About Us

Every project has a designee who is appointed to serve as a 24/7 contact. This individual is on hand to field calls, expedite issues, and serves as a full-time communication conduit.

LeLack Construction is positioned to serve owners at Every Stage of Construction.

As part of the overall design review, LeLack Construction’s Estimating and Operations departments will work with the architect and the owner to evaluate alternate systems for each portion of the entire project.

LeLack Construction works closely with the owner and architect to weigh all options early in the design phase. This evaluation provides an objective evaluation of the cost, aesthetics, availability, durability, and performance of each system during the design development stage:

• Site Planning and Utilization
• Sound Control
• Environmental Preservation
• Fixtures
• Surface Water Drainage
• Special Construction
• Mechanical
• Electrical
• Foundation Systems
• Structural Systems
• Thermal and Moisture Envelope
• Control Systems

Our In-house staff of professional estimators and builders has extensive experience and an excellent track record to offer you the ability to investigate each option’s cost/function/lifecycle, and arrive at the best combination of elements for your project.

DESIGN REVIEW

Construction's estimating and operations staff has the capability to provide an evaluation of the design’s impact on constructability, phasing, site utilization, trade coordination, a tie-in to existing facilities, vehicular and pedestrian traffic patterns, safety and security. We offer cost-effective construction solutions to design conflicts while maintaining the architect’s creative concepts and aesthetic integrity. Design review meetings are held periodically, with team members reviewing and reacting to updated as well as progress drawing and specifications.

The agenda for these meetings cover:

• Schedule of Design Documents
• Review and Selection of construction techniques
• Estimating/Budget
• Value Engineering

The impact of proposed changes and modifications on all areas of the project, including building function, budget and schedule are discussed at these meetings. The Project Executive is responsible for coordinating the efforts of the design team and LeLack Construction estimating department. Responsibilities will be assigned for evaluating each proposed alternate and noted in Pre-construction meeting minutes.

BUDGET ESTIMATING

In order to establish a bellwether for all other facets of the project, it is critical to establish a sound initial budget, and for all members of the team to understand the basis of that budget. LeLack Construction consistently demonstrates its capabilities on its entire list of projects.

Our full-time estimating staff provides the capacity and expertise to deliver complete estimates for:

• Conceptual Programs
• Schematic Design
• Design Development
• Construction Documents

Our deep historical database of cost history, local market knowledge, and experienced subcontractors’ pricing keep your budget estimate accurately as the project develops. This capability allows us to deliver a Guaranteed Maximum Price, which comes in on budget.

CONSTRUCTION SCHEDULING

LeLack Construction utilizes Microsoft Project, which provides tools for daily, weekly and monthly scheduling, as well as critical path analysis.

Our in-house Scheduler works with each project team to develop a comprehensive Project Schedule. The project team develops an initial 60-day start-up schedule for each project that includes all activities required for project start-up including design services, permitting, required mobilizations and critical buyout. This “Start-up” schedule allows the project team the opportunity to completely develop a full project schedule that incorporates all of the required design submission activities, permitting, submittals and incorporation of specific project milestone activities.

We develop the Master Schedule by receiving input from all entities, assigning available Staff resources, and tying the proper relationships across, all activities such that the schedule logic results in meeting the Final Completion date required. A good schedule is looked at as a tool for predicting the dates of events. The talent of LeLack Construction’s staff comes through best when the inevitable changes to key variables occur and the schedule logic is adjusted to maintain an efficient critical path within the completion date.

LeLack Construction’s Subcontractor’s adherence to the schedule is maintained in two ways. LeLack Construction produces a pre-bid schedule using input from the subcontractors who best know their specialties. By including the subcontractors in the creation of the initial schedule, our subcontractors share in the pride of authorship and the Architect obtains buy-in from the owner of the schedule from the start of the bid process through final construction completion.

Relentless maintenance of the project schedule by LeLack Construction’s staff ensures subcontractor adherence at several levels. The on-site Superintendent produces a two-week look-ahead which is reviewed every Monday morning with all major subcontractors, thus establishing the tasks that are to be completed for that week.

Our General Superintendent, with ownership responsibility from the schedule, creates and controls the relationship of all activities. Weekly, the General Superintendent reviews the Master Schedule with the Superintendent, Project Manager and the Project Executive. These four staff members are in constant contact with the subcontractors to provide early warning, current monitoring, attention and acceleration when needed.

