Beyond a doubt, a commercial construction project is a substantial investment for any business owner. For this reason, mistakes regarding project scope, construction planning, and the actual construction are simply unaffordable. Business owners often put a lot at stake for such projects. A mishandling of any sort can leave a business owner bankrupt, ultimately resulting in the demise of their business.
Thus, it is crucial that you ensure that your chosen commercial construction contractor has the attitude, resources, and expertise to diligently handle your commercial construction process from conception to completion. However, the latter is easier said than done in today’s competitive construction industry.
In an attempt to win building projects, every construction contractor you come across will parade their superiority over their competitors concerning price, quality, and consistency. In today’s world, where forgery is at its peak, it is challenging to tell apart the truth from the tales. Consequently, business owners have to bear the tragic impacts of handing over their projects to inexperienced or unreliable contractors.
As a highly reputed and long-standing commercial construction contractor, BelVan understands that besides offering customer-centric and transparent services, there is a need to educate businesses and facilitate informed decision-making.
This blog enlists and explains the crucial questions you must ask a commercial construction contractor before leaving your project in their hands.
Is The Construction Company Licenced?
Despite strict federal regulations regarding fraud and equally stringent preventive and detective controls by businesses, construction-related fraud frequently makes headlines. Although shady construction companies primarily target individuals rather than businesses, their potential to invade the commercial construction sector should never be overlooked.
For this reason, it is in your business’s best interest to ask the commercial construction contractor willing to handle your project about their licence and accreditations. If the contractor replies with “it just expired” or “it is in process, ” take it as a red flag.
Your chosen contractor must have the relevant permits and licences to operate in Alberta.
Have You Ever Handled A Similar Project Before?
Besides accreditation, experience is the second most important aspect on which the successful completion of your commercial construction process relies. Movie contractors or companies that have never handled a project like yours are more likely to misunderstand your objectives and project scope.
Thus, you must ask your commercial construction contractor about their relevant experience in handling similar projects. BelVan Construction proudly possesses a decade of profound experience and a vast portfolio of commercial space construction and renovation projects.
How Diverse Is Your Service Range?
Seamless on-site construction is the direct result of complementary planning tasks such as cost estimation, budgeting, scheduling, and design. Thus, you will inevitably need to hire other experts for these tasks if your construction company does not provide these. From a rational point of view, a reputed commercial construction contractor is expected to provide these and other auxiliary services.
To ensure that you wouldn’t have to personally deal with different companies for these services, we recommend that you ask your prospective contractor whether they provide these services. It is more cost-effective and convenient to have a single point of contact for the whole project rather than dealing with different firms.
At BelVan, we strive to provide our clients with everything under one roof, including design, budgeting, pre-construction consulting,, construction management and much more.
Is Your Construction Process Well-Defined?
A poorly coordinated and planned construction project is least likely to be completed on time and within the set budget. An ideal commercial construction company must have a well-defined process that they can follow to understand their client’s needs and objectives and deliver accordingly.
Since numerous teams may be working at the same time, such as the design team, management personnel, subcontractors, on-site workers, etc, it is crucial to coordinate their activities. The only way to achieve the latter is by establishing a well-defined process that systematically takes the project through conception, construction, and completion.
Read Also: Steps Involved In A Commercial Construction Project
Likewise, each team and stakeholder’s role, responsibility, and accountability must also be clearly defined. Hence, you should also ask your contractor whether they follow a pre-established process that guarantees successful project completion.
Do You Have A Documented Change Management System?
Any form of change in scope, schedule, budget, design, etc, directly or indirectly affects the project cost and timeline. In order to avoid disputes or discrepancies, changes must always be documented.
Resultantly, you should also enquire whether your chosen construction company has a well-documented and transparent change management system.
Will My Business Operations Be Interrupted?
We understand that idle hours or downtime are quite costly, especially in industrial settings. Therefore, We recommend that you also ask your construction contractor about how they will manage the construction activities to ensure minimal or no downtime for your business.
BelVan overlaps workflows and takes the necessary measures to let a business continue its operations while the project progresses.
How Do You Ensure Stakeholder Safety?
Lastly, you must ask your commercial construction contractor how they ensure safety on their sites. A safety code-compliant and socially responsible contractor will alway ensure that the risk of accidents and injuries is minimal, thus ensuring your project reaches its final stages without disruptions or mishaps.
About Us
We are a COR-certified commercial construction company offering a wide range of construction and renovation services to help turn your thoughts into tangible realities. Learn more about BelVan Construction.
Need commercial construction services? Contact us now.
