Project Closeout with the NCCER, Feat. Adam Hoots, Kevin Rice, and Patty Stephan

Project Closeout: The Superintendent’s Role From Day One to Done

Here’s the deal. This conversation was recorded with Adam Hoots, Kevin Rice, who is the COO of LeanTakt and Elevate, and Patty Stephan, a senior product manager at NCCER, which is developing a new construction superintendent training and certification program. Project closeout is one of the topics in that program, and Patty wanted to hear it from practitioners. Here is what came out of it.

The Project Where I Checked Out Too Early

We had an eighty million dollar project. It was beautiful. We finished right on time, and we absorbed changes through thirty percent of the building. The owner was a raving fan, we hit our budget targets, and the team was happy. It was clean, safe, and organized.

At the end, I mentally checked out as the superintendent. I thought, we are good, I am out. But the owner said, no, we are moving people in, I want to change things, I want to redo certain rooms, and I want you to help with the move-in. We did not have a plan. I was close to disconnecting and making angry a client we had spent three or four years taking care of.

That is the first lesson. The superintendent is the overseer. We are not done when the project is done. We are done when the client is happy.

What Being the Overseer Means

Adam said respect for people can get confused with just being nice, when it also means taking command and ownership, protecting the plan from start to finish. Kevin said the superintendent is the master facilitator, standing between all the moving parts and making sure they fit into place. We are not in manufacturing, delivering a product. We are delivering an experience, and that goes all the way to moving people in and making sure the space is what they want.

Start From Day One, Shift the Mindset at Two-Thirds

Closeout is more than documents. It is lien waivers, owner training, commissioning with facilities management, and every deliverable in the specs being handed over and accepted. It is like buying a car. Where is the owner’s manual, where do I get service, and where do I get more training?

• Start from day one. Create a submittal register for the closeout documents as well as for procurement.
• Commissioning starts on day one too, not at two-thirds of the project.
• At the two-thirds point, change the mindset from starting up to finishing. Confirm the substantial completion requirements, get the documents ready, and make sure commissioning is on schedule.

Patty added that you should gather documentation as you go so you are not scrambling to build a turnover package at the end. I think of it as plan, build, finish for each scope. In planning, the pre-construction meeting covers the contract requirements. In building, you build for turnover and facilities management. In finishing, you reconcile change orders, punch the work, and collect closeout documents before releasing final payment and before the trade demobilizes. One of the guests heard one piece flow in that, and another heard Little’s Law. Small batches, limited work in progress, finish as you go. Accurate documents also matter for the safety of the people using the building, and rushing at the end hurts accuracy.

Who Drives It

Adam asked who is responsible. I would build the team and set targets as a project executive. The project manager and project engineer should track it, but superintendents often say, that is an office problem. It is not. Superintendents are engaged in procurement, MEP systems, commissioning, final inspections, and the definition of completion, and they are the timekeeper who drives it to the end.

Kevin described teams that play tennis, hitting the ball back to the PM and then back to the superintendent, until nothing gets delivered. It has to be a team effort, and the question is how you move the ball forward in your role.

Closeout Meetings

Hold intentional closeout meetings, scaled to the scope. A small scope might get an email, and a large one a series of meetings. Hold them close to the completion of the work, with the right people, and send the agenda ahead, filtered from the submittal register: turnover, warranty, and training documents, plus the spec requirements. A good meeting covers the following.

• Completion status and the punch list, including engineer, architect, and end user walks.
• Lessons learned, and whether we met the owner’s top ten conditions of satisfaction.
• Warranty documentation, maintenance information, attic stock, training and training videos, and commissioning status.
• How we will help the owner use the information as they move in.
• Next steps, lien waivers, contract terms, and closing out change orders.

Kevin added having the owner grade us, with an evaluation form. That is one of the best marketing and sales techniques we have. It is also why I tie final payment to completion. If an ice cream shop handed you a cone without the caramel and asked to be paid, you would not pay. We want to help trades with cash flow, but final payment waits for punch, closeout, training, and documentation.

