BoKlok Blog

Sometimes in traditional and D&B contracts, value engineering is seen as a way of making some extra money out of the contract. When you’re working for a main contractor, you sometimes get the feeling that the client thinks you are proposing something because you are getting the benefit from it.

That’s why I like what we do at Avebury as it’s not like that. We are working in a Construction Management role under a Direct Procurement Contract, so any savings we make as a result of changes go entirely back to the client. We are paid a fixed fee based on the build costs of the job, set at the production of the contract sum. This doesn’t change, unless client variations lead it to. What this does in effect is to improve the team spirit between the client and us, as they see us working to reduce the outturn costs by endeavouring to streamline the process. This in-turn reduces the potential for confrontation throughout the course of the development.

Which brings me to my revolutionary idea of the month. Everybody building timber frame will agree that scaffolding and it’s necessary adaptations to suit different trade requirements is a nightmare. We intend to strip the scaffolding immediately after roof finishes, and clad the outside of the buildings from 4 metre wide MEWP’s. This reduces scaffolding costs as we can strip in optimum time (two weeks!), and allows the groundworkers in earlier to begin stage 2 works and services. It seriously reduces risk as manhours at high level are significantly reduced, and as we are covering the roof at ground level with single ply, there is not need for loading bays or forklift trucks to load up materials at high levels.

What this adds up is a 10k saving on scaffold costs once MEWP hire etc is considered. This saving goes back to the client and can be held in the pot to spend elsewhere, or given back at final account.

Progress so far is OK. We’ve got through piling for all four blocks without incident. It’s always a bit of a finger biter until that’s done. The foundations are on programme over 50% complete so groundwork firm Young Construction deserves a bit of a plug.

The Boklok team arrived this month to inspect progress so far. I think they were quite shocked to see how much work we’ve had to do in the ground in Sweden they tend to build on Greenfield… so this site has been a shock! It’s a brownfield site with a CS3 Methane Gas rating so there’s a 600mm void under the floor slab which we’ve formed using Ventform from Cordek – that’s big lumps of polystyrene for anyone who doesn’t know. It allows us to maintain a flat cast insitu slab, which in my opinion suits timber frame as these’s no camber or edge fix difficulties common with precast floors.

This month also saw the installation of the first BoKlok panels. They come with most of the plasterboard already attached so we’ll go from foundation to second fix in three weeks which is just as well since we have to hand over the first block before Christmas.

The only blot on an otherwise beautiful landscape is my ongoing (and so far unsuccessful) investigation into how a bunch of miscreants could have stolen 60 linear metres of mains electric cable from site without anyone noticing. Since then we’ve installed registration readers round the site so that our project manager Chris Moore gets a report of when the security guards did their rounds. On the brighter side, our contract with the security firm does see them shouldering the risk for any lost materials. Defending the clients purse once again!