Prime Time For Site Visits
too much or never enough? do you find yourself going to to check on a project daily or weekly and finding not much has happened? Or do you find you are not able to get to site enough and the installers missed details that slipped through the cracks? I am here to tell you all the key times to visit site so you don’t overlook anything! When you start a construction project be sure to ask your general contractors for their schedule so you can plan your site visits accordingly. If you can, visit site during these 9 key phases and you’ll be good to go, any additional visits are a bonus!
after demolition
This is a great time to remeasure everything, double check that all the design plans still work (maybe a double wall is found, can be removed, resulting in an additional ~6” to the space). You can also work through any unforeseen issues, reconfigure if necessary, and can tape out new walls, vanities, showers or furniture.
2. After Framing
Double check furniture + built-in sizing as well as accurate square footage count for materials. For example, if a wall needs to be built-out 6” but they build it out 1’ and you have a piece of furniture coming that will fit perfectly snug with the 6” built out space… then the builders are going to need to fix the wall build-out.
3. Rough Plumbing
Be sure all plumbing lines are on center of cabinets or vanity locations, double check tile layouts will line up nicely with the finish fixtures, and make sure the shower niches still work with any plumbing within the walls.
4. Rough electrical
Ask the electricians to thread with extra wire incase additional may be needed down the road. Also, be sure to call out switch plate orders, either sharpie on the framing or a print out will do. The switch plate order should be shown on the electrical or lighting plans but it can never hurt to double check that you’re all on the same page (literally!)
5. After drywall
Use some blue tape to pin up all drawings, plans, elevations, and details so any subs walking through won’t have to guess or check with the boss what goes where… this is also one of the most exciting visits where you really start to see things come together!
6. Tile walk through
This step is always important to actually walk through with the tile installer, the best tile installers will always know a solution to avoid any weird tile cuts and any specialty layouts (i.e. colorful repeat patterns, or subway tile in a stacked layout).
7. Finish lighting + plumbing
Double check the correct fixtures are in the right locations, such as sconces being install upright, not upside down and pendant heights are low enough to notice but not so low they block the site line, sometimes what we estimate on a drawing needs tweaking in reality and this is the perfect time to do it!
8. Millwork + Hardware
Review any filler pieces, these are often made larger than needed and scribed on site, so be sure you don’t end up with a 5” filler piece if you can get away with 3”. Also, review hardware locations on all cabinets (seriously, all of them!). Again, this should be shown on your either the millwork drawings or elevations, but seeing it in real life may change your mind. You may find that you want the pulls on center of the cabinet vs the top of the shaker rail.
9. Blue tape !!!
My favorite, and my contractors and subs least favorite, step. When the GC and their subs start to pack up, grab a roll of blue tape and put a piece on any imperfection or incomplete item. Don’t be afraid to go through the space with a fine tooth comb, after all you want you or your client to be left with nothing short of perfection! This is not meant to be a critique of the GC and subs work, but a second eye on a finish product never hurts!