Construction Related Services
Construction Phase Services
Singer Paul Simon once wrote a song entitled 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover. In the construction industry, there are 50 ways to overcharge your client. For this reason, OASTER provides Christian ministries with Construction Phase Services. These services assure church leadership and staff that they will receive what they pay for, and that the price they pay is fair and reasonable.
Over the past thirty five years we have seen Christian ministries taken advantage of by the building industry, even while having knowledgeable people on the church board or building committee. The fact is, when you have dozens of sub-contractors and hundreds of suppliers competing with others to provide services and materials to a church’s project, someone is going to want more than their fair piece of the pie. At OASTER, our experience goes far deeper than a college degree in project management could. Our roots are in construction, having started with a tool bag, hammer, and hardhat. Having been a general contractor, specializing in church construction with more than two hundred church projects under our belt, we know how churches should be built and we know what to watch out for.
Construction Phase Services by OASTER, not only provide your church leadership team with peace of mind, but also act as an insurance policy against an industry often known for unethical behavior.
Oaster Construction Phase Services Include:
- Contractor Self-Performed Labor Audits
- Detection & Tracking of Scope Deletions
- Construction Equipment Usage Audits
- Contractor Pay request / Draw Request Audit
- Calculation of Retainers
- Back-Charge Reasonability Analysis
- Invoice Verification
- Change Order Analysis & Negotiation
- Labor Cost Hourly Rate Review
- Construction Quality Control Inspections
- Monthly Cost & Quality Control Inspections
- Monthly Cost & Quality Control Reports
- Punch List Development & Tracking
Post-Construction Services
Church development projects are not over when the congregation moves into a completed facility. Frequently, final work required to wrap up a construction process can take weeks, and even months longer than expected. For this reason, OASTER offers valuable Post-Construction Services, making sure all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed before the final closeout of a project.
Many times, a church has been surprised at having a lien filed on its property by some company it has never heard of. This can come about as a result of a sub-contractor who, although was paid in full for work preformed, never paid a supplier who provided labor or materials to the project.
Examples We Have Seen Are:
- Paint suppliers who were not paid by the painter for material supplied
- Landscape nurseries that supplied plants to the landscape contractor
- Labor liens by tradesmen who were not paid in full for labor provided
- Rental yards that supplied equipment to the project
Even though a church might be able to prove that it paid the contractor, if the contractor did not pay labor costs or for the materials supplied, a lien can be legally filed on the church’s property and it will be forced to pay again. OASTER knows that a proper system for tracking the builder, sub-contractors, labor and material suppliers, as well as requiring conditional and unconditional lien releases at every stage of construction will protect the church and ensure everyone of proper and timely payments.
Oaster Post-Construction Services Include:
- Post-Construction Audits
- Punch List Tracking
- Process Improvement Recommendations
- Expert Witness Testimony