Before you sign the lease on your next dental practice, you’re going to need to gather as much information about the space as you can. Many times, existing floor plans and CAD files aren’t good enough. According to Design Ergonomics Practice Liaison Victoria Paquin, “We often seem to never have all the information. Plans aren’t as accurate as they should be.” According to Business Dictionary, As-Builts are “a revised set of drawings submitted by a contractor upon completion of a project or a particular job” - drawings that represent the existing conditions of your space. This is one definition...we’ll get to another (more realistic) definition later.
Here’s how it’s supposed to work. Let’s just say you are negotiating a lease with a unit in a shopping center. The original drawing of the unit exhibits a blank space - like, before it became a furniture store. It’s been vacant for three years. Now, you want to turn that furniture store into a dental office. Contractors are responsible for recording any physical change in a space including changes in scale; roadblocks along the way; dates when changes were made; changes in materials, etc. That is a lot of information - and it hardly ever happens.
We are a dental office design firm. To meet the demand of our customers and their timelines, we take the plans they are provided from the real estate transaction and help them with a layout. This can help sort out if they want to pursue the space and/or what to negotiate, having everything they want fit in the physical space or outline changes that would be a better fit for the design (like moving a door). However, the plans provided to the doctor are typically the plans that were issued permits when the building was built. Without a contractor providing updates of all the discrepancies they ran across during their construction, we are left with what was intended to be built, not exactly what was built. This carries over to the next party, transferring inaccurate information, with the last in line - the contractor. Contractors need to work efficiently to get the practice built in the timeline they quoted and often make changes on the site that can cause the need for further charges in change orders. When they do this, they aren’t updating any plans and sending them back to you and the cycle continues!
All of this because the accurate information was never provided upfront. A foot - 12 little inches - matters! Every inch matters. We have seen projects run $30,000 over budget in “change orders” because the original plan was 3’ off - not to mention the project delays. There is a reason why lending institutions allocate funds for construction first. They are expecting problems to occur.
According to a recent article published by Digital Builder, Grace Ellis writes, “just 31% of all projects came within 10% of the budget in the past three years.” Later on in the article, she explains, “Although extreme weather or forces beyond human control can impact budgets, in most cases, a project’s overrun is a result of inaccurate analysis or planning”.
TRUST BUT VERIFY
How are you supposed to know if the plans handed to you are accurate and reflect your space in actuality? Here’s where we get to the second definition of “As Builts”, and it’s the one you’re more likely to run across. Because you often can’t trust the plans you’re given, you need someone to visit the site as you are in the process of obtaining it; even better if that someone knows the ins and outs of dental practice construction. They can thoroughly inspect, measure and draw up the site as it currently exists! Costly items such as HVAC units need consideration up front, a dental office needs are much different than a furniture store. Understanding the upgrades and updates needed before construction begins will allow doctors to plan appropriately, instead of cutting check after check to whatever reason deemed necessary during construction. Working from an accurate starting point, your designer can then provide a floorplan that avoids unpleasant surprises. By being proactive, realistic expectations are set and budgeting can finally happen before a project starts, not mid-way through when you’ve already committed a great deal of time and a big chunk of an investment.
70% of projects run over time and over budget. Design Ergonomics is out to change the way an entire industry has always done it… yet again. 😉 We understand how important it is to get the project right the first time with enough budgeted funds available for dental equipment to treat the patient who deserves outstanding dental care. Before you sign that lease, contact us.
Merry Christmas Docs! It has been a remarkable year. Thank you for reading this blog, trusting its content and ultimately working with Design Ergonomics, Ergonomic Products and Reboot Practice Productivity Training.
To learn more about As-Builts with confirmed field verification, contact us.
