Construction Management & Administration

No. The general contractor is responsible for means, methods, scheduling, site safety and the work itself. Construction administration is a design-side service: observing the work, interpreting the documents, reviewing submittals and changes, and advising you. The two roles are complementary, and keeping them separate is what makes the second one useful.

Frequency is set to the project rather than to a calendar, and concentrates on the milestones where errors are most consequential and most correctable — foundation, framing, rough-in, envelope and finishes. The visit schedule is agreed before construction so expectations are explicit on all sides.

Many builders are excellent, and this service is not a judgement on yours. The distinction is whose interest each party represents. Your builder is responsible for delivering the work under their contract; construction administration gives you someone whose obligation is to the design and to you. On a straightforward remodel that may be unnecessary. On a custom home it is usually worth it.

The builder sends it to us in writing and we answer quickly. A question left hanging either stops the work or gets settled by a guess on site. Putting the answer in writing also keeps it on the record, instead of in someone’s memory of a phone call.

Yes, and both are included. Change orders are assessed for scope, necessity and consistency with the design. Pay applications are checked against the work actually complete on site, so payments follow progress rather than the schedule someone hoped to be on.

A documented list, produced near completion, of everything incomplete, incorrect or damaged. The value is not in producing it but in verifying it — walking the house again to confirm items were genuinely resolved rather than marked done.

Sometimes. It depends on the quality of the existing documents and how far construction has progressed. Reviewing the drawing set first tells us whether the service can be delivered meaningfully, and we would rather say so honestly than take on a role we cannot perform well.

Before construction starts, ideally while the contract with your builder is still being negotiated. Roles, response times and review procedures are far easier to agree in advance than to introduce halfway through a project.

No. Municipal and county inspections verify compliance with code at specific milestones, and they remain the authority for that. Construction administration is a separate, design-side review concerned with whether the house is being built as designed and specified — a scope an inspector is neither engaged nor obligated to consider.

The contractor is responsible for the work under their contract. What construction administration changes is how quickly a deviation is noticed and how clearly it is documented, which is usually what determines whether it gets corrected as a matter of course or becomes a dispute after the fact.

By returning to the documents. Most disagreements are genuine differences of interpretation rather than bad faith, and a written answer referencing the drawings and specifications resolves the majority of them. Where a real conflict exists, having the observation reports, submittals and written responses on record means the discussion starts from evidence.

For the duration of construction, from the preconstruction handoff through punch list and closeout. On a custom home that is commonly the better part of a year, though it varies with size, complexity, weather and how smoothly the build proceeds.

Yes. The visit schedule is set to the project and to your budget, and some owners choose to concentrate involvement at the stages where mistakes are hardest to reverse — foundation, framing and envelope — rather than carrying observation evenly across the whole build. We would rather agree a reduced scope openly than stretch a full one thin enough that it stops being useful.