The Ontario General Contractors Association (OGCA) is working with sister organizations in the construction industry to develop a best practices guide on close-out procedures on projects.
Completion slated for Dec.
staff writer
HUNTSVILLE, Ont.
The Ontario General Contractors Association (OGCA) is working with sister organizations in the construction industry to develop a best practices guide on close-out procedures on projects.
Contractors attending the OGCA’s second annual construction symposium recently were told that the intent is to produce a manual that will provide the parties involved in the building process with the necessary procedures for a successful project turnover to the owner.
Subjects that currently are being reviewed include quality of work, completion of deficiencies, holdbacks, as-built drawings versus record drawings, warranties and quality assurance.
The initiative is being carried out in concert with the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA), Construction Specifications Canada, Mechanical Contractors Association of Ontario, Electrical Contractors Association of Ontario, Consulting Engineers of Ontario and owner representatives.
The guide will replace a 1997 OAA/OGCA document dealing with takeover procedures.
Task force member David Molyneux, a registered architect who is president of Integra Project Services Ltd., described closing out files on projects as “hard work”.
“It seemed to me that if there was anything I could spend my time on, this (task force) would be a good idea,” he said.
“We’re all stakeholders, whether an owner, a general contractor or a consultant, in this construction operation.”
While the task force is expected to produce “a really good document,” Molyneux said, “the most important thing we should be doing is trying to change our mindset about how we relate to each other” in the process of closing out projects.
“It comes down to the personal relationships we have with each other,” said Molyneux, who has more than 30 years of hands-on experience in building design and construction.
“Teamwork is the key. We’ve got to get ‘less I and more we’ into the process.”
Another task force member, Ross Carter-Wingrove, a project manager with the Region of Peel, said quality assurance and quality controls are key elements from an owner’s perspective.
“As an owner, we are always looking for value in the performance of the work,” said Carter-Wingrove, who is in the development and construction wing of the region’s housing and property division. “Value is often looked at in (terms of) the quality of the work.”
Carter-Wingrove told contractors attending the symposium session that the process of proper close-out should be a priority “from the very beginning of a project and not left to the end of the job” as is often the case.
In an interview, Stephen Thomson, the OGCA’s operations manager, said the task force hopes to have the guide completed for distribution at Construct Canada in December.
The task force has held four meetings to date.
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