Taking the stress out of your next building project

Taking on a house renovation or redesigning and extending your home can be one of life’s most stressful times. James Gavey, founder of JG Architecture, explains how appointing a contract administrator will ensure your dream home is realised with good time, cost and quality.

As a homeowner, you will at some stage, consider a home improvement project. You may have ideas to build a two-storey extension with a family room below and a master suite above; you might be looking to convert an existing outbuilding into accommodation; or you may have purchased a plot with an old house that needs completely rebuilding.

For clients without considerable experience this can be a daunting and confusing process – How will you know if you are being charged a fair price, if the work is being undertaken to the right standard or, most importantly, if the project is running to plan and budget?

A contract administrator is a competent professional within the construction industry who will apply the terms of a construction contract to a project in a fair, impartial and professional manner. He will provide you with an invaluable service at both the pre and post-contract stages of your project:

The pre-contract stage

  • Value management and engineering to gain a degree of cost certainty.
  • Preparation of the tender documents (including approved detailed design, specifications, tender and contract).
  • Selection and appointment of additional consultants and specialists.

The post-contract stage

  • Monitoring and quality control of the project.
  • Client reporting of site progress.
  • Monitoring defects and instructing variations and maintenance provisions.
  • Certification of interim claims from the contractor.
  • Dispute resolution.

JG Architecture Ltd’s recent growth, coupled with the 20+ years of industry experience within the office, has allowed us the opportunity to offer contract administration in addition to our current architectural design services.

Contract administrators add value for projects of all sizes and aren’t just for large, multi-million pound developments. The reality is, appointing a contract administrator can be hugely valuable for a number of reasons:

Saving you time

The contract administrator is appointed as your advisor, relieving you of the stresses associated with overseeing a construction project. Homeowners with full-time jobs and families will simply not have the time, knowledge and experience that a project requires.

Communication

The contract administrator will communicate directly with you and your builder providing you with a single point of contact.

Detail and peace of mind

The attention to detail used to produce your Building Control drawings will be applied to the construction process, ensuring the project is delivered in accordance with the specified design.

Observation

Throughout the construction stage, your contract administrator will attend site meetings and review construction progress to ensure that the project is being built to the required standards. As experienced and qualified architectural technologists, JG Architecture can identify unacceptable deviations from the specification before it is too late. The severity of these issues will vary and some could have lasting repercussions if not identified at the right time.

Technical knowledge

From experience, JG Architecture will ensure value for money is prioritised and that variations, as suggested by contractors, are agreed for value, rather than buildability.

Sustained relationship and familiarity of the design

Appointing your architectural technologist as contract administrator allows the trust and relationship you formed during the design stage to be continued. As your designer and contract administrator there is an inherent desire to ensure that the project is completed as it was intended.

Consistency through contract documents

Knowledge of the content within the contract documents are paramount. These documents would typically include the approved drawings and specifications that inform the agreed contract value and particulars.

So before you undertake a project, we ask you to consider whether you have the time and expertise to oversee it.

If you feel that the responsibility and understanding may be too much, then contact us today so that we can explain how our involvement will reduce the stresses typically associated with a building project.

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