9.7 Project Management: Scheduling, Submittals, Documentation & Closeout

9.7 Project Management: Scheduling, Submittals, Documentation & Closeout

Quick Answer: The critical path is the longest chain of dependent activities through the schedule network; it sets the project duration and its activities have zero total float. Total float is how long an activity can slip without delaying project completion; free float is how long it can slip without delaying its immediate successor. Submittals and shop drawings must be approved before fabrication or installation — installing unapproved product makes replacement the contractor's cost. Daily reports recording crew, hours, weather, deliveries, inspections, delays, and verbal directives are what win change-order and delay disputes. Closeout — punch list, final inspection and certificate of compliance, O&M manuals, warranties, as-builts, backflow test reports, and lien waivers — is what releases final payment and retainage.

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Scheduling: Critical Path Method

A construction schedule is a network of activities, each with a duration and logical relationships to others. The Critical Path Method (CPM) finds the longest path through that network.

Forward Pass, Backward Pass & Float

• Early Start (ES) and Early Finish (EF) come from the forward pass: EF = ES + duration; an activity's ES is the largest EF of its predecessors.
• Late Finish (LF) and Late Start (LS) come from the backward pass: LS = LF − duration; an activity's LF is the smallest LS of its successors.
• Total Float = LS − ES = LF − EF. Activities with zero total float are on the critical path.
• Free Float = (earliest ES of successors) − EF of this activity. Free float is always less than or equal to total float.

Worked Example — A Small Plumbing Sequence

Activity	Duration	Predecessor
A — Underground rough	5 days	—
B — Slab pour (by others)	2 days	A
C — Above-slab DWV rough	8 days	B
D — Water piping rough	6 days	B
E — Rough-in inspection	1 day	C, D

Forward pass: A: ES 0, EF 5. B: ES 5, EF 7. C: ES 7, EF 15. D: ES 7, EF 13. E: ES = max(15, 13) = 15, EF 16. Backward pass: E: LF 16, LS 15. C: LF 15, LS 7. D: LF 15, LS 9. B: LF 7, LS 5. A: LF 5, LS 0. Float: A = 0, B = 0, C = 0, D = 9 − 7 = 2 days, E = 0. Critical path: A → B → C → E, total duration 16 days. The water piping rough (D) carries 2 days of float; the DWV rough does not.

If the DWV rough slips one day, the inspection and every downstream trade slip one day. If the water rough slips one day, nothing moves — but slip it three days and it becomes critical.

Practical Scheduling for a Plumbing Subcontractor

• Three-week look-ahead. The master CPM schedule sets the frame; the look-ahead is what actually gets built, listing crew size, material deliveries, and inspection requests day by day.
• Manpower loading. Convert estimated labour hours to crew-days: 640 estimated hours ÷ (4 plumbers × 8 hours) = 20 crew-days. If the schedule allows 15 days, the crew must grow or the schedule must change — and that conversation belongs in a letter, not in a hallway.
• Predecessor trades. Plumbing rough is almost always dependent on framing, and top-out is dependent on the roof being dried in. Document the date the predecessor was promised and the date it was actually ready.
• Float ownership. Who owns float is a contract question. If the contract is silent, expect a fight; many prime contracts state that float belongs to the project, meaning the general contractor may consume it.

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Submittals, Shop Drawings & RFIs

graph LR
    A["Contract documents<br/>specify products"] --> B["Subcontractor prepares<br/>submittal / shop drawing"]
    B --> C["GC reviews for<br/>completeness"]
    C --> D["Architect / engineer<br/>reviews for conformance"]
    D -->|Approved / Approved as Noted| E["Fabricate, order,<br/>install"]
    D -->|Revise & Resubmit| B
    E --> F["Copy retained for<br/>closeout O&M manual"]

• What is submitted: fixture and trim schedules, water heaters and their venting, backflow preventers, grease interceptors, pumps and controls, pipe and fitting material data, hanger and seismic details, insulation, and coordination or fabrication drawings.
• Approval precedes work. Ordering fixtures before approval is a gamble on the architect's taste. If the submittal comes back "revise and resubmit," the cost of the wrong product sits with whoever bought it.
• Substitutions. A proposed "or equal" must be submitted with a side-by-side comparison and, usually, a price credit. Silence from the designer is not approval.
• Requests for Information (RFI). Use an RFI where the documents are ambiguous, conflicting, or incomplete. Number them, date them, state the question narrowly, propose an answer, and state the date by which a response is needed to avoid schedule impact. That last line is what converts an unanswered RFI into a documented delay.
• Field directives. A verbal instruction to change the work should be confirmed the same day in writing: "Per your direction this morning, we are relocating the 4-inch waste. We consider this a change and will submit pricing." Chapter 9.2's rule that change orders must be written does not mean a contractor should stop work and wait — it means the record must be created immediately.

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Documentation That Survives a Dispute

The daily report is the cheapest insurance a contractor owns. A complete entry records:

1. Date and weather, including temperature and precipitation, with the hours lost to weather.
2. Crew on site by name and classification, with hours worked.
3. Work performed by area and system, tied to the schedule activity.
4. Deliveries received and material shortages.
5. Inspections requested, performed, passed, or failed, with the inspector's name.
6. Delays and interferences — which trade, which area, how long.
7. Verbal directives and visitors, including who gave the instruction.
8. Photographs of concealed work before cover, of pre-existing conditions, and of anything unusual.

Supporting records: signed timecards coded to cost codes, delivery tickets, RFI and submittal logs with dates, change-order log, inspection records, and correspondence. Section 9.3's lien and bond deadlines are proved by the first and last furnishing dates — a firm that cannot document those dates cannot enforce its rights.

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Progress Payments, Retainage & Cash Flow

• Schedule of values. The contract sum is broken into line items that can be billed as they are completed. Front-loading is tempting and is generally caught by the reviewer.
• Payment application. Submitted monthly with the percentage complete per line item, stored-material documentation, updated lien waivers, and certified payroll where the project requires it.
• Retainage. Section 9.2 covers the statutory limits on North Carolina public projects; on private work, retainage is whatever the contract says, and reading that clause before signing is the only defence.
• Pay-when-paid versus pay-if-paid. A "pay-when-paid" clause is generally read as a timing mechanism; a "pay-if-paid" clause tries to shift the owner's insolvency risk to the subcontractor. Know which one is in the contract before the owner stops paying.
• Cash flow reality. Materials and payroll are spent 30 to 90 days before the corresponding payment arrives. Model it, and do not let a large project's negative cash position consume the working capital that keeps the service side running.

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Closeout: The Deliverable That Releases Retainage

Closeout is not paperwork tidying; it is a contractual deliverable, and final payment is usually conditioned on it.

Exam Framing: Questions in this area typically ask what must be complete before final payment, or which document proves a specific fact. Match the document to its purpose: as-builts prove what was installed, daily reports prove what happened and when, lien waivers prove who has been paid, and the certificate of compliance proves the authority having jurisdiction accepted the work.