Using a Punch List EFFECTIVELY!
The goal of any punch list is to ultimately get to zero and close the project out successfully. But how do you get there with no misunderstandings? The key is getting all parties to agree to reasonable standards and to apply the standards consistently.
Watch Digging Deeper this week as Dennis shares an effective punch list strategy so that everyone arrives at the finish line together.
Please share your thoughts with us in the comments section below. Thank you!
Hello everybody. Dennis Engekbrecht with The Family Business Institute and the CEO Roundtable Program for
Contractors. Thanks for tuning in.
I was at a strategic planning session yesterday with one of our clients, and we are discussing quality control and that
devolved into an issue of punch list and how the punch list never seems to end. You have, you do your punch list, then
the architect does theirs, and then the owner comes in and does theirs, and every time they feel they have to find new
things and it seems a never-ending process. And of course, in today's construction world that's very difficult because it's
hard to get your trade contractors back to the job. If you are a trade contractor, it's expensive to demobilize where
you're in production and come back to fix these one or two things. So, it's really a pain in the butt to have those things
affecting you as well.
So interesting thing, the owner of this company, and we give you credit on this one, stepped up and he said, "Anytime I
did a punch list, I made sure I had all three of them there and we went into whatever it was, the first room or a sample
room or whatever, and we talked about what's acceptable and what's not acceptable." And I guess as a contractor, you
look at a wall and if you get to three or four inches away from that wall, you're going to see all kinds of things you don't
see from six feet or 10 feet. So, I guess there's some rule of thumb that that's where you're supposed to look at things
from.
But if you look at a particular corner or something, you say, "Well that treatment's okay or that treatment's not okay."
And then you go out through the rest of the project and you apply the same thing. Perhaps you can avoid that nickel and
dime kind of thing that can happen and that sort of thing. And basically, just to have a ... What you're doing is coming to
a prior agreement on what is an item that's acceptable, what's not acceptable, what needs to be fixed? And then
hopefully getting all of them identified at once so that process goes a lot easier.
So anyway, just thought that was a useful hint that many of you can take home and do. I had never heard it before. So
anyway, Dennis Engelbrecht, Digging Deeper. Thanks for tuning in.
