How The Douglas Company’s proactive approach keeps projects on schedule

Posted on | by Savannah Sokol

In today's construction world, more and more time and resources are spent on scheduling, and with good reason, too. With the high cost of construction loans and general conditions, contractors and developers alike can agree that the sooner we hand over a building the better for all those involved. Project milestones, proper sequencing, and task and crew logic are all scheduling terms that are thrown around on a weekly basis when discussing how we get the job done as soon as possible.

But what if I told you there was something else besides scheduling that can hold up progress on your project just as much as a missing drywall crew or bad schedule logic? Wouldn’t that be something we need to be cognizant of?

I am talking about inspections, of course. Inspections are a necessary step in the construction process to provide a third-party audit that the work meets all code requirements...

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Virtual Inspections

Posted on | by Bob Ritter

COVID-19 has brought forth many challenges in the last year, and it has pushed our slowly evolving industry into adopting many new ways of conducting business, one of which being virtual inspections from our local inspecting authorities. Many of the counties that we work with have put in place some stringent requirements as it relates to social distancing and minimizing exposure to their staff on the job site. With the advancements in technology, many counties have moved to conducting virtual inspections through Facetime or a similar video call in an effort to keep the workflow moving while accommodating their new standards for employee safety. We have found that our inspections have been rather unimpeded going through this new process while it has required some additional record keeping from ourselves and our subcontractors, it has provided some efficiencies for our inspector’s where they are able...

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How Important is the Timeline?

Posted on | by Bob Ritter

Inspections at senior communities have become increasingly more difficult to obtain in most communities and states. The primary reasons for the sum of the inspection complexities are as follows:
  • The number of communities that have licensed plan examiners for both civil and building design review is constantly reducing due to budget constraints in the communities.
  • The lack of municipal review capabilities has caused these plan examinations and inspections to be turned over to third-party reviewers that get paid for each review and inspection.
  • Budget constraints at the State Department of Health and State Fire Marshall’s office which is causing ever increasing plan review delays in the state’s that require plan inspection prior to the start of construction and the timeline in all states for final inspections.
  • The current building code being enforced in most states requires a number of special inspections to have to occur as part of the normal...

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