Alexander Kalashnikov - Construction for dummies in Russia - save money and mind

The second group of mistakes is when they forget to accidentally add some types of work to the estimate. Sometimes such errors violate the technological sequence of work as a whole, which can also lead to losses.

Examples:

We had a facility where work was to be done to strengthen the wall by installing buttresses. Their technological sequence was as follows: earthworks (clearing the work site from the ground, digging pits with an excavator and manually to a depth of 2.5 m), laying footings, installing metal frames and formwork, pouring them with concrete, backfilling pits, compacting soil. So, in the estimate, the very initial earthworks in the amount of approximately 300 cubic meters were completely absent .

You must mount any equipment in the building. But the dimensions of this equipment exceed any maximum openings in the walls; accordingly, it may be physically impossible to bring this equipment inside without temporarily dismantling sections of the walls to increase the openings in them. Not every designer or estimator can foresee such things. Therefore, inspect the place of work before performing work or concluding a contract.

The worst thing is when you have already appointed people, hired equipment and started work, and only then found out everything, because the customer, especially if it is a state customer, may simply not have extra money that he can allocate to complete the data works and all attempts to humanly resolve this issue may lead nowhere . Sue him or incur losses, but do the work, or terminate the contract – this decision is up to you.

In any case, remember that all hidden work must be recorded in acts, and if you completed work today that was not included in the estimate, just so as not to stop all construction or some part of it, then the absence of acts of hidden work, protocols for considering these commission issues, etc. will complicate your situation if you decide to prove your case in court or in any other way to resolve this issue.

There are also other situations. I was once asked to mount a turnkey door. I mounted and forgot about this business until the customer called me and asked “Where are the slopes?”. In his opinion, slopes were included in the concept of “turnkey”, but in my opinion , if they were not mentioned in principle, they were not in the “turnkey”, but there was only a door, its delivery and installation. Speak every little thing, and better reflect in the contracts.

In order to avoid misunderstandings, so that both the contractor and the customer clearly understand what is included in the cost of work and what is not – i.e. whether materials are included in the cost of work, when drawing up an estimate, it is necessary to accurately describe the materials used and their quantity. If you received an estimate for consideration, deal with this issue paramountly.

So, there are two types of estimated or contractual prices:

1. Prices without the cost of materials;

2. Prices including the cost of materials.

Most often, prices that include the cost of materials are used in state estimates, these are the so-called FER (federal) or TER (territorial) unit prices. They facilitate the accounting of expenses of budgetary organizations, budget planning, and are also adjusted for inflation, etc.

Let's compare two types of rates:

Prices without the cost of materials:

FER15-01-090-03 (approved by the Order of the Ministry of Construction of Russia dated December 30, 2016 No. 1039 / pr ) – “Arrangement of ventilated facades with porcelain tile cladding: with a heat-insulating layer”.

FER11-01-027-02 – “Installation of cement mortar coatings from ceramic tiles for multi-color floors”.

Prices including the cost of materials:

FER15-04-012-02 – "Painting of facades from scaffolding with surface preparation: organosilicon".

FER12-01-010-01 – “Installation of small coverings (firewalls, parapets, overhangs, etc.) from galvanized sheet steel (adjoining the profiled sheet to the wall)”.

As you can see, it is impossible to determine visually only by the name of the price what exactly it may include: only work or work and materials. Therefore, if materials are not indicated in the estimate, contact the estimator for help so that he “unfolds” the price and shows what exactly it includes – there is such a technical possibility in the “Grand Estimate”, etc. programs, or look for their decoding on the Internet or in specialized directories.

Example:

The project provides for the insulation of the facade with a 140 mm thick insulation: an inner layer of 100 mm and an outer layer of 40 mm. The total scope of works is about 2000 sq.m. Those. the total amount of insulation will be: 2000 sq.m. x 0.14 m = 280 cubic meters . The estimate turned out to indicate the volume of insulation 380 cubic meters , i.e. with an area of 2000 sq.m. its thickness should be 190 mm, which is 50 mm. more than design thickness. At the same time , from 2000 sq.m. the volume of excess insulation amounted to 100 cubic meters . So someone's mistake reduced the cost of work and materials by about 100 cubic meters . x 8000 rub. = 800,000 rubles, and zeroed out the profit.

Provided that the brackets of the ventilated facade have already been mounted according to the project with a projection of 200 mm. from the wall, it was no longer possible to mount an extra insulation, so the customer terminated the contract for the cost of the insulation mistakenly included in the estimate.

Recommendations:

Absolutely always compare the design data with the estimate before deciding to conclude a contract.

Next, we will talk about the most revealing errors in projects. An error of such a plan may be made in the project: the attachment points of any structures are not worked out, or they are made with an error.

Example:

Once we made a hinged ventilated facade on a two-story building, lined with hollow bricks of the “boar” type. But the designers did not notice this …

For fastening the brackets of the ventilated facade, they provided for the use of chemical anchors. According to the project, a chemical anchor was laid, 100 mm long. The technical supervision of the customer warned that we should use only such an anchor – and nothing else, because. the project has passed the state examination, and a step away from this requirement for us is execution.

But in fact, it was impossible to use such fasteners, because the wall of the brick is very thin (10-15 mm) and practically the anchor only holds on to it, because the brick inside is completely empty, as in the figure – this is the old Soviet brick “Kabanchik”, which is already have not been produced for a long time.

Yes, this project passed the state examination, it was accompanied by acts of testing chemical anchors for pull-out, which supposedly had to securely fix the brackets on this particular building, but nevertheless, this is what happened.

When performing facade work, it is always necessary to test specific anchors for pull-out from a particular wall or object, which must be confirmed by test reports. Accordingly, we called a testing laboratory to the site, which is very common with manufacturers or suppliers of fasteners. Tested chemical anchors. None of the 5 or 6 attempts to confirm their suitability was successful – the brick walls broke under the most minimal (up to 150-200 kg.) Loads.