STANDARD FORM OF CONTRACT

Contract document is a very important document that every personal cannot afford to missed out. Failure to understand the content of this document can lead to essential legal aspect of a contract which in the end will lead to major financial losses. In view of this consequence, it is good to first familiarised ourselves with the standard form of contract. The reason why this is important mainly due to that all contract will be prepared base on standard form of contract. Any extra requirement or specification normally will be added in as special condition of contract.

Base on my observation, most of the personal especially contractor, always neglect this aspect during the tendering process. This missing stage in tendering always resulted to contractor under price or under estimated the actual construction cost. If only this practice had not been skip, there will be lots of unnecessary losses to bare by parties involved. Under priced or under estimated always happened with the lump sum contract where bill of quantity is not provided in the tender document. Usually lump sum contract will only mention on the major works that need to be completed. for example, there is item describe as preliminaries and general, however it was not been elaborate further. For instance, there is no detail item spell out in the bill of quantity such as compliance to DOSH (Department of Occupational Safety and Health) act or environmental act or also compliance to local statutory and regulatory. In actual fact all of this had been spelled out in the standard form of contract.

As construction personal all of the standard form of contract contents and also special condition of contract just cannot been separate from the tendering process. For our further reference please refer to our respective nation or department that we deal with for the standard form of contract. The standard form of contract link that I include here might be useful to us.

STANDARD FORM OF CONTRACT.

JKR SARAWAK STANDARD FORM OF CONTRACT.

MALAYSIA JKR STANDARD FORM OF CONTRACT 203A(REV.2007)

MALAYSIA JKR STANDARD FORM OF CONTRACT FORNOMINATED SUPPLIER 203P

MALAYSIA PAM STANDARD FORM OF CONTRACT 2006(WITH BQ)

ROAD CONSTRUCTION SCOPE OF WORKS

Road construction is a Simple construction works compare to building work. This is mainly due to the reasons that in road construction there is not so many component of works that need to be done.

The major component of the Roadworks are only as listed below.

1. Survey and setting Out.
2. Site clearing
3. Earthwork.
4. Preparation of the Sub-grade.
5. Sub-base
5. Road-Base
6. Laying of Binder course
7. Laying of Wearing course
8. Road marking.
9. Drainage works
10. Road furniture( Signage/Guardrail & etc.)
11. Road marking
12. Bridge (if required under contract)
13.Traffic Lights (if required under contract).

However for building works, there is lots of components that need to be done in order to complete a building. The major component works are as follows;

1. Survey and setting out
2.Earthwork
3.Piling works.
4.Foundation works.
5. Stump
6. Beam
7. Slab
8.Slab
9.Wall
10.Staircase
11. Roof truss
12. Roofing
13. Internal cold water system
14. External water reticulation
15. Sewerage system
16. Internal electrical wiring System
17. External electrical wiring System.
18. Ventilation system
19. Finishing work ( Painting & Tiling )
20. Fencing & gate.
21. Door and windows.
22. Landscaping.
23. ect....

Building work consists of many trades compare to roadwork. For more detail list for the roadworks, please navigate here. This Roadworks scope of work list can be download for free.

Setting Out of Column Vertical Alignment

Column Vertical Alignment is very important in order to construct a straight vertical building. Now a days, setting out of the vertical alignment had been made easy with the advance technology such as leaser beam device. However in the event that the device that you are using is found faulty, do you know how to continue doing your work without the aid of that technology? In order for you to construct a true vertical column, the first thing that you need to get it right is the formwork itself

In view of this kind of situation, it is always good that we know the primitive way of doing it. All that you need are;
1. Measuring tape,
2. string,
3. timber and
4. Plumbob or heavy material that can pull the string straight (downward)

This primitive way does not even require any usage of Spirit Level.

All you need to do is assemble those. The picture below is how you need to assemble all that basic equipment as mention above. As mention earlier, to get a straight vertical column, first you need your formwork to set correctly. Hence from the picture shown, you can always replace the reinforce concrete column with your fabricated formwork. Once you get your vertical alignment correct, you can secure your formwork from moving. The same goes if you are installing timber type column.

