Routine construction work and construction inspections go hand in hand as far as planning and steps go; ensuring no part of each process is skipped is vital to plan and build according to requirements, standards and regulations.
Construction projects have a lot of steps, and each one step needs to be inspected to make sure the quality of materials is up to industry standards and the assembly is done correctly to avoid bigger, more costly issues that can crop up at later stages.
Typically construction inspections include some or most of the following:
- Inspecting the process to ensure all materials and procedures are in compliance.
- Field testing and material sampling of products such as soil composition and products used on site such as concrete, asphalt, paints and coatings, ect.
- Monitoring and documenting the quality of materials delivered for the work.
- Upkeep inspection checklists and records to ensure order, completion, and compliance.
- Ensuring the quality and safety of the installations.
- Reviewing specifications and drafts and looking for deviations or errors.
- Documenting and inspecting contractor activities and schedules.
- Reporting and organizing on-site inspections themselves, including reviewing completions of change orders.
- Organizing and following project meetings.
- Performing semi-final and final inspections upon project completion.
- Preparing punch lists and monitoring work wrapping up.
- Ensuring a smooth project closeout and handover inspections as a finishing task.
Inspect your Materials
Quality control inspections are important not only for ensuring the quality of the materials themselves, but their lifetime and safety. While safety and purity is the main concern, there is the financial aspect of making sure you get what you pay for, and don’t accidentally get charged for a more expensive material while being delivered, and using something cheaper by mistake. As in most issues, realizing a problem after completion may be significantly more cost-heavy, if not impossible to undo.
Damaged or faulty materials do happen, despite everyone’s best attempts to avoid such situations. Catching an error early will avoid articles that need replacing being used but also can potentially save issues around health and safety. Finding and replacing a faulty material during an inspection is an easy step towards keeping employees and users safe, keeping your company out of legal and financial detriments, and reducing the costs around poor quality of the final product.
Inspect your installation procedures
No matter how good your workers may be, accidents and issues can and do happen. This falls under the Health and Safety side to inspections. Below is a list of the most common inspection points when it comes to installations and safety;
- Preventing falls and protection systems for employees
- Structural stability
- Risk management for unauthorized access to site
- Work at heights
- Ladders and/or stepladders
- Storage spaces
- Personal protection equipment
- Platforms such as work platforms, scaffolds, and fall protection systems
- Vehicles and machinery working with installations
- Electrical systems
- Welfare facility organization and upkeep
- Risk of asbestos
- Site conditions and management
Inspections of installations include everything from managing outside risks such as safety and access to the more commonly known structural stability and safety at heights. Diligence in inspections and foresight of potential problems ensures safety as steps are added with the construction development, curbing potential issues and risks that may arise with time. As with most work, the end goal is safety, finances and resource management.
Keep track of your building assets
Your building assets encompass everything your company is using to complete a project; this includes but is not limited to machines, equipment, tools, and materials. Each asset needs to be tracked and inspected for inventory, safety, quality and repairs. Allowing for holes in inventory opens you up to issues of purchasing or missed maintenance which will in the long run result in increased costs of the project.
If you have multiple building sites, keeping track of inventory and it’s locations is even more vital, as assets can go missing, sustain damage during transportation or can be improperly filed and handled; this adds to finances and travel time and transportation, impacting bids and overall time on site.
Do things step-by-step with both your construction projects and your inspections
Proper Inspections at each step of the project can help reduce the amount of time and money spent on fixing mistakes, assets, or dealing with safety issues. Like the step-by-step approach to building, a similar mindset to inspections ensures compliance and clarity.
The quality measures of any construction project are scope, budget, and time of completion; well-defined and maintained inspection work supports and eases the planning and execution phases of any inspection.
Field Eagle is distinctly positioned to ease inspections by providing fast, secure, and easily accessible forms that can be customized, shared, updated, and filed in real-time, enhancing your ability to complete and keep track of all projects and inspections at all times and points in the inspection process.
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