Have you ever been cooking something in a recipe only to realize that you don’t have a key ingredient, like eggs, for example? You can either drive to the grocery, ask a neighbor, or give up (or cook a really yucky meal). In any case, you need to “demobilize” the kitchen by turning off the stove, maybe refrigerating some ingredients, and maybe washing out some of the pans and utensils, so you can modify your game plan. This takes extra time, of course.
Construction projects are much the same, but instead of a 20 minute activity like a recipe, they are often a much more robust, choreographed “recipe” illustrated in complicated construction drawings and specifications that often take a year or more to complete. Think about how many times you might “forget the eggs” in the course of a yearlong recipe.
In a construction project, “forgetting the eggs” is synonymous to a client changing their mind on a design feature, a material no longer available for delivery, a subcontractor that shifted the schedule which affects other steps in the process, an unforeseen rodent issue, mold, or rotten structural problem, or simply forgetting to order the specialty nuts and bolts needed. There’s so many integrated parts and pieces that must be coordinated at precise times, that there will be changes in the construction “recipe.” It is inevitable.
When this happens, the project scope is adjusted in the schedule, budget, and/or desired outcome. There are 3 common ways this is formally done in the construction industry: change orders (CO), construction change directives (CCD), and claims. Let’s discuss the differences.
Change Orders:
When additional scope is requested to be added to the original scope of work (usually by the client), the general contractor will create a change order request (COR) that estimates the labor and materials needed to complete the additional work. This can only be done when there is sufficient time to communicate the change, coordinate a detailed design solution with the architect/engineer (and maybe the building department), and to come to an agreement between the client and contractor on the affect it will have on the schedule and budget. The client may approve this change order, and the general contractor will work with the client to add it to the schedule for a pre-agreed price. The general contractor is not required to accept scope changes, so it is best to avoid it whenever possible. A seemingly simple change could have major impacts. For example, if you decide you want to put tile on THIS wall instead of THAT wall before the tile is scheduled to be installed, the builder may need to undo some of the prep work that may be a substrate for the tile that was already done to THIS wall to redo the prep work on THAT wall. That may involve ordering more tile backer board, calling out a drywall crew again, doing some demo, potentially moving electrical or plumbing around, etc. This causes an impact to the schedule and budget even though it may appear you’re just putting the same tile on a different wall.
Construction Change Directive:
From time-to-time, the general contractor may need to complete work beyond the original scope of work that is small in nature and is a necessity for the scope of work to continue in any capacity without a significant delay. This could be due to a material not being available, vandalism on the job site, an inspector’s demand, or a leak encountered inside a wall. This could also be a result of a client requesting a general contractor to make a minor change to the project that generally fits within the current sequence of construction events. With a CCD, the design change is usually minor enough that it does not typically need to be vetted by the architect/engineer - or maybe a quick 2 minute phone call can address any answers needed. Also, the impacts to cost and schedule are generally minor, so the builder can generally proceed with the additional necessary work at the pre-determined labor rates without delaying the project by spending more time bidding this additional work. With a CCD, the builder can promptly communicate the impact of the change to the client without experiencing a delay. In other words, the project can more or less continue as originally planned - but with a slight modification. Due to the nature of the change, the work is required to be done anyway, so any impact to the schedule and budget is really out of everyone’s control. The builder should endeavor to notify the client of any small changes for advance approval wherever possible, but the builder should have the right to make small changes to the scope of work without advance client approval where the design intent will be met, the result will be code compliant, and the work is necessary to be completed to prevent a delay in the scope of work. The builder should document the work related to the CCD for the client’s reference, so it can be totaled outside of the original budget.
Claims:
Similar to a CCD, a claim is a minor change to the agreed scope of work, but due to the nature of the work needing to be done, it is not practical to get the client’s prior approval to proceed. For example, if a pipe connection outside the scope of work is discovered to be the cause of a leak, the builder should proceed with this repair because it must be done. There is no other choice. There’s no option for how it can be done, and there’s no option for what materials can be used. In this case, the builder should just do the minor work and invoice the client separately from the intended work. If the builder did not do this work, the pipe would end up getting buried in the wall, the problem would grow, and it would be much more costly to fix the problem in the future.
In summary, a change order is a planned change with adequate time for consideration of all parties, while a construction change directive and a claim are unplanned changes that must be completed at the time of discovery. A claim is a minor version of a CCD. A CCD involves a minimal level of advanced communication to allow some level of understanding between parties, but a claim is more of an emergency type of work.
A good architect can help to mitigate changes, and more importantly, even prevent changes from occurring in the first place. Architects experienced in construction can foresee problems before they happen, so including the architect during the construction process will commonly save a client more money than they pay them. It is not uncommon to have a meeting where we save our clients $50,000 here and there. That might seem crazy, but we do it all the time.
If you’d like to learn more about our design process, visit www.josharch.com/process, and if you’d like to get us started on your project with a feasibility report, please visit www.josharch.com/help