How do you know that your column is vertically straight? What you need to know is the measurement of X1 is the same measurement for X2 and measurement for Y1 having the same measurement value as Y2.

Basic reinforce concrete beam formwork component.

Reinforce concrete structure when constructed using conventional method is as easy as industrial building system. The basic is always about Setting out, formwork, concreting work, bar bending work and installation of each of these component. All it takes is practice and practice until perfect. Below is picture of basic formwork component. All component are built with timber.

PICTURE 1: FALSEWORK

PICTURE 2: FORMWORK

PICTURE 3: PARTIALY COMPLETE FORMWORK INSTALLATION.

PICTURE 4: COMPLETE BASIC FORMWORK INSTALLATION

Guideline For Project Quality Plan

Project Quality plan is an essential document that any contractor or consultant must have. It is the life line of a project that will ensure the end product that is going to be delivered to client meet all the requirement and specifications. Some how, most of contractor does not have any idea on how to come out with this Project Quality Plan. Below is the the guideline on what shall be include in the Project Quality Plan. In other words, Project Quality Plan contents.

1. INTRODUCTION.

    1.1 Contract Particulars
    1.2 Project Description
    1.3 Site Plan
    1.4 Master Work Program

2.0 PROJECT MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION
    2.1 Project Team
          2.1.1 Project Team Organization Chart
          2.1.2 Roles and Responsibilities
    2.2 Quality Assurance and Quality Control Team (QA/QC)
          2.2.1 QA/QC Team Organization Chart
          2.2.2 Roles and Responsibilities
    2.3 Manpower And Machineries on Site
          2.3.1 List of Manpower
          2.3.2 List of Machineries

3.0 DOCUMENT AND DATA CONTROL
      3.1 Project Files
      3.2 Incoming Project Files
      3.3 Outgoing Project Files
      3.4 Distribution / Control of Drawings

4.0 QA/QC ON CONSTRUCTION PROCEDURES
      4.1 Method Statement
      4.2 Laboratory Testing
      4.3 Submission and Approval of Materials
      4.4 Handling, Storage And Delivery
      4.5 Machinery And Equipment Controls
      4.6 Inspection And Test
      4.7 Non-Conforming Works And Actions To Be Taken

5.0 QA/QC IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
      5.1 Standard Forms and Checklist
      5.2 QA/QC Monthly Report
      5.3 Inspection And Test Plan
      5.4 QA/QC Records
      5.5 QA/QC Audits.

Tender Estimation

Winning a tender is a tricky process that any contractor have to endure with. There is some criteria that contractor need to meet in order for us to be recommend as potential contractor for a project. Among the requirement are;
1. Cash flow ( Financial Capacity)
2. Plan, Machinery,Equipment, Labour and technical staff.
3. Work Experience
4. Current Work load
5. Achievements
6. Reputations
7. Project Pricing.
8. Communication and negotiation skills.

However out of all the listed above, Project Pricing always become the turning point for a contractor. This will determine weather we will win the project or not. Most of contractors will fulfils all the above requirements that will qualified them for the tender. When this situation happened the other factor will be the pricing. The question is What is the average cost that contractors offered. From our experience, the normal practice, all those contractor which offered the cost that is with in 15% below and above the average pricing will be consider for next stage of evaluation.

In some country, most of tendering period will take about 3 weeks to 1 month from the date of a project are publish to allow contractor to make calculation and submit their bid on the tender closing date. Very often bidders will rely on the "schedule of rates" which is publish by Public Work department. In my opinion this practice by contractor is quite dangerous. Why? The reason is the publish "Schedule of Rate (S.O.R)" is normally base on the past year record. Hence it might not relevant at the point of tendering. Because of this some adjustment have to be made to this "S.O.R" by contractor which will not reflect the current market price. In view of this, we believe that having our own estimation will be more accurate.

