Questions Frequently Asked by our Clients

General Services

At what stage of a project should I engage a Construction Consultant?

Generally, the earlier a consultant is brought on board, the greater the benefit the client receives. The more time that elapses on a project, the greater the probability of issues, errors, and omissions, and the greater the cost to correct course. Bringing on expert help in the early stages of a project can prevent common issues, avoid pitfalls, and provide the necessary framework to ensure the project comes to fruition on time and under budget.

What does a Construction Consulting Firm do?

Construction Consulting Firms, like Oak & Iron Advisory, provide expert guidance and project management services to their clients by leveraging their industry knowledge across multiple disciplines, relieving pain points, and supplying expertise that clients may not have in house.

How is a Construction Consulting Firm different from a General Contractor or Construction Management firm?

Construction Consulting Firms, like Oak & Iron Advisory, do not perform the actual construction work, and are not responsible for directly managing the workforce that will physically build the project. While General Contractors and Construction Management Firms may provide some services similar to a Construction Consulting Firm, such as pre-construction reviews, change order management, and various other project management tasks, their core function is to physically build the project.

Do you work with Owners, Contractors, Engineers, Architects, or all of the above?

All of the above. Oak & Iron specializes in Change Order Management, Pre-Construction Consulting, and Operational Efficiency Consulting within the construction industry. As such, we work closely will all major stakeholders to ensure projects are delivered on time, under budget, and to our clients’ satisfaction.

Can you manage both small projects and large-scale developments?

Oak & Iron Advisory manages projects of all sizes; Small projects, Large-Scale developments, and everything in between. Our services can be tailored to suit your specific project requirements, current capabilities, and future growth plans.

Cost Estimation and Budgeting

How can a consultant help me reduce construction costs?

Consultants can help reduce costs in many ways. They allow clients to outsource certain functions to expert third parties, reducing overhead and associated direct and indirect employment costs (salaries, raises, benefits, insurance premiums, IT resources, IT support, office space, etc) while maintaining high-quality service and support. By outsourcing base functions, senior project management staff can devote more time to managing day-to-day activities, to planning for the future, and to growing company revenue by taking on more projects, all while resting assured that their needs are being met by qualified expert consultants.

Consultants can devote more time and attention to the tasks assigned to them than the client’s own employees, who have innumerable other responsibilities to attend to, resulting in faster response time, fewer deadlines missed, increased pricing accuracy, and better change order recovery rates. Reducing pricing cycle time gets your change requests in front of the owner faster, negotiated quicker, and resolved sooner, ultimately enabling you to get paid faster and reducing the number of change requests that get settled a year down the road for 50 cents on the dollar.

Consultants can help prevent avoidable issues, common pitfalls, and prevent small mistakes from snowballing into larger issues. Their expertise is derived from multiple disciplines and construction areas, ensuring that clients receive the right guidance for their needs and that any knowledge gaps are covered. Involvement by construction consultants early in the project life cycle ensures that planning, set up, and implementation are done in an organized and efficient manner, paving the way for long term success. As Benjamin Franklin allegedly once said “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

Consultants can evaluate, identify, and address operational inefficiencies and blind spots that may not be apparent to existing employees who have become accustomed to how the client operates. Implementing effective change management solutions to address these inefficiencies enables the client to run a tighter ship and stems the needless bleeding of margin.

Do you provide independent cost estimating?

Oak & Iron Advisory can provide this service. Whether it be to verify another estimate, perform a sanity check on a bid, or simply parallel estimating support to enable your business to scale quickly while you hire and onboard new estimators, Oak & Iron has you covered.

What is Value Engineering and how does it benefit my project?

Value Engineering is a systematic, thorough, and organized method of achieving the project’s core functionality and goals at the lowest possible cost, typically by identifying opportunities to adopt alternative methods, materials, or processes to reduce expenses without sacrificing the specified quality, performance, or safety requirements. This process involves analyzing project specified materials, engineering designs, connection designs, and construction techniques to find more cost effective alternatives that provide equal or greater value to the owner. This is a collaborative process between multiple stakeholders on the project, which ultimately results in the best value final product.

Can you assist with developing and monitoring project budgets?

Oak & Iron Advisory can assist with developing budgets, however monitoring compliance to these budgets once set is outside of our area of expertise.

How do consultants prevent cost overruns?

