When a mistake is made, three things should be done: admit it, learn from it, and don’t repeat it. Construction projects involve large sums of money. A significant amount of loss can be faced due to small construction mistakes which could have been easily avoided.
There are numerous areas to make a mistake in a construction project. Some small mistakes can also prove to be fatal sometimes. Therefore, it becomes essential to plan every step and act with utmost care to avoid any such unwanted circumstances.
It’s not a mistake to make, but a mistake to repeat that mistake. Read through till the end to learn about these mistakes and ways to avoid such errors on a construction project.
Best Practices for Handling Common Construction Mistakes
Talking about the large construction projects, the contractor will never want to deal with a costly mistake that will absorb a large portion of his profit. Adopting a plan of action to handle the construction mistakes is how to address the issue and minimize the losses that can be faced due to the error.
Four best practices are discussed hereafter to keep the project on track and avoid common construction mistakes.
1. Open and Clear communication
Misunderstandings often lead to mistakes. Communication is the key to avoiding errors in construction. Maintaining transparent, open, and timely communication is important for the project team. Even in case of any mishaps, the entire team should be communicated of the mistake that occurred.
Better communication will improve team coordination. The importance of communication is evident from the fact that communication is taught as a course for at least one semester of the course during engineering studies. In line with other technical knowledge, communication is taught to develop a sense of coordination.
All the team members and the project stakeholders should be thoroughly aware of the mistake and the intensity of potential damage it can cause. This will help all the stakeholders and the team to act quickly to minimize the possible damage.
Construction management software is one such tool that allows the team to be in contact and work in sync to ensure that mistakes do not happen. Timely meetings and daily progress updates are essential features for developing excellent communication between the project team members.
2. Due Diligence of Construction Quality
Conducting due diligence is an essential step that can be taken to avoid mishaps and mistakes on construction projects. The project team needs to focus on all the quality of building materials used on the project. The way to ensure this quality of materials is by conducting due diligence.
Standardization is a great way to achieve the quality requirements on the site. All the activities and phases of a project lifecycle should be standardized, including project formats, work processes, and systemized correspondence frameworks, for better quality control.
In addition to the standardization, it becomes essential to ensure that all the workers are adopting and working in line with the established quality standards to avoid any compromise on the quality due to a construction mistake.
3. Documenting Mistakes
Knowing the cause will help cure it rather than suppress or hide it. To avoid a construction mistake, to reach to the bottom of the problem and identifying the causes is essential. Identifying the cause of the error is as important as fixing the error when it occurred.
For example, suppose a mistake occurs due to using under-quality materials that fail to match the standards. In that case, it becomes essential to minutely perform due diligence to avoid similar mishaps in the future. Therefore, the root cause of the mistake should be identified and documented for future reference.
Detailed reporting of the construction mistakes should be made, including the root cause, who made a mistake, how it was made, and what corrective and repair measures are taken. This descriptive documentation will help analyze what happened and what should be done to avoid the same mistake.
Visual documentation in photographs will capture the full extent of the actual case. So, photos supporting the detailed description are another best practice to avoid mistakes in future projects.
4. Performing Risk Assessment
Identifying specific hazards and potential threats can reduce the chances of making mistakes. Construction risk can create fatality and might affect a project’s life cycle. Listing out the possible dangers at the start of the project and assessing the intensities of the impact it may cause can lessen the probability of occurrence of a mistake because of the awareness in the project team.
Planning is an integral part of avoiding mishaps and ensuring people’s safety. Mitigating the identified risks based on the intensity of potential harm is necessary and plays a crucial role in preventing future mistakes on a construction project.
Risk assessment helps the project team stay prepared. While for many, this doesn’t seem like an essential step in the project planning but side-lining or skipping this step can make one pay a significant amount in terms of money as well as reputation.
Conclusion
Mistakes are the usual bridge between inexperience and wisdom, especially in the field of construction. It is always said to learn from your mistakes, but it is sometimes wiser to learn from someone else’s mistake than to make the same mistake and bear hefty losses.
To summarise, proper communication and coordination along with required tools and careful steps can avoid mistakes construction and improve the overall quality of the project. Also, it is of utmost importance to document in case of any mistake. Documentation can avoid repeating the same mistake.
Need more advice on how to go about everything in your field? Read the exclusive blog series from digiQC: Construction industry—An Overview to know get all your miscellaneous doubts answered!
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