Do I Need a Construction Consultant for my Project ?
In such a specialized project, such as construction, many elements are seamlessly fit together for successful completion. Projects become complex as you need to deal with multiple third parties, follow-ups, comply with regulations, etc. Because of this, hiring a construction consultant is essential to ensure that your project is managed well by a trained professional with the experience to oversee the successful execution.
A construction consultant is essentially a construction project management expert. By leveraging their experience, industry network, construction foresight, and insight, you can have a smooth construction project within your budget. While it can be tempting to opt for cheaper means to handle your project, in the long run, doing so can prove to be costly. Construction consultants bring a unique set of benefits that other alternatives cannot offer:
Five Reasons to Hire a Construction Consultant For Your Project.
1. Planning and Budgeting
A construction consultant will ease your project planning and project initiation stages. By using their experience, you will be helped in planning for your resources and workforce. Indeed, it can get frustrating when your project costs start to exceed the anticipated amounts.
Consultants also come in handy when choosing the right vendors and contractors, as well as keeping your plans within your budget. They also deal with the negotiation process with the contractors and vendors to get you the best value for your project, saving you negotiation and planning time, and money during the process.
Depending on the project size, a construction consultant will draw a realistic project plan with key milestones as the project progresses. They can also recommend the best course of action for any bottlenecks the project will encounter, based on their experience. Hiring a construction consultant keeps the stress of planning for such a complex project off your shoulders. In essence, they have your back.
2. Quality Control
Construction projects follow multiple quality control standards to ensure sites and buildings are safe for use. They range from material quality, human resources, environmental standards, etc. However, without construction knowledge, it can be hard to monitor your staff in this regard.
A construction consultant would usually be well versed in this area and is best positioned to ensure your project is safe. They have the knowledge to test and certify that all materials and processes meet required standards.
They ensure that you source genuine quality materials. Also, they can verify that the team working on the project has the right experience, qualifications, and skills needed for their various tasks and that they perform as expected.
That said, your construction consultant of choice must be highly qualified and experienced to handle all such aspects of the project.
Otherwise, you will more likely find yourself with collapsed or substandard buildings, enduring losses, or even government penalties.
3. Risk Assessment
Every construction project faces several obvious and hidden threats. Since some are not always obvious, you need an experienced professional. A construction consultant is often skilled in risk management and control and will be able to identify and mitigate any potential dangers before they even occur.
They will ensure compliance of the team working on your project and safety in the methods used during the construction. The consultant will enforce measures like wearing helmets, boots, and other safety gear.
In their safety task, consultants can save you from potential lawsuits resulting from accidents on your project site by assessing and resolving risk.
4. Project Site Control
All construction projects are mainly dependent on several contractors, subcontractors, vendors, and suppliers. Managing tasks with all these different actors concurrently can be tedious and complex. But a construction consultant can get these off your hands.
The consultant coordinates all the parties at the site. Their job is to ensure everyone plays their part and can collaborate on specific areas where need be. Poor contractor coordination can result in grave errors or even cause multiple delays.
The construction consultant will ensure order on-site and confirm that materials and workforce arrive on time. In case of any issues with the project, they are your first point of contact since they can analyze the situation and offer solutions based on their experience.
Additionally, such a professional can mediate between you and your clients, workers, and contractors. They can provide updated information and ensure that all parties fulfill their obligations to keep the project on track.
5. Time and money-saving
A construction project has many moving parts that require a skilled supervisor to stay on top of everything. Without that, you will need to invest a lot of time and extra resources. A construction consultant does just that.
A construction consultant frees up your time by taking on the daily management tasks, and their experience guarantees efficiency. They leave you with only the big decisions and overall supervision.
Supervision becomes more accessible and structured since they provide updated reports as part of their project management protocol. They are responsible for keeping track of the project expenses, phase completion sign-offs, and reporting to you to seek approvals for payments and where plans have to change.
They also ensure that tasks are always running on schedule. Without this function, your project may experience delays, which can prove costly. Furthermore, their oversight keeps you from losing money from stolen material, substandard equipment, etc.
In the long run, the cost of hiring a professional construction consultant becomes much lower than handling the project yourself. Through their expertise, they can derive efficient methods and mitigate unforeseen unnecessary expenses.
In Conclusion
It is not uncommon that many project owners would want to manage their construction projects on their own. However, their lack of expertise to face all the challenges that may arise from a construction project explains the lack of “Do it myself” approach towards construction project management.
Thus, managing a construction project requires an expert to oversee the activities no matter how much time you have. A construction consultant has the relevant hands-on skills and experience to manage your project efficiently and effectively.
They combine their on-job knowledge and experience with suppliers to get your project done the right way, with suitable materials, by the right people and all while staying within your budget and sometimes saving you money.
The key is to do your due diligence and find the right construction consultant that finds the right construction contractor for your unique project.