Services Nationwide

1) INITIAL TEAM MEETING(S)
At the earliest possible opportunity, GC Builders (GCB) can meet with our client and the design consultants to establish a team atmosphere and to ascertain the exact nature, scope and design intent of the project. From this meeting, the project evaluation can begin.

2) DRAWING REVIEW
Depending on the stage of our involvement with the project, we can act as another pair of eyes to review the drawings at the conceptual, schematic, early working drawing or at the permit stage. At this session, we evaluate scheduling factors, costing issues and the quality of specified products. This review will also concentrate on landlord requirements as well as identifying code and permit issues.

3) SITE EXAMINATION & EVALUATION
Prior to completing the conceptual estimate and formulating the preliminary budget, GCB visits each site to evaluate existing conditions that might impact the cost or schedule. The goal is to eliminate surprises and to identify conflicts that may not have been incorporated into the drawings at this early stage.

4) CONCEPTUAL ESTIMATING & PRELIMINARY BUDGET FORMULATION
After the schematic drawing phase, GCB can use our extensive database of reliable, historical construction cost information to assist our clients with evolving their budgets. With a significant variance from state to state, our cost data has served our clients well by clarifying the feasibility of their project roll-outs.

5) PERMIT & ENTITLEMENT AGENCY EXPEDITING
In an effort to be our clients’ contact at the local level, GCB can assist the design team with expediting and processing permits along with other entitlement agency requirements. The goal is to establish a team effort early on and to stay on top of the permitting process so pre-construction delays can be avoided, or at least, minimized.

6) VALUE ENGINEERING
Of course, all of our clients expect the best value for their investment with the highest quality, affordable products. Consequently, identifying cost savings alternatives for our clients, whenever possible, is standard procedure. From concept through completion of the project, GCB can rely on the many years experience of our project team along with the expertise of our subcontractors to identify every possible cost saving alternative without sacrificing structural or aesthetic integrity, the quality of construction or the design intent. This is just one example of GCB developing “added value” for our clients.

7) CONSTRUCTABILITY REVIEW
In addition to value engineering, GCB can review the design details to ensure they are constructible. This process typically involves the GCB team: the Project Manager, the Superintendent, and the project’s Senior Manager, putting their heads together and working through the details as they relate to practical and cost effective field assembly. This process offers an opportunity for our many staff members who have “come up through the construction industry ranks” to exercise their skills. We know how to construct a building.

8) SCHEDULING & PHASING PLANS
Controlling the schedule to ensure our client’s delivery/move-in date is top priority. The GCB team works closely together to coordinate scheduling and phasing for each project. We can provide our clients with an overall schedule and/or a milestone schedule, as necessary. Depending on the stage when our firm becomes involved, our comprehensive construction schedules and phasing plans can also include planning and entitlement processing along with construction mobilization, subcontractors, suppliers, owner furnished material(s) and FF&E delivery, pre-inspections, building department inspections, fire department inspections, punch-list, close-out and technical systems training programs.

To keep our subcontractors and suppliers on track, GCB issues phasing plans and weekly schedule updates. When necessary, the GCB proprietary schedule compression techniques and delay avoidance procedures are used to keep our clients’ jobs moving so the move-in date is GUARANTEED.

9) SUBCONTRACTING
Subcontracting is a primary function for every General Contractor and GCB can:
a) Employ our database of thousands of pre-qualified competitive subcontractors over the entire country
b) Initiate various procedures to identify additional qualified subcontractors outside our database
c) Tap into our national supplier resources for deep discounts in specified trades and services
d) Organize and conduct pre-bid job walks to familiarize bidders with existing conditions
e) Depending on the nature of our agreement, provide subcontractor bid results to our clients
f) Develop detailed scopes of work for each trade to minimize change orders
g) Award subcontracts to the most qualified, low cost quality producing subcontractors
h) Validate subcontractor change requests and negotiate to ensure minimal impact to the job and our client

10) QUALITY CONTROL ENFORCEMENT
Along with our continuous focus on meeting firm deadlines to ensure on-time delivery, quality control is also a top priority. Our goal for quality is to meet or exceed our client’s expectations. Monitoring and controlling quality requires a continuous effort. Our superintendents inspect every material delivery, upon receipt, for both specification compliance and material quality. In addition, the GCB superintendents continuously monitor the quality of in-place construction. Our close attention to detail includes double-checking quality at each phase of every project.

11) SAFETY PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION
In order to protect our client’s best interests, GCB has developed a comprehensive safety program which is practical and effective. This program serves to identify and remedy potential construction hazards and includes 1) detailed, project specific safety plans, 2) active participation by the subcontractors, 3) weekly foreman’s meetings as well as 4) on-site safety enforcement by the GCB site superintendent. In addition, our safety manager schedules periodic, unannounced site visits to each project to ensure safe conditions and safe construction practices are in effect.
Safe construction projects represent hidden value for our clients and also demonstrate GCB’s responsibility to our subcontractors and the families of their craftsmen.

12) MEETING MANAGEMENT
An essential element for the success of every project is communication with our clients, the design team, our subcontractors and our staff. During pre-construction & design development meetings, GCB can contribute valuable input as to the overall design direction, as well as, to the selection of amenities as they relate to the budget, scheduling and the comparable quality of various design elements. In addition, GCB conducts weekly safety and scheduling meetings with the respective Subcontractors’ Foreman and their Project Managers. Client meetings are held as often as necessary to keep our clients informed of new and/or outstanding issues throughout the project.

13) REPORTING
On a regular basis throughout the project, depending on our client’s needs and the duration of the job, status/progress reports can be developed. These reports identify outstanding issues as well as situations that might impact the schedule, quality or the budget. Upon completing these reports, they can be submitted to the client as well as to each member of the design team for review and comment.

14) DOCUMENT CONTROL
GCB implements several proprietary systems for document tracking as well as for producing complete and accurate documents. These documents include Requests for Proposal, Requests for Information, Requests for Substitution, Extra Work Authorizations, Change Orders, Product Data submittals, Shop Drawing submittals and other essential information. GCB can also provide a series of progressive photographs throughout the course of construction that can be used to communicate progress as well as unforeseen conditions to the design team for prompt resolution.

15) CONTINUOUS EXPEDITING
Expediting every aspect of the construction process for each project requires a continuous team effort, from job start to close-out. We consider every project as “fast track”, consequently, GCB staff members work tirelessly to keep projects moving at a maximum pace. In the field, we implement our schedule compression remedies to push our subcontractors. Administratively, we implement our document follow-up procedures combined with our staff members' individual drive & persistence to keep the paperwork flowing. To accomplish this combined field and administrative effort, we use encouragement and persuasion to motivate our subcontractors and the responsible members of the design team.

16) CLOSE-OUT & HAND-OFF
Project close-out is a very important function and if not properly managed, the close-out process can drag on. To avoid this dilemma, and to achieve a clean hand-off to our client’s operation staff at project completion, GCB follows strict procedures. Our proprietary Job Close-Out Checklist includes all of the necessary elements for successful completion. At the end of each project, we review every aspect of each trade’s work, tie up loose ends, comply with inspection requirements and coordinate move-in requirements with our client’s operations manager. We can also provide a complete package of warranties and maintenance documentation as well as schedule the appropriate equipment suppliers for technical systems training sessions so our clients’ staff can fully utilize the newly installed equipment.