Doing price estimation is not and easy work. Contractor need to do
1. Quantity take of, 
2. Numbers and type of equipment required, 
3. Duration needed to complete each scope of work, 
4. Current market rate for each and every item that had been identify to complete the project, 
5. Activities involve for each scope of work, 
6. Management cost for supervising the project, 
7. Profit margin, unknown risk to contractor in executing their work and 
8. also some public relation cost.

By listing all of this item, contractor already minimised error in cost estimation and had help contractor to control their losses and at the end of the day, contractor will be able to offered a competitive project cost for a tender.

There is lots of software and manual form that can be use to do this estimating work. The picture below is what I use to do mine.

This is a screen shot for some of the form that I create for my tendering purpose.

As for the "S.O.R" that had been mentioned earlier in this article, there is some set of rules and guideline that contractor had to be abide with to ensure that their estimation is not out of date. For instance, S.O.R publish this year is base on Last year average market price, therefore to use this S.O.R in our tender estimation, contractor have to allow for some increase in price for current year. Say 5% increase. Apart from that, contractor must also determine the S.O.R is publish for which area and the percentage increment according to distance from that particular location. By Using this method it eliminate almost all of the process that i bold earlier. Save time!!!!.

Ask ourself, are we satisfied with the estimation we did by using S.O.R? Do we know What is the actual cost for the project? How much is the Profit Margin? How much is the unknown cost we allow? and if we have to go through pricing negotiation with the future client, How much lower are we willing to go for? 5% discount, 10% discount on the offered price? we might have no idea. At the end we will say we cannot afford to give discount. The key to this are what are the estimate for actual construction cost, how much is the unknown risk that we allow for and how much is the profit margin? Only you know.

Happy tendering.

Free sample of External Drain Inspection Check List

Quality control of a product in construction is very important part of construction work. Below is sample of inspection check list for external drain construction work.  Right click  on the image to have a clear view.

How to estimate earthwork construction period.

How to estimate the duration required to complete Earthwork Excavation? Estimation on the numbers of days required to complete the task by utilisation of machinery does not required complex calculation. All it take is simple mathematics and some knowledge on the efficiency of  machine capability.  Below is an example of the calculation.

1. Quantity of the Earthwork Excavation = 1000 cu.m.

2. The machinery needed = Excavator and Lorries 

     Assumption : 1 no. of Excavator and 1 no. of lorry required.

                        : Excavator need 3 minutes to make a cycle of excavation works.

                        : Excavator Capacity = 1.5 cu.m

                        : Lorries capacity =  10 ton

                        : Lorry need 5 minutes to make a cycle of transportation.

                        : Specific Gravity of the earth = 2.7

Base on the assumption, the calculation is as follows;

         a) Duration required to fill a 10 ton lorry 

              : 10 ton lorry bucket capacity = 10/2.7 = 3.7 cu.m

              : cycle require to fill the lorry bucket = 3.7/1.5 = 2.4666 Cycle or 3 cycle.

              : hence, time required for filling the lorry = 3 cycle X 3 minutes = 9 minutes

         b) Duration required for lorry to complete a cycle of transporting and unloading =5 minutes

              : Therefore total  time taken for one cycle of earthwork = 9 minutes + 5 minutes = 14 minutes.

              : 14 minutes is required to complete 3.7 cu.m of earthwork.

         c) Duration required to complete 1000 cu.m earthwork;

             : 1000 cu.m / 3.7 cu.m = 270.27 cycle = 271 cycle.

             : hence, time require to complete 1000 cu.m earthwork = 271 cycle X 14 Minutes = 3794 minutes

            

         d) Number of working hours per day = 8 hours

             

         e) Convert the Duration in minutes into days;

             : 3794/ (8 X 60) = 7 days.

Therefore total number of days to complete the 1000 cu.m of earthwork (cutting and cart away for a short distance) by utilised 1 number of excavator and 1 number of 10 ton lorry is 7 days. Hence your construction period is only 7 days. However this example is excluding number of unworkable day due to rain.

