What are preliminaries in construction?

Construction of any kind can take some time between the start and completion, thanks to the selection of the building site, the approval of the drawings, and the signing of the contracts.  Add in a few more preliminaries and it could be weeks before you even start to dig into the soil and lay down the foundation!  While you may be tempted to skip over a few of the preliminaries, they do make life easier once the entire construction process begins.

The Preliminaries in Construction

The Clean-Up Process

While it would be wonderful if you could find a piece of land that is ready to go, that rarely happens when it comes to construction!  You may spend days cutting down trees, digging up stumps and roots, clearing out the jungle of weeds and old plants, and removing any garbage that has collected over the years.  The goal is to get this completed as quickly as possible, but it is worthwhile to spend the necessary time on it, so you do not need to stop what you are doing later on to fix something that was missed.

Get Everything Level

Huge holes, divots, excess soil, too little soil, and even rows upon rows of tire tracks will all need to be levelled out before the real work can begin on the construction site.  While it would be wonderful if you could just level out the entire area with the soil that you have available, chances are that you will need to bring additional soil in the do the job properly.  This is also the time to make sure that the ground level is at the height that you want it, because making changes later can be extremely difficult.  You must plan ahead and have the amount of soil that you will need delivered in advance or you will find yourself waiting around and doing nothing until it arrives.

Installing Fencing

Fencing is important at construction sites, because it keeps people who are not supposed to be there out.  Plus, the fencing will keep all your equipment and tools safe and secure.  While you can choose to create a permanent boundary wall, a temporary fence is the option that most construction companies choose.  Signboards can then be attached to the fence, so everyone knows the rules of the job site.  Those signs can remind people to put a hardhat on prior to entering the fenced in area or to remind people that they do not belong there if they are not an employee.  Signs can also be put up to state who is working on the project and what the finished project will be.

Add a Site Office

There is no way that you are going to want to drive back and forth to your real office all the time when you need to get something done. That is why you will want to add a site office to the job site.  A large mobile building usually does the trick and is helpful if you are storing computers and other technological items and papers inside.  However, if you just need a place to go and stay out of the elements, a tarp or tent can work as well.  Most people avoid the tent option though, because they want their clients to feel comfortable when they are visiting the job site.

Create a Storage Area

There is no way that any of your materials, or tools and equipment, can stay safe if they are out in the open.  Yes, a fence can help keep people out of the job site area, but if they see something that they want through the fence, chances are they will climb over the fence to get it!  Therefore, it is imperative to create a storage area somewhere on the job site.  You can have one massive storage area for everything, or you can create a couple smaller ones to hold different items.  You may want to make sure that your storage area keeps out the elements, because some materials can become wrecked if they are introduced to water or the cold.

Create a Break Area

Depending on where you live and work, a break area can come in handy for all the workers at the job site.  This is a spot where they can go to get out of the cold or away from the sun during their breaks and lunch.  It is also an excellent spot for them to hang out if it starts raining really hard and work needs to come to a halt for a short time.  This ensures that no one wanders away from the site for long periods of time and that no one is getting in the way while others are trying to finish up some work.  Yes, your office can work as a break area, but then you never know who will be in there when you really need to get some work completed.

Create Road Access

You will have many different materials delivered throughout the entire construction project, so you must have road access available to the trucks that are arriving and departing daily.  It is important to create these road access points, so that they can be easily driven on at any point of the construction process.  Plus, they should be located in areas that make it easy to get to the site office and storage areas.

Utility Connections are Necessary

You are going to need power and water at the construction site before you can start to do any of the work.  The power will be necessary for you to use some of your equipment and tools, as well as computers and printers.  The water will come in handy for the bathrooms in the site office and break area.  You may be tempted to skip the water and use a porta-potty and antibacterial hand gel.  However, water will make everything easier for you and your employees, as well as the clients that will be visiting you on site.

These are eight of the preliminaries that need to be accomplished before the construction work can begin on a job site.  Of course, all these items need to be completed after the design is approved, the contracts are signed, and the budgets are determined.

Therefore, you can say that there are preliminaries and then there are additional preliminaries that always need to be completed before the foundation can be poured and the walls begin to go up.