QC/Constructability Peer Reviews

DTR can provide full discipline QC Peer Reviews, or specifically focused reviews such as building envelope, waterproofing, roofing, environmental conditioning, etc. We are also flexible in crafting a review that best fits your needs.

Constructability / Peer Reviews of Design and Bid Documents

ECS/DTR Consulting Services provides Constructability/ Peer Reviews of Design and Bid Documents typically before they are publicly released to help reduce inconsistencies, verify references and review material compatibility and proper uses.

ECS/DTR also reviews documents for constructability, code compliance, including energy codes (such as CalGreen, Title 24, etc.) and ADA accessibility codes. We are another set of eyes reviewing construction drawings and specifications. We also provide these quality control services for many building owners who value what this process can save them in time in addition to costs. We also have a growing contractor clientele with top-quality reputations who want the best for their clients and have found that our QC/Peer Review services help identify inconsistencies, errors, omissions and other constructability issues that might otherwise have contributed to additional warranty callbacks.

The ECS/DTR Advantage

We have extensive experience in developing and reviewing technical details and specifications that comes from hundreds of projects, billions of dollars in construction costs, multiple offices, technical architects and support staff, along with some of the best resources in the country all in one firm.

Twenty years ago, we developed the studio approach to providing our clients with the best technical services possible. We have employed staff from various design, engineering and construction backgrounds and created an environment that allows us to learn from our experiences, both old and new. Our staff is exposed in one year to the technical experience that a typical architect would gain in six to seven years. With most of us working on as many as thirty projects a year, projects from low to high rise structures and projects such as courthouses, city halls, libraries, mixed-use projects, police stations, research labs, military facilities, universities public education buildings, hospitality projects and large scale retail… we have a lot of knowledge to share.

OUR APPROACH

At ECS/DTR, we approach this work much differently than many 3rd party or construction management companies. First, we work with the designer for the sole purpose of integrating ourselves into the project team. Our focus is to introduce a new set of eyes into a project by analyzing the constructability of the documents, reviewing interdisciplinary coordination, verifying cross-referencing, reviewing specifications to drawing coordination, reviewing code requirements and compliance, verifying complete documentation and identifying duplicate or misleading information.

As we discuss many times in our office, we do not “pretend to be the Project Architect or Engineer of Record” when performing our reviews, nor do we try to redesign your project, we simply and comprehensively review the design and bid documents for completeness and accuracy.

We will work directly with you to assure you that you meet your firm’s Quality Control Standards goals. We do not have to prove to a building owner or others that we are worth our fee by making others look bad or creating more work for you or your consultants. All our reviews are always confidential.

We encourage our A/E Clients to highlight our QC Peer Review services and qualifications as part of their team’s submission in the building owners’ RFP. This shows your firm’s commitment to quality control and will potentially convince an owner not to contract a construction manager for a constructability/peer review. As we have learned from experience, these reviews by construction managers can be aimed less at real construction issues and more at superficial issues which many times, whether intentional or not, are made to make the A/E professional look bad. The intent is to make the project better for the owner.

Complete Check Reports

Complete Check Reports consist of confidential in-house peer reviews by senior A/E professionals who have real-life experience in the construction field and have been trained in ECS/DTR’s quality assurance plan check program. You can expect quick turn-around times, allowing A/E firms time to make adjustments in documents before the release of bid documents. Reviews include a complete review of all discipline drawings and specifications to identify interdisciplinary coordination issues, identification of constructability items, reference checks, ADA/Code plan review and facility building standards verification. Complete Check Reviews also include a field review to assist in the elimination of potential conflicts, reduction in time-consuming questions during construction and potential change order claims.

Our services are tailored to your firm’s needs and are designed to assist your firm in maintaining your high-quality assurance standards even when your manpower is limited. Most often we use Bluebeam Studio to distribute our reports, making it easy for each consultant to respond to let you know what items are still unresolved.

Each report contains a summary report, review comments and electronic images of all redline drawings + specifications.

A full report, when requested, contains reports for the Project Manager, Project Architect, Structural Engineer, Civil Engineer, Landscape Architect, Interior Designer, Mechanical Engineer + Electrical Engineer, Specialty Consultants + other parties, such as the Owner.

Finally, our understanding of the A/E profession allows us to deliver material to you that is instantly ready to be accessed electronically by your internal or external consultants and project architects for immediate action. We also can participate in your project team meeting to help identify any larger issues to further assist your team in saving time. Let us share with you our unique approach and preview our reports + individual comments.

Constructability Review Industry Recognition

Nationally, multidisciplinary A/E firms have embraced constructability reviews after finding that the maximum benefit of these peer reviews, in terms of their influence on total project cost, was realized when the reviews were conducted during the Design Phase.

Over half of ENR’s Top 500 Design Firms have formalized a corporate philosophy promoting “constructability” within their firms. Of those firms that implemented a formal review process, the majority started their reviews during the Design Development Phase.

These firms have reported no resistance from their clients to the implementation of constructability reviews, probably due to the proven cost savings that are achieved. These same firms were also nearly unanimous in their agreement that Value Engineering (VE) is not a substitute for constructability reviews. They distinguish VE as a process intended to reduce first cost or total lifecycle cost, not optimization of the design and construction process.

Constructability Reviews

Constructability Reviews may serve as a precursor to true value engineering (VE) and the two processes can be complementary in their impact on project success. When constructability reviews were not implemented, the most significant impacts reported by ENR’s Top 500 Design Firms were:

Faulty working drawings

Incomplete specifications

Adversarial relationships

Non-standardization (presumably increasing cost)

Resistance of the owner

Budget limitations

The perceived benefits of Constructability Reviews are noted as:

Better relationships

Fewer lawsuits

Better reputations

Professional Satisfaction

Efficient design

Design-Bid-Build system

The good news for clients is that the risk factors contributing to constructability problems are largely within their design team’s power to control or influence. Furthermore, an industry-wide shift towards the design-build, program management and construction manager-at-risk delivery systems is hastening the adoption of formal QA/ QC processes that assure better and earlier input by the contractor or independent consultant into the design process. Clients willing to adopt these alternatives to the Design-Bid-Build system can also expect to see better outcomes, both in terms of fewer claims and disputes and improved user satisfaction.