Sweating the Small Stuff: Controlling CA Costs

PSMJ Resources recommends the following techniques for controlling construction administration costs resulting from contractor requests.

•  Charge the contractor for copies of electronic drawing files. One of the problems PMs often encounter is when construction contractors request digital (CADD) files to make it easier for them to prepare shop drawings. In most cases, design firms simply provide these files at no cost. However, many firms have been successful in charging contractors for this information, and the success has been with both public and private sector clients.

•  Include a clause in the specifications that you will charge the contractor, at normal billing rates, for time spent evaluating requests for substitutions. These charges will be deducted by the owner from the contractor’s progress payments and paid from those funds to the A/E firm. 

•  Add a clause to the specifications limiting the number of shop drawing reviews to one resubmittal per shop drawing package. Time spent by the A/E team on additional resubmittals will also be deducted by the owner from the contractor’s progress payments and paid from those funds to the A/E firm.

•  Build in restrictions on how often you will inspect punchlist items. If team members need to travel numerous times to look at an item, there is a serious problem.