Punch Lists

Kevin said it plainly: I hate punch lists. If you give crews what they need to finish within their zone, and check the work before they move on, a punch list goes from twenty-five or thirty pages to two. Walk the last five units, punch them right there, and have the foreman grab the workers. A list is for things like missing hardware. Otherwise, you get the whole chain of taking photos, uploading, emailing, reminding, and verifying. A list of fifteen hundred items should be two or three hundred or less.

Takt gives a measurable standard each Takt time, so you can QC as you go. Adam said it comes down to respect for the worker. Assign specific responsibility for list items, and follow up.

Missing Materials and the Scrum Board

Somewhere between two-thirds and halfway through that last third, have the PM and project engineer flip all the drawings and specs and do an inventory count of what is missing. It may be a knock box, a transom, or a closure, and you will find ten to a hundred and fifty items. Then use a Scrum board for the big items that will hold you up, like an access panel in a stairwell or a cabinet redesign in a kitchen. If I am a project director at that point and I do not see a Scrum board and a master list of the last hundred and fifty things, I do not know that anyone has a plan to finish. Kevin added that you should put your best guess for procurement and installation durations on paper and see the effect on substantial completion.

Substantial Completion

Very few teams learn the substantial and final completion requirements early enough. Post them on a large sign in the trailer, and put them in your schedule network with buffers. They include the following.

• Preliminary balancing report.
• Engineer’s walk and the architect’s punch list.
• Life safety testing and certificates, including elevator, fire alarm, and sprinkler.
• A fully functional HVAC system, controls, and internet.
• Exits, and ADA and life safety signage.

I would move the commissioning and testing mindset forward by at least six weeks.

Contract Closeout and Critical Documents

Close out vendors and purchase orders. Verify contractual and legal obligations are complete, obtain closeout documents, arrange the warranty requirements, revoke access rights and security passes, perform a post-contract evaluation and lessons learned, and archive the records. Adam added that you should pull information for the next project, like how long scopes took. Make sure something in the schedule triggers all of this.

Critical documents include accurate as-builts, especially electrical, low voltage, and site utilities, because inspectors will check them. They also include closing permits, operations manuals with training, regulatory documents, elevator and fire marshal documents, utility transfers, ADA inspections, the crane permit, the certificate of occupancy, notices of substantial completion and final acceptance, and lien releases. Even after all of it, the owner may want change order work, so have a way to approve, track, schedule, and supervise it.

Closing Advice

Kevin said closeout takes a team, and if you realize you are part of it, you deliver a remarkable closeout. Patty said to plan for closeout from the first meeting and start the file, so nothing can get you at the end. Adam said a six-month job once took a year to close, and the owner will remember the last month or two. Respect the craft, yourself, and your owners.

My closing analogy is teaching kids to drive. Two rules. Do not hit the car in front of you, and stay in your lane. Then keep looking ahead. Two lights from now, we turn. Before the curve, hit the brakes. A superintendent keeps the team looking forward, and that moves commissioning, testing, and closeout forward in our minds.

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

So here is the challenge. Start your closeout file today, and at the two-thirds point confirm your substantial completion requirements.

Jason Schroeder said it plainly: “We are not done when that project is done. We are done when the client is happy.”

On we go.

FAQ

When should closeout planning begin?

On day one. Create a submittal register for closeout documents, and shift the team’s mindset to finishing at the two-thirds point.

Who drives closeout?

It is a team effort. The PM and project engineer track it, and the superintendent drives completion as the timekeeper and is engaged in commissioning, inspections, and procurement.

How do you avoid a huge punch list?

Finish as you go, by giving crews what they need and checking the work in each zone before they move on.

What goes in a closeout meeting?

Completion status, punch list, lessons learned, the owner’s conditions of satisfaction, warranty, training, and commissioning, and closing out lien waivers and change orders.