No consultant can absolutely guarantee that there will be no cost overruns on a project, however by implementing smart management techniques, ensuring the right processes and procedures are in place, and that the right talent is in place to deliver upon the contractual obligations, consultants can help prevent them from occurring.

Scheduling and Planning

Do you create project schedules?

No, Oak & Iron does not directly create the master project schedule, however we do offer scheduling support in the form of Scheduling Impact Assessments, Sequence of Erection Impact, Project Impact Assessment (Cost/Schedule), Schedule Review for Claim Preparation, Pre-Construction Consulting, and Initial Contractual Document Review activities. Oak & Iron will work with the client to provide input to the schedule as required, but generating new schedules is not part of our core offering.

How do you help keep projects on schedule?

Oak & Iron helps keep projects on schedule using a two part approach. The first approach is to ensure that the project is properly set up at the beginning of the job, that the correct policies and procedures are in place to run the project, and that the schedule is achievable during the pre-construction phase. The second approach is to ensure that all changes to the contractual documents are identified, communicated to the owner, properly estimated and submitted according to the requirements of the contractual documents, and that both cost and schedule impacts are being recovered quickly. By reducing the pricing cycle time, the change events are placed in front of the owner sooner, resulting in timely negotiation and receipt of the corresponding change orders, ensuring schedule days are accounted for and properly tracked, and reducing the common trend in the industry of pushing all outstanding change orders to settlement 12 months down the road.

Can you identify potential delays before they occur?

Yes, although not every delay can be foreseen, most major delays can be avoided through experienced foresight and adequate pre-construction planning. Oak & Iron offers a suite of Pre-Construction Consulting services aimed at eliminating stumbling points, streamlining erection and construction activities, and ensuring that the design documents are complete, adequate, and contain logical connections that are erectable on site.

Can you assist with phasing and logistics planning?

Yes, Oak & Iron can assist with phasing, site layout, and logistics planning as part of our consulting services, although this is not Oak & Iron’s core competency.

Risk and Compliance

How do you identify and mitigate project risks?

Oak & Iron identifies and mitigates project risks through application of expertise across many construction industry areas, notably in the planning, legal, compliance, structural steel fabrication, steel erection, concrete erection, connection design, and erection engineering fields. Using in house tools, we can identify, evaluate, and codify a project risk, develop mitigation strategies, and guide implementation on the project level.

Can you help with permitting and regulatory compliance?

Oak & Iron does not provide these services, other than input as may be required by our clients on specific issues.

Do you provide health, safety, and environmental consulting?

Oak & Iron does not provide these services, other than input as may be required by our clients on specific issues.

Project Execution and Oversight

Do you act as an Owner’s Representative?

Oak & Iron can act as an Owner’s Representative within the context of managing change requests and change orders for the project, providing Pre-Construction Consulting, and Operational Efficiency Consulting services, among other service offerings.

Can you manage the bidding and contractor selection process?

Oak & Iron does not provide these services, other than input as may be required by our clients on specific issues.

Do you provide constructability reviews of design documents?

Yes, this is one of Oak & Iron’s core competencies. As part of our Pre-Construction Consulting service offering, we can evaluate design documents for constructability and erectability concerns, identifying problematic connections, loading issues, safety concerns, and general construction advice.

Will you monitor quality during construction?

Oak & Iron does not provide these services, other than input as may be required by our clients on specific issues.

Do you offer dispute resolution or claims support if issues arise?

Yes, Oak & Iron provides claims support, claims preparation, and expert testimony services to our clients. We can present compiled change requests to the owner, provide any necessary backup, and negotiate the change requests on your behalf.

Oak & Iron does not provide official dispute resolution services, other than input as may be required by our clients on specific issues.

Engagement and Process

How do we start working with your firm?

Potential clients may reach out to Oak & Iron directly at [email protected] or through our website’s “Contact Us” page.

What information do you need from me before starting?

To be discussed, but generally clients will have a project in mind, an idea of the goals they wish to achieve through Oak & Iron’s services, and ideally construction design documents for review, such that the scope of the project may be determined quickly.

How do you structure your fees - Hourly, Lump sum, or percentage of project cost?

Each project is evaluated separately depending on the client’s needs and the service offerings they want to obtain. Oak & Iron will work with the client to ensure that the pricing, level of service, and project budget are satisfactory prior to engaging our services.

Do you work locally, nationally, or internationally?

Oak & Iron offers its services across Canada and the United States of America. For other countries, please contact us for more information.