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Leveraging Construction Progress Photography to Avoid Rework

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Leveraging Construction Progress Photography to Avoid Rework

How This Construction Pioneer Remains Ahead of Its Time By Utilizing Construction Photography

When building a state-of-the-art environmental science campus on the seaside bluff of a national marine sanctuary, 1888-founded General Contractor, Swinerton Builders, leveraged Multivista’s construction progress photography and documentation service to capture construction milestones and regular progress throughout this complex state-funded build.

Swinerton’s Project Manager, Jeff Stephenson, originally planned to leverage Multivista to meet the construction project’s progress photography requirement but found significant additional benefits throughout the 24-month project.

AVOIDING REWORK & DESTRUCTIVE VERIFICATION DELAYS

As the multi-use facility included both laboratories and offices for school personnel, in addition to progress photos, Multivista’s MEP Exact-Built® service was procured to capture the critical in-wall systems in each room before coverup.

Due to the vital nature of each laboratory, the Owner needed visual confirmation that the backing was installed. Stephenson turned to the project’s progress photos to provide the Owner the assurances they needed.

Each lab and office in the building required wall-hung cabinets, so proper backing was crucial for the stability of the casework install. During the casework install, the Owner’s Representative was away on vacation and, upon their return, they wanted to make sure that a number of important rooms had the backing installed per plans.

Instead of slowing the construction process down and tearing out freshly-painted drywall, I used Multivista’s progress photos to show the time lapse of the rooms in question - from wall framing install to final paint. The photos clearly showed the backing installed at the proper locations.

I estimate approximately $15,000 in rework savings by avoiding the destructive verification that would have been needed to confirm the backing installation - not to mention mitigating the schedule impact of that rework.

Jeff Stephenson - Swinerton Project Manager

AVOIDING REWORK WITH CONSTRUCTION PROGRESS PHOTOGRAPHY

Swinerton Builders leveraged the visual records to avoid rework on the same project soon after.

When the inspector returned to the project site and questioned the rust removal, Stephenson showed the inspector Multivista’s date-stamped and location-indexed images captured the day after the rust was removed.

Our project was on the coastline of the Pacific Ocean, which exposed all building elements to a corrosive, salt-water atmosphere, and our inspector noted some rusting on some exposed steel on the jobsite. We removed the noted rust, and the painter moved forward painting the steel.

As a result of the photos, we did not need to stop the painter’s progress. I estimate rework savings of approximately $12,000 by avoiding the need to strip and repaint the steel to prove the rust was removed.

Jeff Stephenson - Swinerton Project Manager

CONCLUSION: LASER FOCUS ON THE BUILD HELPS SAVE APPROXIMATELY $40K

With remote project stakeholders involved, providing regular project updates was critical. Multivista’s team of construction photo documentation specialists captured just under 12,000 progress and milestone images, which allowed Swinerton to share real-time construction progress without tying up critical resources.

Having Multivista also saved our PEs at least a couple hours a week, taking pictures and uploading them throughout the duration of the project. I estimate a savings of about $10,000 in salary time over the life of the project.

So just on these three items, our savings total almost $40,000 and that doesn’t take into account the amount of time we saved being able to navigate the site virtually by pinpointing exact locations based on your project mapping.

Jeff Stephenson - Swinerton Project Manager