One of the most expensive mistakes I see developers make isn’t during construction. It’s before it starts.
They mobilize a general contractor before they have permits in hand. Or they start earthwork before underground utilities are mapped. Or they discover that no one has secured DEP approvals, and the site sits stalled for three months while nothing gets done.
And every one of those days costs money. Real money.
My recommendation is always the same: don’t mobilize until you’re ready. That means drawings are complete, permits are in hand, and every item on the early work checklist is done or in progress. You may not have structural steel approved when you start your earthwork. That’s fine, you’ll catch up. But you should not be starting earthwork without your underground utilities mapped and permitted.
The other piece of this is drawings. The tighter and more detailed your initial drawing set, the better your GC can bid the job. When drawings are incomplete, the contractor fills in the gaps with assumptions, and those assumptions turn into change orders.
The goal is simple: put the contractor in a position to succeed. Give them a complete set of drawings. Make sure permits are ready. Clear the red tape before they show up. If you do that, you take away their excuses, and you hold them accountable to performance.
In my opinion, this is the work that determines whether your project finishes on time and on budget.
