How to Ensure Your Construction Project Remains on Schedule This Winter
You’re always trying to keep projects on schedule, but winter weather can complicate things. Since the construction industry is still struggling to catch up after the pandemic, strategizing new ways to keep your work on schedule this winter will safeguard your plans.
Use these ideas to plan for emergencies and prevent them from happening, even when the occasional winter storm rolls through town.
Photo by Pedro Miranda
1. Plan More Sizable Budgets
Before starting a new project, plan more room in the budget than you’d typically estimate. Ongoing labor shortages still directly affect the cost of materials by slowing production. Purchasing will be costly when items are available.
Recent reports show that the industry still needs over 650,000 workers to meet demand, so prices will continue to rise to accommodate overproduction schedules for materials. Since there’s no slowdown expected soon, working with slightly bigger budgets prevents a lack of supplies from being a winter construction issue.
2. Estimate More Break Time
People can only work in extreme weather conditions for so long. Construction managers wouldn’t expect their teams to work an entire shift in 100-degree weather. They shouldn’t expect the same in cold or freezing temperatures.
Scheduling purposeful breaks more frequently will keep every employee at peak productivity. Having numerous opportunities to warm up and rehydrate also prevents injuries due to stiff limbs or exhaustion.
3. Schedule Preventive Maintenance
Winter weather creates a more emphasized need for equipment and machinery maintenance. Rust is a significant problem with more frequent water-heavy weather conditions, along with the need for more lubrication and time to warm up.
Scheduling preventive maintenance between projects and before each workday ensures that no unseen issues cause emergencies. Something as simple as checking parts of a diesel generator could prevent power outages that increase on-site safety risks and delete data stored in servers. Team leaders could pick who performs the upkeep on a rotating schedule so everyone shares the responsibility.
4. Watch for Seasonal Damage
In-progress structures are also at risk of winter damage. There’s no way to cover an entire site at the end of each day, so watching for problems and inspecting sites frequently is the best way to mitigate potential destruction and delays.
Consider what happens when the temperature goes above freezing. The warm weather melts the snow, but that water freezes again during the night. When it freezes between roof panels or framing, it expands and causes leaks that often go unnoticed.
Construction crews that note problems too late will find that repairing or replacing the damage could cost more delays and budget space than anyone can afford.
5. Optimize Project Plans
Although construction managers want to plan for every possible scenario, it’s impossible to predict the future. Instead, keep an open mind about returning to the modeling stage if winter weather delays a project.
Using a CAD drawing to modify a foundation with precast concrete or build room for a different heater model could reduce delays to the final deadline. Instead of waiting weeks or months for a new materials shipment, a more economical and timely solution could reveal itself using modeling software to optimize the project.
6. Check the Drainage Systems
Management teams should note how the property soil drains when a project begins. They should also follow up with any installed gutters. Construction debris often blocks both drainage systems, causing water buildup that damages ongoing work.
The Building America Solution Center (BASC), with the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), directs residential construction teams to create a half-inch slope for every 10 feet around a home. Establishing that final grade as early as possible ensures surface water runs away from the project when snow or ice melts.
Clearing gutters could also be a team’s bi-weekly responsibility during periods with occasional storms. The extra work could save a structure’s integrity and prevent the property from washing away before the final grade slope is established.
7. Host Hazard Assessment Meetings
Anyone in charge of a construction team should watch the weather continually. Consider starting each day with hazard assessment meetings that address how the weather may impact the team’s day, commute home, and daylight or nighttime work.
Those meetings are also a chance to review how to lock the site down in an emergency evacuation. The team will know how to protect the equipment while staying out of danger and if the weather could disrupt their upcoming work.
8. Purchase More Stock Than Needed
Future materials delays are almost guaranteed, given the ongoing worker shortage. Purchasing more stock than needed when supplies are available will mitigate potential delays after a project begins.
Construction managers can also store leftover materials from finished projects in a warehouse for future use. You never know what a site might need and when things will run out. Keeping whatever’s still usable could save the day on a tight schedule this winter.
Keep Your Construction Project on Schedule
It can be challenging to monitor a construction project and ensure it remains on schedule during the winter. It’s even more difficult when the industry is trying to catch up with demand. Use these tips to plan for potentially damaging situations and avoid costly mistakes that could keep projects from being completed on time.
Author : Rose Morrison
