Services
About Our Services
After 35 years in competitive bid contracting and another 22 years as forensic consultants, representing owners and contractors in claim disputes, Gibraltar has withdrawn from those segments of the market. However, it believes there remains a void in the industry portfolio of services that Gibraltar is well qualified to effectively fill and continue contributing to the industry.
While not all, many disputes Gibraltar participated in during the last 22 years, involved Florida Statute 558.004 claims. The parties involved typically include one plaintiff and as many as thirty or more defendants, including at least one general contractor, many, if not all, of its subcontractors, developers, professional services of various sorts, and others. At the end of the day, the plaintiff usually receives a lump sum of money in settlement. Now what?
The original claim included an estimate by consultants of what the projected costs would be to complete certain remediation. In addition, there were various add-ons for legal fees and costs, lost interest and perhaps some allowances for other exigencies. However, it is a rare instance when the plaintiff ultimately receives sufficient funds to fully fund all of these cost components. How does the plaintiff then proceed?
If the plaintiff is a board or committee, it is expected to have fiduciary and ethical responsibilities. However, the plaintiff usually does not have in-house or on-staff qualified individuals to guide a remediation contract through the labyrinth of defining scope, design, bidding, building, and closing out a successful project. This is the collection of services Gibraltar is prepared to offer. It serves as an unbiased assistant to guide a board, a committee, or single owner from well before ground-breaking to final completion.
If you are in this position or anticipate you may be shortly, talk to Gibraltar. We can help.
Review Scope
During the dispute, it is likely a number of reports were published. It is just as likely they included a number of different opinions. Gibraltar reviews the salient reports and makes a recommendation. It includes what it believes should comprise the overall scope, establishes a priority list of the tasks involved, identifying those items most urgent versus those that are not, those that can be resolved with a different approach, and those that can be delayed until funds are available without or with minimal consequential damages.
Very rough dollar values of magnitude are also addressed at this stage.
Engage Professionals
Depending upon the scope of the remedial work, its complexity, how far it departs from the original design, if at all, and a number of other considerations, it may or may not be necessary to engage an architect or professional engineer. Gibraltar will provide guidance in this decision and then assist in the selection of those professionals, if required. Gibraltar will work with the professionals to recommend certain, critical information/details are included in the drawings.
Similarly, if the remedial work justifies engaging a clerk of the works, Gibraltar will assist the owner in that individual’s selection.
Develop Documents
There are a number of critical documents required during the remediation work process. Examples include:
- Agreement with architect and/or engineer
- Bid invitation/form
- Agreement with Contractor
- Daily reports
- Job procedures
- Punch list format
- And more
Qualify Bidders
The qualification of bidders is frequently more complicated than commonly understood. Many approaches consist of attempting to get as many bidders as possible. While an argument can be made that this may obtain the lowest bid, it also can be deceptive. A lot of bidders committing to bid a project does not automatically convert into the same number of competent bids. It is Gibraltar’s opinion that it is more important to select potential bidders that (1) have demonstrated by previous work that they take the contract documents seriously and read them; (2) they will place sufficient, qualified supervision on the project for its duration; (3) if they indicate they are interested in bidding the project, they actually submit a competitive bid and minimum risk exists that, if a more attractive project comes along before bid time, this project gets dropped in preference for the latter project; they have a history of satisfied owners and architects; and more. Gibraltar supports and assists in the effort to satisfy these goals, fully understanding the system is not foolproof.
Coordinate Meetings
There are a number of important meetings that are conducted relative to bidding a project, i.e. initial planning meeting, one or more briefing meetings with the owner, pre-bid meeting, pre-construction meeting, and a number of special meetings during the course of the project, such as specialty contractor meetings. At the owner’s preference, Gibraltar is available to conduct or attend any of these meetings.
Review Project Documents
If new contract documents are not used, the existing contract documents need to be reviewed to verify that several certain, critical provisions and details are included. Consistently, designers for multifamily construction insert language like “in accordance with the Florida Building Code" or "with the manufacturer’s recommendation”, or similar. This convention is unacceptable and frequently leads to improper installations. The critical provisions, (specifications, and details), must be included in the contract documents. No matter how conscientious the contractor, the field supervision does not know all the requirements of the Codes and all the other industry requirements. They need to see it on the contract documents in front of them when they build the work.
If new contract documents are used, they need to be reviewed to verify the same critical provisions are included. Gibraltar has repeatedly seen remediation work built with the same failed details used previously or omitted entirely.
Value Engineer
Value engineering is a useful tool to help achieve the goals of the owner; either comparable work at lesser cost, or higher quality features at no additional cost. It should be accomplished at no detriment to the contractor. It can be approached at several levels with several strategies. Gibraltar is intimately familiar with value engineering and will recommend and assist in the implementation of the strategy most beneficial for the project.
Oversee Performance
Regardless of the reputation or qualifications of the contractor, an inspection program of some type should be put in place for the benefit of the contractor and the owner. The obvious purpose is to identify defective or omitted work early; have it corrected and completed properly thereafter. However, the risk of defective work is not always because the tradesperson doesn’t know how to accomplish the task properly, but thinks that he/she does, or more rarely, because the tradesperson deliberately performs the work incorrectly because it is easier or because he doesn’t care. Non-conforming work may be accomplished because of a misunderstanding of the contract documents by the contractor. It is in the best interest of the contractor and the owner to provide certain field inspection. It can be done by the clerk of the works, if one is assigned, or periodically on a contract basis by a third party. There may be other options as well. Gibraltar will recommend the best method for the nature of the project and assist in its implementation.
Implementing a quality control or inspection program should have several levels. A meeting with each trade contractor before it begins work is critical to review the requirements of the project. If a clerk of the works is employed or a third party, it is likely some training is appropriate before those parties begin their inspections. Again, Gibraltar is available to implement this training to the extent it is deemed appropriate by the owner.
Complete Punch List
A punch list is not necessarily a list of deficiencies/omissions that is prepared only at the end of a project. Punch lists should be prepared as each trade approaches completion of its work as well. There are a number of reasons for this. For instance, it prevents subsequent denial by the trade arguing that it wasn’t like that when it left the job, or allowing subsequent trade’s work to build over the previous trade’s deficiency or omission. Punch list inspections should be organized, with check lists prepared before the inspection is made so that disruptions do not create omissions. Gibraltar can organize these punch lists to the extent requested.
Keep Owner Apprised
This task can take several forms. It may mean weekly or monthly meetings with a single individual or attending association board meetings for briefings, or some other written report format. Whatever works best for the owner is accommodated by Gibraltar.
A final comment in this regard. The ‘owner’ is frequently a board or some other group of members. Occasionally, there is a recalcitrant member of this group that has the ability to create discontent. It may be a disgruntled contractor that knows all about construction and disagrees with the board’s or Gibraltar’s approach; it may be an architect or engineer with views contrary to Gibraltar’s recommendations; it may just be a disruptive member; or it may be a member that wants his or her brother-in-law to perform all or some piece of the work. Gibraltar has faced these types of disagreements. It works with these individuals in an effort to resolve the issue if possible. Additionally, Gibraltar’s presence helps to remove pressure from the rest of the board. If you have experienced this sort of interface, it is no small matter at the time and can be very distracting and problematic.