If the number of lorry is going to be increase to 2 then some correction can be make to the duration required to complete the whole cycle by by 5 minutes. this is because the waiting time for the excavator can be reduce by 2.5 minutes each for both lorry. Therefore the complete cycle can be consider as 9 minutes only.

With this free example hope that you will have nice time to plan for your earthwork construction.

               

RFI (Request for inspection) sample

REQUEST FOR INSPECTION
CONTRACT NO: PROJECT TITLE:
REFERENCE NO:			DATE:
TO:			ATTENTION:
ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT BY: DATE:
We hereby request for inspection on : For the following work:(Tick in the box below (√))
BUILDING WORK
Boundary setting out		Building setting out			Setting out ( specify):
earthwork		Foundation			Beam		Column
Staircase		Reinforcement			Formwork		Roof truss
Slab		Perimeter drain			Apron slab		Wall/partition
Roof covering		Door frame			Door leave		Window frame
Window leave		Rain water drain Pipe			Gutter		Plastering
Painting		Floor Screeding			Floor tile		Wall tile
Water Proofing		Septic tank			Other :
CIVIL WORK
Earthwork		Road subgrade			Road sub base		Road base
Sewage manhole		Waste water manhole			Drain Alignment		Road Alignment
Road side drain		Flexible Pavement			Fencing		culvert
Road kerb		Road Marking			Signages
Mechanical & Electrical works
Internal water pipe		External Water pipe			Water tank		switches
conduit		wiring			Power point		Lighting
Lightning arrester		MCB			DB		MSB
Cold water fitting & accessories					Electrical fitting & Accessories
Other:
Location:
SO/SOR/RE/COW The above work inspected on : Inspected by:			Witness By Contractor: Signature: Date:
Approved (      )                  Not Approved (      ) Remarks:

Related Topic:
RFI
Request For Information 2010
Request for information form 2012
Inspection form for reinforcement installation
Document control and Correspondance Document Register

Material approval log form

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Construction of Brickwall

Construction of a wall is a prominent activity in a building work. building wall are categorised in two that is External Wall and Internal wall which is including the inside building partition. Building wall can be build using various material. Among them are masonry, Timber, concrete, metal and mixture of material which can be call composite. Each of this material have their own construction method to ensure the integrity of the building. However over here we will focus on masonry wall.

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Masonry wall

Timber wall

Metal wall (decorative)

Concrete wall

Masonry wall usually come in three variance of thickness. The three variance are Half brick wall, one brick wall and double brick wall. The construction of these three variance of thickness is actually the same. below is how the construction of the masonry wall a done.

Step 1:
setting out of the wall position by method of string and plumbob.

Plumbob

 setting out of the wall position shall be in accordance with the architectural construction drawings.

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Step 2:
construction of the wall base follows after step 1. construction of this foundation consist of  a layer cement mortar (usually 1:3 ratio) , a layer of Exmet wire embedded in the cement mortar, a layer of damp proof course and the top layer is another layer of cement mortar.

Step 3:
Immediately after the top layer of the foundation, a layer of masonry shall be lay with the guidance of the previously installed string. This string will ensure the verticality and horizontal line of the wall.

Step 4:
On the top of the masonry layer, another layer of cement mortar shall follow. This process shall continue until it reach the fourth course of the masonry layer.

step 5:
Right after the fourth course of the masonry layer, another layer of cement mortar shall be laid follow by a layer of exmet wire then covered with another layer of cement mortar.

Step 6:
Repeat the process from step 3 until step 5. All the process shall be the same until the whole piece of wall is complete.

Step 7:
After the completion of the masonry work for the wall. the next sequence of the activity will be wall cover up using cement mortar. The covered up work is called plastering.

The construction of the masonry wall is relatively easy. However do not overlook on the the housekeeping process. I Stressed the words of housekeeping here because many masonry layer usually failed to cleaned the excess mortar that drop on the ground just next to the foundation. This excess must be cleaned before it get hardened. If this excess not cleaned it will affect the work of the plasterer and also the floor renderer.

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