Session 1

Welcome and Orientation

Agenda

• Welcome/Intro to HELM

• Goals of Course

• Land Acknowledgement

• Participant Introductions

• Tasks During Pre-Construction and the Build

• Start / Stop / Change

Homework

• Make a copy (use the File drop-down menu > Make a Copy) of the Pre-Con, PM, & Lead Tasks Checklist (included in the Resources section below)

• Customize the Pre-Con Tasks tab for your company

• Share with Tia (tia@buildhelm.com) if you have questions or want feedback.

• Complete this survey on your company’s pre-construction process

Resources

• Session 1 Slides

• Session 1 Video

• Pre-Con, PM & Lead, Tasks Checklist_2024 (Google Sheet shared as “view only”. Make a copy to edit)

• Bringing Up the Budget blogpost by Paul Eldrenkamp

• Green Building Advisor interview with Mel Baiser

• Charging for the Estimate: How to Avoid Giving Away a Lot of Free Work by Brian Altmann (Note access to this article requires registering with The Journal of Light Construction - which is free)

• Glossary

  • Agreement, When there is a defined arrangement between people or groups of people. Can be verbal or written.

  • Allowance, Estimated cost of something when there is not enough detail to accurately price.

  • Budget, Total set of costs, estimates, and allowances that will be spent on a project. Sometimes referred to as the Total Project Budget, this includes soft costs, land acquisition, and other costs typically not included in a construction estimate.

  • CD - Construction Documents, Drawing and notes sufficient for a final estimate and to build a project.

  • Change Order, Change to scope of project that affects time and money. Most litigation happens around change orders.

  • Contract, Written document outlining terms of the construction project. Legally binding.

  • Cost, Amount of money paid for a service or material. In terms of job cost accounting, costs are the amount paid by the contractor to provide the product (before markup).

  • Cost-Plus, Type of contract where owner pays the contractor the actual costs of the materials and labor plus an additional negotiated fee or percentage over that amount.

  • Critical Path, The sequence of stages determining the minimum time needed for an operation. Usually used in reference to a schedule to determine the key tasks to be accomplished to stay on schedule.

  • CSI, Construction Specifications Institute. CSI produces a set of standard codes for the construction industry to organize project notes and estimates. Sometimes also referred to as MasterFormat. The full set of codes includes 50 Divisions, at HELM we typically use the 16 Division (older) version which is more appropriate for residential construction.

  • DD - Design Development or Detailed Design. Period of time when decision about shape, size, materials and products are finalized. The work is iterative.

  • Estimate, Informed or educated guess about the cost of something. Will often come with high-low ranges.

  • Fixed-Price, Fixed-Cost, Non-negotiable sum charged for a product, service or piece of work.

  • GPM - Gross Profit Margin is the percentage of sales income you have left after paying for the stuff you sold.

    Markup Value/Sell Price= Margin

  • Overhead, The cost of operating a business.

  • Notes to the Estimate define and clarify elements of the estimate. The goal of these notes is to avoid unwritten assumptions which can create confusion and stress. The better the Notes to the Estimate are, the better protected the estimator is legally and professionally.

  • Price Amount charged to the client for a service or item (Cost + Markup = Price)

  • Profit is the money the business has left after paying business expenses.

  • RFI, Requests for Information (typically to the architect) a formal documentation of when a request for clarification or detail is asked.

  • RFP, Request for Proposal

  • Schedule of Values, A list of every work item on a project, along with each item’s price (value). Usually a summary of the detailed estimate.

  • SD - Schematic Design The earliest design phase.

  • Take Offs, The takeoff’s purpose is to give the estimator a breakdown of all of the components required to complete a construction project. Materials take offs typically require listing all materials and the amounts/units of each which will be required.

  • Trade Partners, Replaces "subcontractors". Trades refers to various areas of expertise within building and construction (MEP, excavation, etc.). Partners is a term of respect that avoids the inherent hierarchy of "sub" or "consultant". When project teams are integrated everyone's input is valued and the process is not always linear.