EXPERT ADVICE
AVOID CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT NIGHTMARES
BY VALERIE WHITE-SAMUEL It’s easy to get stuck with a big bill once you’ve signed a contract and have a major nightmare to handle. Here’s a quick story: We received a call from an excited and hopeful HVAC contractor who signed a $350,000 commercial contract with a charter school to replace seven commercial rooftop HVAC systems. The contractor was very familiar with residential work. In fact, they were residential experts. However, the contractor decided to venture into commercial work and bid on the contract and won. Soon after signing the contract, the contractor realized, after speaking with his partners, that they may have bitten off more than they
could handle. So they called to our team. I asked the potential client if they were licensed to do business with the municipality, a necessity to pull permits for the project they were planning, and if they had their insurance, OSHA licenses, and suppliers in place. Based on that conversation, the contractor decided that our team could help navigate those waters and source out all the suppliers that would be necessary for the project to be completed on time, within budget, and on scope. The first step was to coordinate insurance carriers to get quotes for a $10 million general liability policy, which was required by the property owners before any work could be performed. We coordinated several carriers
56-18 69th Street · Maspeth, NY
and scheduled telephone conferences with the partners to discuss the policies and the pricing. Our conversations prompted even more questions that had been overlooked by the contractor. One of the carriers ran the numbers and suggested that they would lose money just from the purchase of the policy alone. The second step involved identifying suppliers of the machinery and, in this case, it was going to be for the procurement of seven ANSIZ21 Central Commercial Rooftop Furnaces. This was the second nightmare: the contractor in their bid to the school said delivery and installation of the furnaces would take 12 weeks. In actuality, it would take 13 weeks just to manufacture the equipment. The next nightmare was the budget. The contractor had won a
Valerie White-Samuel founded All Boro Expediters in 2011. It is located at 117-08 Merrick Boulevard in Jamaica. They can be reached at (718) 3745044 or allboroexpediter.com. $300,000 contract, however, the equipment alone without insurance, trades, building department permits, and sign-offs came in at $356,507.25. CONTINUED ON PAGE 15
7:30PM
FREE ADMISSION
This event is sponsored by Maspeth Federal Savings. All attendees should follow current NYS Covid-19 guidelines. Additionally, for your safety and the comfort of all guests, social distancing is recommended. Please check our website or Facebook page for more information, including weather-related cancellations or updates.
(718) 335-1300 www.maspethfederal.com
