Twelve questions to settle before work starts in your occupied building
Most of what goes wrong on an occupied job goes wrong because nobody settled these before the work started. Take them into the meeting. Write a name and a date against each one.
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01
Which areas stay in use, and who has the authority to say so?
Phasing follows occupancy. One person needs to own that decision, or it gets relitigated weekly.
Owner Date
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02
What is the notice period for anything that affects building users?
Agree the number of days now. It governs every shutdown, closure and reroute that follows.
Owner Date
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03
Which utilities cannot be interrupted, and what happens if one is?
Name the systems and the fallback. This is the question that turns into an incident when it goes unasked.
Owner Date
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04
Who verifies existing conditions before demolition or excavation, and how?
Record drawings on an older building are a starting point, not a survey. Decide who locates, and by what method.
Owner Date
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05
Where does the containment line sit, and how is it monitored?
A barrier is a commitment, not a partition. Agree who checks it, how often, and whether that check gets logged.
Owner Date
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06
What are the working hours, and what work is restricted to off hours?
Noise, dust and odor rules belong in the contract, not in a conversation after the first complaint.
Owner Date
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07
How do occupants move through the building while the work runs?
Egress, wayfinding and accessible routes need drawing, not improvising at the barrier.
Owner Date
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08
What access, badging or escort applies to the crew?
Secure and clinical settings add real time to every trade. Price it and schedule it, or absorb it later.
Owner Date
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09
Which inspections gate which phases, and who calls them?
Inspection sequence sets the critical path more often than production rates do.
Owner Date
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10
How are unforeseen conditions priced and decided, and how fast?
Agree the response time. On an occupied job, a slow answer costs more than the condition did.
Owner Date
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11
What gets documented daily, and who receives it?
Photographs, logs and readings taken as the work happens cannot be reconstructed afterward.
Owner Date
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12
What does closeout include, and when does it start?
Records, warranties and training are a deliverable. Starting them at the end is how they arrive thin.
Owner Date
Ask them of any contractor, including us. A contractor who cannot answer them yet is telling you something useful.
Take it with you
The PDF carries whatever you have typed into the Owner and Date columns. Tell us where to send it.
We follow up with a short series of planning notes. Reply stop to any of them and that is the end of it.