Project management

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mstrlucky74

Senior Member
Location
NJ
For those who have ever been a PM on a larger job..
What are the first few things/steps when you have been awarded a job?
 

dduffee260

Senior Member
Location
Texas
Get a schedule and work up project budgets. Have an under slab budget, rough-in budget and trim out budget. Hit these numbers !!..do not wait until the end of the project to find out that your out of money or behind.

Submittals and pay applications are a PM's responsibility also. Pretty much everything that concerns the money end of the project is the PM side of the project. Change orders, materials ordering and deliveries.

Good luck with your project. Stay focused and on top of things and you will be fine.
 

mstrlucky74

Senior Member
Location
NJ
Get a schedule and work up project budgets. Have an under slab budget, rough-in budget and trim out budget. Hit these numbers !!..do not wait until the end of the project to find out that your out of money or behind.

Submittals and pay applications are a PM's responsibility also. Pretty much everything that concerns the money end of the project is the PM side of the project. Change orders, materials ordering and deliveries.

Good luck with your project. Stay focused and on top of things and you will be fine.


Thanks.
 

Strathead

Senior Member
Location
Ocala, Florida, USA
Occupation
Electrician/Estimator/Project Manager/Superintendent
What I would do, especially my first one:
  • Review the Contract (in your case you should be reviewing, but the original estimator should be the one who looks at every little piece)
    1. Don't do anything else that costs the Company resources until the Contract is signed unless you have a long standing working relationship AND your Company allows.
    2. look for double speak language
    3. Make sure that only what was committed to in the estimate is committed to in the written contract.
    4. I insist on either inclusion of my bid clarifications, or a cut and paste of them. If the scope or wording must be changed according to the Contractor then add or subtract value BEFORE signing.
    5. Pay close attention to things like, "Subcontractor agrees to perform work in accordance with the provided schedule." When you haven't been given a schedule, or they throw a schedule in to the Contract that wasn't part of the bid.
  • Do job starts
    1. Review all material quotes, and determine where you are going to purchase quoted items. Notify them to start their legal process to lien the job, not your Company.
    2. Often Supply Houses require a dollar value for the above. Then you need to have "job starts" done for the location or locations that you purchase most of your "over the counter stuff" too.
    3. Anything you buy that is not on a job account must generally be backed by Assets of your Company or the owner of your Company.
    4. Often done by front office staff, but still PM should ensure compliance
      1. Get Certificates of Insurance, Disability, Liability, bonds etc. that are specific to the completed.
    5. Do the same as above for Subcontractors and make sure they have sent you their Certificates etc.
  • Prepare a Schedule of values. Take this very seriously. It is a list of job tasks and the associated value of material and labor for each. Once this is submitted and approved, the entire job will be billed in accordance with it. Basic tasks I use are:
    1. Mobilization temporary and demolition
    2. Underground
    3. Raceways, fittings and boxes
    4. Wire, cable and conductors
    5. Lighting Fixtures
    6. Distribution Equipment
    7. Wiring Devices and Trim
    8. Fire Alarm
    9. Lightning Protection
    10. Other Unique and/or special systems.
  • Here is how. Use the estimate. work on cost not on final numbers including profit and overhead. If you notice, most of my above is in order of construction so, never assign a value lower than cost (or at least what you had in the estimate) to any one category. Otherwise, try to assign your profit and overhead to the top Categories. Much of overhead is realized at job start. Underestimating cost is illegal, shifting profit and overhead to early billing is good business! This is REALLY important because States have strict laws about this stuff.
  • Lastly, if I didn't do the estimate, I would want to do my own take off. On my first PM job I would want to know the job as well or better than the Foreman. Regretfully you can't do this for every job forever, but you can learn where to take short cuts later.
Good luck.
 

cdslotz

Senior Member
Everything Strathead said......




Another estimator? Do you think a PM should review the estimate and if so why? I heard that some shops wont give the PM the estimate.

That's nuts if true.
Not only should you get the estimate from him, you should have at least one pre-construction meeting with the estimator after YOU review all contracts, specs, plans, addendums, value engineering items accepted, etc.
THE ESTIMATOR should provide you a breakdown of materials and labor hours in each cost category like Strathead outlined...

Mobilization temporary and demolition
Underground
Raceways, fittings and boxes
Wire, cable and conductors
Lighting Fixtures
Distribution Equipment
Wiring Devices and Trim
Fire Alarm
Lightning Protection
Other Unique and/or special systems.

In any company I have ever worked for, these breakdowns are entered into their system for job tracking.
Does your company not do this????
 

mstrlucky74

Senior Member
Location
NJ
What I would do, especially my first one:
  • Review the Contract (in your case you should be reviewing, but the original estimator should be the one who looks at every little piece)
    1. Don't do anything else that costs the Company resources until the Contract is signed unless you have a long standing working relationship AND your Company allows.
    2. look for double speak language
    3. Make sure that only what was committed to in the estimate is committed to in the written contract.
    4. I insist on either inclusion of my bid clarifications, or a cut and paste of them. If the scope or wording must be changed according to the Contractor then add or subtract value BEFORE signing.
    5. Pay close attention to things like, "Subcontractor agrees to perform work in accordance with the provided schedule." When you haven't been given a schedule, or they throw a schedule in to the Contract that wasn't part of the bid.
  • Do job starts
    1. Review all material quotes, and determine where you are going to purchase quoted items. Notify them to start their legal process to lien the job, not your Company.
    2. Often Supply Houses require a dollar value for the above. Then you need to have "job starts" done for the location or locations that you purchase most of your "over the counter stuff" too.
    3. Anything you buy that is not on a job account must generally be backed by Assets of your Company or the owner of your Company.
    4. Often done by front office staff, but still PM should ensure compliance
      1. Get Certificates of Insurance, Disability, Liability, bonds etc. that are specific to the completed.
    5. Do the same as above for Subcontractors and make sure they have sent you their Certificates etc.
  • Prepare a Schedule of values. Take this very seriously. It is a list of job tasks and the associated value of material and labor for each. Once this is submitted and approved, the entire job will be billed in accordance with it. Basic tasks I use are:
    1. Mobilization temporary and demolition
    2. Underground
    3. Raceways, fittings and boxes
    4. Wire, cable and conductors
    5. Lighting Fixtures
    6. Distribution Equipment
    7. Wiring Devices and Trim
    8. Fire Alarm
    9. Lightning Protection
    10. Other Unique and/or special systems.
  • Here is how. Use the estimate. work on cost not on final numbers including profit and overhead. If you notice, most of my above is in order of construction so, never assign a value lower than cost (or at least what you had in the estimate) to any one category. Otherwise, try to assign your profit and overhead to the top Categories. Much of overhead is realized at job start. Underestimating cost is illegal, shifting profit and overhead to early billing is good business! This is REALLY important because States have strict laws about this stuff.
  • Lastly, if I didn't do the estimate, I would want to do my own take off. On my first PM job I would want to know the job as well or better than the Foreman. Regretfully you can't do this for every job forever, but you can learn where to take short cuts later.
Good luck.


Thanks a lot Strat. That was some really good info. Let me ask you. ...how do you approach analyzing the job schedule versus the estimate to see if there are potential problems. It would be a great help if i understood how to look at this. Thanks
 
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