When deciding to completely demo my office and rebuild I completed the project in 2 phases, the first without construction management, the second with Dustin from AQUILA. The difference was night and day. Dustin helped me navigate the labyrinth of Architects, contractors, subcontractors and inspectors. Nobody advocated for my best interest like AQUILA did! My only regret is not working with AQUILA sooner. I will never do a construction project without them again!”
– Dr. Gary Cash
Background
In 2020, Dr. Gary Cash was planning to remodel his dental practice. It was planned to be a small build-out and he was working with an architect specializing in small dentist office projects.
Dental office build-outs are highly specialized and require technical knowledge about how the construction needs to be done.
Dr. Cash did not hire a project manager for the first phase of his dentist office build-out. He was managing his own build-out and had no one to represent his interests.
Phase I: Completed Without a Project Manager
In the initial phase of the project, the architect and general contractor tried to complete the build-out without a permit. They decided in order to limit the amount of downtime for the doctor, they would remodel the reception and administrative areas first with just the architect’s plans and no MEP drawings.
Dr. Cash was told the build-out would only take one month to complete and would stay on budget. The build-out ended up taking three months and was significantly over budget due to change orders. These change orders happened because there was a lack of detailed construction drawings, which would have held the contractor to his original estimate.
Additionally, several things Dr. Cash requested to be included in the build-out were in dispute by the contractor for not being a part of the original budget. Dr. Cash was led to believe these things were in the initial budget but the general contractor ultimately argued that they were not and Dr. Cash had to pay more than the agreed-upon price.
Because Dr. Cash didn’t have a contract in place to protect him, he suffered downtime with his business and ended up paying more than he wanted to.
Phase II: Completed With AQUILA’s Project Management
After the initial phase finished over time and over budget, Dr. Cash decided he needed to hire a project manager to help protect his interests in the next phase. This phase was a more extensive complete remodel of the entire dental practice. It was imperative to stay on budget and limit his downtime as much as possible.
Dr. Cash decided to hire Dustin Hogzett with AQUILA to help him manage his project.
The same architect was kept on the project and Dustin brought an engineering group onboard to do a full set of MEP drawings.
The first thing Dustin did was instruct the general contractor to sign an industry-standard contract that set a firm completion date and dollar amount. This contract included the appropriate exhibits including MEP and construction drawings. These were important to put in place to protect Dr. Cash from change orders.
Dustin also brought a permit expediter on board for the project. The doctor had a tight window of time he wanted the project completed due to one of his employees taking maternity leave during that time. They were able to push through the permit and get it turned around quickly.
The general contractor began collecting competitive subcontractor proposals. After the contract had already been executed, the general contractor discovered the plumber on the job missed a fair amount of work shown on the plumbing drawings.
The general contractor immediately tried to request a change order to cover the cost of the work missed by the plumber but Dustin was able to refer him to the contract and protect Dr. Cash. The contract stated that all work shown in the drawings is reflected in the price agreed upon in the contract.
The plumber ended up walking off the job and the team still had an important deadline to meet. Dustin spoke to the general contractor and told him he could either find a new plumber or he would be terminated for cause. The general contractor found a new plumber and had to eat the additional cost of hiring him. Despite this, the team was able to quickly move forward with the project.
Results
With Dustin’s professionalism and expertise, he was able to navigate the second phase expertly and not repeat the history of Dr. Cash’s first phase. The team was able to complete the project on budget and close to on time, resulting in Dr. Cash’s ultimate satisfaction.
After the project was complete, it won the 2021 ADA Design Innovation Award for best remodel.
Dustin was able to hold the fire underneath the general contractor in order to execute on time and on budget while still maintaining quality that was so high it won an award.
| More Details | |
| Property Name | Dr. Gary Cash DDS |
| Architect | Fazio Architects |
| Size | 1,780 sf |
| Schedule | 4 Months |
| Completion | April 2021 |
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