The Project Manager ties the subcontractors’ schedule of values to the scheduled activities, giving the proper cash flow incentive to ensure schedule compliance. Manpower resource levels are also identified, tracked and corrected before they become a potential delay. The Assistant Project Manager tracks detailed activities below the subcontractor level, to his material suppliers, fabricators, manufacturers, and shipping agents; Therefore identifying when submittals are required by subs as well as informing the Architect when the submittals are required back from their office. In addition the information provided in our schedule for submittal reviews permits the design professional to allocate their resources in an efficient and productive manner.

Upon completion of the final schedule the project team uses it as a working tool. Two-week look-ahead are generated weekly for use at Subcontractor coordination meetings. As part of these meetings our Superintendent will review the specific work to be started and completed during the course of the next two weeks. This approach allows for “Active” management of the schedule and flags any impacts that may cause adjustment.

QUALITY CONTROL (DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION)

LeLack Construction takes a proactive approach to Quality Control. During Design Development our team reviews each section of the building to assure that we have implemented the highest quality materials possible into the design and accomplished the budget goals of the overall project.

Using our wide array of locally completed projects, we take the design professionals and the owner on walking tours to assess the quality level achieved and to look at the long-term durability of various products.

Our quality control capabilities during construction are evident on all of our projects. We build full-scale mock-ups showing to all concerned parties the method, sequence, and level of quality that is to be expected for structure, life safety, and finished appearance.

During the construction phase our field staff uses predetermined Quality Control lists to review each portion of the work. This inspection list provides common references for each portion of the building for review and helps to generate questions related to the installation of each portion of the work. LeLack Construction establishes “Work Lists” for each trade as sections of the work are completed to establish quality issues that need to be addressed and resolved prior to moving to the next portion of the work.

CONSTRUCTABILITY REVIEW

Constructability review by our team establishes the efficiency and safety of the construction process without impacting the functional or aesthetic design. LeLack Construction’s Operations and Estimating teams regularly review 30%, 60% and 90% of documents to establish that the design can actually be constructed in the most cost-effective way.

Our capability includes a comprehensive review of documents. Typically we find hundreds of small constructability conflicts between the design disciplines which, if not corrected early, would result in additional cost and time.

Our field personnel’s valuable experience and attention to detail are brought to your project during the design phase. Our multiple reviews result in thorough drawing details, which in turn creates a tighter scope definition and better bids.

COST CONTROL

LeLack Construction’s varied experience in many types of projects allows for highly accurate and detailed budget projections early on in the planning and design development stage. The establishment of a soundly based budget will serve as a foundation for effective decision making, not only as it relates to the construction estimate, but also in the areas of value engineering, sales tax saving programs, document creation, scheduling, and design.

Subcontractor management is a key element in controlling costs. Tightly written scopes of work record not only the detailed construction requirements, but also the special condition factors like sequencing which can add cost to the basic requirements. Negotiation with subcontractors prevents unnecessary claims, which affect the final cost.

CHANGE ORDER NEGOTIATION

Change order negation is critical to every project. Every project will inevitably have changes and the effective management of these changes control the overall cost of the project as well as provide opportunities for the owner to increase the value received.

A contingency account is created at GMP, which selectively grows with surpluses and shrinks with expenditures that have met with our team’s approval. Most of our CM-at-risk projects use the contingency to fund owner-requested upgrades or additional desirable features near the end of the project.

PROJECT CLOSEOUT

LeLack Construction has a Project Close-Out Procedure in place to get the job across the finish line. Our project teams work to close out our plans effectively and promptly. The project team implements the close-out from the start-up of the project. Issues that are addressed throughout the project include:

• Updating of as-built information.
• Obtaining O & M manuals as part of the submittal process.
• Confirming that the owner’s attic stock is delivered to the designated representative.
• Insure videotape training sessions.

Final Completions and Certificate of Occupancy are issued by the District staff.

At substantial completion, each LeLack Construction project is added to our Corporate Close-out meeting. Each project manager meets with our senior staff to review the entire status of the project close-out. This meeting covers financial information, punch-list completion, warranties, subcontractor close-out, and any open issues concerning the project. No project gets removed from the close-out list until all open issues have been resolved and the warranty period expires.

TRANSITION PLANNING

LeLack Construction’s detailed scheduling capability brings together the building department’s inspectors, project manager, owner, subcontractors, vendors and facility staff. All Life Safety Systems are tested to achieve 100% operational status. Pre-occupancy training sessions are completed (and repeated as necessary) so that the staff and maintenance staff are well-versed and comfortable with operating the facility prior to the critical first day of occupancy.