14 Mistakes Contractors Make: Are You Guilty of Any of Them?

As a contractor, there are many mistakes you could make but that doesn’t mean you have to. At ECL Software, we’ve made it our business to help clients find easy ways to communicate, control construction funds, and more. Read on to learn some of the most common contractors make and ask yourself if you’re guilty of them.

Don’t underestimate the cost of mistakes

Depending on what happens, your mistake could cost the job site a lot more than you realize. Any mistake that leads to any type of delay, loss of productivity from the crew, or any other type of disruption can have a big impact. In many cases, claims are lost – or their value is significantly reduced – due to being careless or making a mistake.

When the owner needs to see how professional the contractor is they’re going to look at their planning and management track record. They’re going to look at the original schedule to see how it matches up. A mistake in scheduling can result not just in delays on one particular project, but in a loss of future business when our client isn’t happy with the way the work progressed.

Mistakes in scheduling can ruin your credibility

It’s essential to pay close attention to the schedule process and to ensure that everyone is on board. At ECL Software, we have created JIDO, which stands for “just do it once.” This tool is meant to help keep your company on track throughout the construction process.

14 scheduling mistakes that may be made by a contractor

Of course, if we were to list every possible mistake you could make, this would be a very long blog post. The following 14 scheduling mistakes are often made during the initial scheduling. We’ve borrowed them from courts and boards of contract appeal to see what the most common mistakes are:

Lack of proof for the info that was used to create the schedule.
Not considering all needed resources.
Making errors in technical logic
Not considering weather restraints
Not completing the schedule
Not carefully considering how to procure critical materials
Not considering the physical restraints
Not properly considering the economics involved in the sequencing
Not considering the level of risk / uncertain when establishing durations
Eliminating float by increasing durations
Logic that deviates from the actual way in which the contractor plans to build
Having a schedule that doesn’t meet up with the anticipated means, methods, or estimate
Use of unrealistic durations and / or productivity
Submitting a schedule to the owner that’s not the schedule that was used for the project

Some of these mistakes are more than just errors – they’re actions that a contractor has to willingly and knowingly take. It’s easy to skip those actions, but the mistakes that are simply that – mistakes – may seem harder to avoid. Let ECL Software keep you on the straight and narrow.

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