since 2005 and in 2020 the courts made a determination which will probably still be appealed. The original contract was signed in 1999.
• They damage relationships between client and contractor.
• As long as a variation is in dispute the contractor isn’t paid and the client could even impose penalties on the contractor for late completion.
• They often disrupt the project.
• They may end badly for the contractor.

To avoid disputes:

• Seek expert advice when necessary.
• Understand if what you are fighting for is worth the risk, effort and cost.
• Keep emotions out of your decisions.
• Keep your management informed.
• Do not fight the unwinnable.

Sometimes declaring a dispute is unavoidable. The client is plain dishonest or thinks that you will give in.

But disputes can be avoided if:

• Your variation claims are clear, fair and right.
• You have kept accurate project documentation.
• You are willing to engage and negotiate with the client.
• You try the cup of coffee approach.
• You ask for expert help when necessary.
• If the client’s responsible person is unprepared to budge you may be able to meet with their manager or even talk to the client directly.
• It may be possible to come up with other solutions to help the client.

When disputes are unavoidable the contract document could dictate the procedure to follow. The document will normally also stipulate the country where disputes should be resolved and the law to be followed.

Make sure you understand these procedures before declaring a dispute.
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Litigation under foreign law and in another country can be vary complicated and costly.

​"All 120 projects I’ve been involved with included Variation Claims – some for millions of dollars. Some projects doubled in value! Yet, 99% of claims were settled amicably and most of what we claimed was approved. More importantly we completed further projects with these clients.” Paul Netscher.

Construction Claims: A Short Guide for Contractors, written by Paul Netscher is an easy to read simplified guide that gives an overview to construction claims.
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"An excellent, concise and very practical guide to successful claims process. This is a no nonsense approach that gets on with it. Packed full of valuable advice for both sides - contractor and employer. 'Short' in the title should not be mistaken for lack of valuable content - this is a cracking book. I also have the authors other books which are equally good. Highly recommended." (Reader Amazon UK) *****
"Objective with very clear text, demonstrating full knowledge of the reality during construction's works." (Reader Amazon.com) *****