Punch List (Senior Living)
Walking the punch list on a large senior living facility is a multi-day, multi-party and exhausting event. Establish a detailed plan of attack to execute the punch list and share that plan with the team before doing the punch walk. That team should include representatives from the GC, architect, interior designer, operator and ownership. Don’t just have everyone show up on the punch walk day and think it is going to go smooth and fast - it won’t without a plan. Below are some tips to make the punch walk go smoother and faster.
If the areas that you are punch walking are big, you may want to split into multiple teams to divide and conquer. If you have hundreds of resident unit rooms, that could take a punch team(s) days to walk through. And in addition to the units, you still have to punch the exterior, common areas, and back of house. I have had a senior living project so big that we had to split into five teams, and it still took us four days to fully punch the project, and it resulted in a punch list with over 6,000 items.
The GC (or architect) should provide a recorder for each punch team, to write down the punch list items that the team identifies. That recorder can write down the punch items with pad a pencil, or there are some more sophisticated applications and software that can identify where a punch list item is on a set of plans, take a picture of the punch list item, and assign a responsible sub-contractor to fix it. I have found that taking a picture of a punch list item is helpful and can be done quickly, but identifying and marking where that punch list item is on a floor plan isn’t of much use to the subcontractors fixing the problem, and can really slow and bog down the recording process.
When the recorded records a punch list problem, he should include the room number, where the in the room the punch item is located, and a brief description of the problem. The team member that identifies a problem has to sit there next to that problem until they have confirmed the recorder wrote down the problem. If you identify a problem, but it doesn’t get written down, it won’t get fixed. You would be surprised at the amount of people on a punch list team that walk by, point at and call out a problem, then just keep walking on, not caring that it did not get recorded. They are just wasting time and not performing a good punch walk. If it does not get recorded, it will not get fixed. You don’t need people identifying problems, you need people fixing problems. Tell the punch walk team to sit there at the problem location until they are sure the recorder recorded it.
The recorder has to be fast and accurate. If she is slow, everyone is going to get frustrated, and will naturally want to just push through the punch list to get it over with. Team members will be less likely to point out a small issues that needs to be fixed, because everything is going so slow and they just want to get out of there. Most times, I require the GC to provide two recorders per punch walk team to ensure the team is not getting bogged down because the recorder is slow.
The GC should provide a roll of blue tape to each team member so that they can put a piece of tape on top of the issue that needs to get fixed (if applicable). This helps the subcontractor fixing the problem to easily identify the problem.
After you complete your punch list walk, the GC should consolidate those lists, and distribute them to the punch list team and to the subcontractors so they can start fixing stuff.
You as the development manager have to confirm all the punch list items were fixed. You shouldn’t just take the GC’s word for it. You can revisit the project site and re-walk the project with the punch list in hand and confirm everything got fixed. Or you can have the GC take a picture of everything that got fixed and put that picture next to the item on the punch list. Or since the operator’s maintenance manager should be onsite by then, you can have him walk through and ensure everything on the punch list got fixed. However, your operator will likely push back on tying up their maintenance manager's time for punch list items. Only after you have confirmed all the punch list items have been fixed should you deem that the project has achieved “final completion” and pay the GC their retainage payment. A GC’s retainage payment is a large amount of money for a reason – to motivate him to complete the punch list quickly so he can get that payment.
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Sometimes there may be some punch list items that the GC just can't complete quickly because of issues like long lead times. In that case, you may consider paying the GC the bulk of his retainage, and just withhold 150% of the value of the outstanding punch list items. For example, if your construction contract is for $30 million, your retainage is likely 5%, or $1.5 million. If the GC has completed all of the punch list except for a handful of items worth out $20,000, you shouldn't hold up his full $1.5 million retainage payment. Withhold $30,000 (150% of $20,000) for the outstanding punch list items, and pay him the balance.
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