Working on land development projects plan changes are inevitable. Comparing and contrasting previous plans and QC'ing calculations for construction layout is time consuming but necessary to ensure the proper placement of the planned improvement on the surface of the earth.?ÿ
I have found these items are difficult to bill for. Especially when subcontracted by an entity within the project. For instance, a survey company is hired to layout and as-built all underground utilities by the underground utility contractor but has nothing to do with the staking and location of the vertical structures. Or perhaps contracted to only stake and as-built parking and sidewalks. Half way through the project, a design change is made and everything previously staked needs to be verified in CAD and all points calculated for future staking need to be adjusted.?ÿ
Essentially it is not your client that caused the disruption in your contractual services, but whoever they are working for.?ÿ
How are others going about billing for the time to QC revisions within the company layout files and adjustments of plans??ÿ
Your contract should specify what you will be staking and what plans, with date, you will be using.?ÿ Have a clause stating that any changes to said plan will be an additional fee.?ÿ There are others ways to structure things but your contract needs to be clear in regards to what you are doing and what you area using to do it.?ÿ Changes incur additional fees.
Your description of the tiers of contractual relationships sounds like a nightmare to begin with.?ÿ 90% of the time my contract is with the General Contractor not the sub-tier trade specific contractors.?ÿ The other 10% of the time I contract directly with the owner (this has its pluses and minuses).?ÿ If you're contracting directly with the pipe contractor to stake just the undergrounds and the other subs are doing the same are you saying there are multiple Survey companies working the same construction project??ÿ That's way too many cooks in the kitchen for me.?ÿ?ÿ
To your original question though, much like @WA-ID_Surveyor mentioned, I tie my original contract scope and fee to a particular version of the plan set up front.?ÿ If there is a revision issued by the design team that impacts my work I send a fixed fee contract amendment for the time to review and adjust calc's.?ÿ If the revision requires field work (as-builts or restaking) hourly rates which were set out in the original contract are used, tracked and signed off on by the GC's Super as the work is done then those, we call them change order tickets, are compiled in the office monthly and turned into another contract amendment.?ÿ If I can confidently estimate the field time associated with the revision I just include it in the first fixed fee contract amendment before any of the work is done.?ÿ ?ÿ?ÿ
Construction Staking 101 - Bill hourly for all services.?ÿ
Now in reality...have a well defined scope in the proposal and bid with an "estimated" fee based on "X" plans with "X" date, any deviation, rework, re-stake will be billed hourly. If any sub-contractor request work, then advise them to request through your client.?ÿ
My layout proposals are typically 20-25 pages. The devil is in the details and make the devil yours.?ÿ
N10,000, E7,000, Z100.00
PLS - IL, MO, AR, KS, MN, KY
Construction Staking 101 - Bill hourly for all services.?ÿ
Construction Staking 515 (Graduate Research Project - Instructor Approval Required) - In any Market only 5% - 10% of general contractors understand that it's more efficient to have a team that is looking out for each other's well being; the remainder just want to beat and pillage their subcontractors to protect their own bottom line.?ÿ For this project the student will conduct market research to determine which GC's to work for and which to avoid like the proverbial plague.?ÿ?ÿ
@james-fleming?ÿ Small Survey Business 501 - Avoid offering your professional services within a low cost bid environment. Always seek out projects bid on Quality Based Selection and charge accordingly.
N10,000, E7,000, Z100.00
PLS - IL, MO, AR, KS, MN, KY
Definitely some great advice here and and all of the responses are in line with my thoughts on the topic as well.?ÿ