Sometimes delays are unavoidable. Work usually stops when temperatures plunge below zero for several days. Although some owners decide to encase their project in plastic and use heaters to enable work to proceed, Broeren explains the decision to take these steps depends on whether spending the extra money will enable significantly more work to take place.

Sometimes the problem lies with people who are not directly connected with the project, such as manufacturers who ignore promised shipping dates. If the delayed equipment must be installed before other work continues, the schedule is jeopardized.

And sometimes owners, workers or design professionals slow the process. Strikes can stop construction. Design professionals may delay turning around material sample submittals or shop drawings. Owners often delay making required decisions during construction. Regardless of the reason, owners should know what the schedule changes are, learn the reasons for them and avoid automatically blaming the contractor or design professional, Broeren and Evans agree.

Change Orders
A project without change orders is unrealistic, Bonczyk says. Change orders occur for various reasons. A minor component may be overlooked during design and bidding, Evans explains. Conditions that differ on remodeling sites from what were anticipated or changes in government administrations may also lead to project modifications and change orders.

Architects and engineers could completely design every project detail, Bonczyk admits, but the cost would be prohibitive. The result is trading off the risk of a project with some change orders for the knowledge that the overwhelming majority of the project is contractible as designed. He estimates change orders totaling 2 to 3 percent of the total cost are reasonable and should be covered by a "contingencies" line item.

Moving Day and Punch Lists
As a project nears completion, several milestones occur. When construction is virtually finished, design personnel issue a certificate of substantial completion, allowing the owner to begin using the project for its intended purposes. This certificate also starts a building's warranty period that usually lasts one year, except for some components that come with separate warranties.

Attached to the certificate is the project punch list. A punch list includes miscellaneous items of work that still remain undone, or that need to be reworked - every project has some.

Evans recommends that the design professional and owner's representative work together to prepare a joint punch list. Although it may be more costly, he prefers punch lists prepared as subcontractors close out their respective work. This enables items to be addressed while the subcontractors are on site, rather than requiring their return later.

Once all punch list items are approved by the designer and owner, the architect or engineer issues a certificate of completion, and the owner issues the final payments.

Project Record Documentation
Project record documents are among the final communications of a project. Jones explains whereas construction documents guide the contractor during construction, project record documents reflect the work as completed. As the project is built, workers may have to address poor soil conditions or reroute a water line, for instance. Contractors should record any such changes and present a complete set of those records to the owner.

Some owners ask for a new set of plans that incorporate the construction changes, rather than accept handwritten changes. This, Jones says, usually costs extra. Leonard A. Peterson, FAIA, president of O'Donnell, Wicklund, Pigozzi & Peterson Architects, Inc., Deerfield, predicts this information will be computerized in the near future, making documentation more rapid for contractors and less cumbersome for owners.

Review
This and two previous articles have outlined the primary responsibilities of owners, design professionals and contractors; investigated how owners should select design and construction members of the project team; and introduced key phases of the construction process. The organizations sponsoring this series of articles are pleased to answer questions and provide documents or other information sources for persons who want to explore these topics further. The offices of these associations and their telephone and fax numbers are: