Meeting deadlines.
— 30 March 2022
A crucial part of any construction project is a series of deadlines. From start to finish, everyone involved has at least one deadline to meet. These deadlines form part of the project timetable, set out in the initial brief and designed to chart progression throughout the project. The timetable keeps everything on track.
Meeting deadlines is critical for a whole host of reasons, most notably to minimise the risk of cost overruns. Not all clients can absorb additional costs, although we always suggest including a contingency.
For residential clients, the project is often their home. Any delay has personal, practical and emotional consequences alongside possible additional costs. This could be something as fundamental as where their family are going to live.
Each project is unique and hugely variable, But, as a general rule of thumb, a single storey extension takes around four months on site, but generally the whole project would be eight months to a year. For a whole house the project would potentially last 24 months. For commercial and educations project the timetable is dependent on how much is specified in the scope of work.
Delays can be cause by lots of different factors, most commonly:
- Planning application delays
- Complex listed building or conservation area consents
- Unknown complexities
- Materials shortages
- Labour shortages
- Poor weather
- Changes
Many of these factors are out of our control or your control. We cannot control the weather or the volume of planning applications arriving at the local authority.
But, we can set realistic, achievable deadlines based on our experience. And, clients can try to minimise changes once things are underway.
So if you are contemplating a project be sure to consider the timetable. Speak to your architect and work with them to set deadlines to aid the smooth running of your project.
If you would like to speak to our architects about meeting your project deadlines, please call 0330 320 0665 or email design@williamgreenarchitects.co.uk