Construction Setups

I've already discussed in advance the 2 most popular informal type of setup in construction ("Pakyawan" or "Arawan"), As I've said, as a professional, I wouldn't recommend any of the 2 setup.

Here are my reasons;

1. You need to be more hands-on. You are the one taking care of everything your workers need. It consumes most of your time. And if you don't have any experience in job site construction, you may be abused by your workers. You will be also handling all the paper works, leg works, permits and other documents pertaining to the project.

2. You cannot guarantee that the foreman or lead man can fully read and understand the plans, specifications and other documents. Some skilled workers are able to read the plans through experience, but would not probably understand everything in it specially technical engineering annotations. This might then pose a big risk on the structural safety of the building. But just to be fair, I've met some foreman that can read plans very well. Lucky for you if you found one like him.

3. Usually, there is no scientific justification in quantifying materials for ordering. When you ask your foreman about the materials they need, he will most likely just make a wild guess of how many of these... and how many of that...etc. which may end up either too much ordered materials which leads to possible wastage, or short in quantity making you pay more on delivery charges for ordering again.

4. The workers probably has no equipment, power tools and warehousing schemes. Your best option for the equipment is to rent and you might also need to buy some power tools. Some important equipment you might need are: 1-bagger mixer, Jackhammer, Concrete Vibrator, Water Pump, Welding Machine, Formworks and Scaffoldings, etc. Some of the power tools you will need are: Drills and Grinder/Edger, etc. Contractor's normally have all of these so you wouldn't need to worry about these including safekeeping and maintenance of these tools and equipment. You might also have material pilferage problems if you don't have proper warehousing. This is the most common problem with the 2 setup.

5. Legal issues. After your project is completed, you will now need to process your occupancy permit. This permit is also needed when you are applying for Power and Water connections. And because there are no construction professional that supervised the project, you might find it hard looking for an engineer to sign and seal the documents risking his license for a project that he doesn't know if built correctly as per design. You might again end up paying more than you should at this point.

6. No one is to be blamed or be held responsible if something terribly wrong happened in anytime during the construction period. Sure you can blame the foreman or the workers. But how can you hold them responsible? Jailing them will still leave you with the problems they've caused.

7. You will not have warranties and construction documentations after the project is completed. So if something wrong happened months after the construction is finished, there is no assurance that you can still find the foreman or the workers. You will again be paying them for the repair works that they will be doing. Also, troubleshooting(commonly on electrical failure) will be difficult since you don't have any reference documents or as-built plans.


CONSTRUCTION SETUPS INVOLVING PROFESSIONALS:

1. Direct Supervision - You hire a pro who directly supervises the workers, interpret the plans and make the estimates and ordering of materials. You pay either fixed monthly supervision fee or Cost-plus (monthly fee plus certain percent on the total actual expenses)

2. Direct to Contractor - You engage into a contract with a licensed contractor or construction firm. Some contractors with in-house designer/architect even offer free design and preparation of all needed plans and other contract documents.

3. Contractor through the Architect - You probably hired an Architect to prepare the plans. The architect, then invited contractors to bid for the project. And after bid evaluation, awarded the contract to the best bidder. (note: lowest bid is not always the best bid)

4. Managed Construction - You hire a Construction Manager. The CM then, hires a Contractor or several sub-contractors. CM manages the project and deals with the contractors on your behalf.

5. Contractor with Construction Manager - Same as no. 3 but with the addition of the Construction Manager directly hired by you.

For the next articles, I will be discussing each setup in details. I will point out advantages and disadvantages so you can have better idea on which setup will suit your requirements.