Why Preconstruction Meetings Are Obligatory For Quality Construction?
Preconstruction meetings are a critical part of the construction project lifecycle and therefore are done at most construction sites. Designed to be done in individual and collective formats, preconstruction meetings are meant to overcome any difficulties related to execution.
In case, you are wondering why we have mentioned pre-construction meetings as an obligatory process, it is because planning these meetings gives you the chance to identify any project failures and challenges, even before they actually occur. Moreover, these meetings help to avoid any poorly scoped projects that have any complicated specifications or unclear quality requirements.
Apart from this, the preconstruction meetings could help contractors to identify any missing information that can lead to rework within the defined schedule. Also, these meetings can help discover any site conditions that could cause unwanted delays or may consume finances to make circumstances favorable for construction.
In short, contractors who need to avoid cost overruns must aim to conduct preconstruction meetings before any activity is started. Also, at least one meeting should be done dedicatedly with all the stakeholders to ensure the project requirements run the same for all.
Defining The Agenda Of The Meetings
When it comes to preconstruction meetings, it needs you to have the right agenda and purpose. Moreover, having a predefined agenda for meetings allows all the field teams, office staff, and stakeholders to understand what they should expect during the meeting.
Some of the common forms of preconstruction meeting agendas that contractors and project managers should follow include, review of plans, measuring site conditions, review of contracts, quality control, safety, and risk planning, scheduling progress review, document handling, and establishing consistency in communication.
The Essentials Checklist
The primary thing that should be worked on while making a preconstruction meeting checklist is defining the meeting schedule. The clear information given on time, date, and duration allows all the subs and other executives to plan things accordingly.
Also, once you get the sign-off for the meeting and have the total number of attendees on your list, you can plan for the location that suits all. Besides this, you should share all the important project data like drawings and other information with the teams so that any error areas or points could be raised that can help elevate the quality of the project.
Define Preconstruction Meeting Questions
The next thing that you should do when working on preconstruction meetings is defining the questions. These questions can help contractors to learn if the stakeholders are informed of the project requirements. Moreover, any answers, advice, and suggestions that come through the stakeholders can help contractors to plan necessary and confirmed actions.
Also, the queries that are raised during preconstruction meetings can help learn a lot more about the project’s scope by counting on aspects like safety, workflow, job specifications, etc.
Important Documents To Review During Preconstruction Meetings
Preconstruction meetings are vital for making the construction team informed of their roles. These meetings help people to understand important processes like RFI approvals or working on AIA billings, invoices, and other submittals.
Moreover, a detailed conversation on all the project data can help the subcontractors to understand the terms of the contract and their responsibilities that are essential for the smooth growth of the project.
Besides this, teams can connect during preconstruction meetings to render on past projects with similar requirements to understand what they need to build. Also, the data from the past project could be compared with the existing blueprint to work on important processes like BIM. Furthermore, this information can be used to create the critical path of the project while spotting any trouble areas that can hinder the workflow and project objectives.
What Do You need To Aim With Preconstruction Meetings?
Though every subcontractor associated with the project understands their role in the project as they bid, preconstruction meetings allow them to align with each other. Either it is a plumbing contractor or an HVAC contractor or mechanical contractor, since all these subcontractor agencies need to work on the construction process simultaneously, preconstruction meetings can help them to work a schedule that best fits their working needs.
However, it is extremely important that your preconstruction meetings should involve quality discussions that can help plan the project’s trajectory. These discussions should aim to mark the subcontractors on information with whom they need to align for the follow-ups. Such actions can help people to look at the project understanding each other’s perspective while making them fit into the designed framework of the project.
The Crux
All in all, preconstruction meetings are meant to ensure that the construction phase takes off in the right direction. A great way to keep your teams in sync with the preconstruction process is having access to construction management software that can be used to reflect on previous project data with similar requirements and defining the path to success for all.
Working on a private construction project or need to bid on any government-funded opportunity, ProjectPro can be the ultimate construction software solution you need to meet your goals. From accurate bids to the right implementation, learn how we can help you empower your construction business.
