Commercial and multi-family exterior work: phasing, occupied buildings, HOA bid packages

We do not bid interior fit-out on these buildings, and we would rather say so on the first call than have it surface at the pre-construction meeting. An exterior package on an occupied building is its own discipline. The schedule is driven by access and notice rather than trade sequencing. The cost moves with staging and phasing at least as much as with square footage, and the person signing is usually a board or a manager who has to explain the decision to somebody else.

Interior tenant improvements and build-outs on these same buildings are not ours to sell. The written line sits at the wall: the cladding, glazing and doors are ours, and what sits behind them is not.

• A scope per building rather than one scope for the property, wherever the buildings differ
• A unit and elevation schedule showing what happens in each phase, and when
• Product data sheets for every line named, so the comparison is between products and not adjectives
• Physical samples of the profile and the colour, on the elevation they are going on
• The manufacturer's own warranty document for each product specified
• A written change-order procedure agreed before the first board comes off
• The freight window the manufacturer gives us for the products in the scope

Where a community has an adopted colour palette or architectural standard, we bid to it and flag anything in it that is no longer a current product.

That makes matching a scheduling problem as much as a product one. Two things protect a phased project. The first is to keep one manufacturer and one profile across the phases wherever the budget allows. The second is to record the profile, the exposure, the colour and the fastener schedule in the scope, so phase two is specified from a document.

Where a profile or colour has gone out of production between phases we say so during the bid rather than at delivery. Then we take the change to a natural break: a building line, a corner, a change of plane. A partial elevation is almost always the wrong place to stop.

Storefront glazing on an open shop

A storefront is an aluminium framing system with glass set into it, and the lite that has fogged, cracked or lost its seal is usually one panel in a run of several. The replacement is measured from the frame that is already there, not from the old glass, because the new unit has to fit the existing pocket. Where the framing is sound, the lite comes out, the gaskets or glazing stops are renewed and the new unit goes back into the original system. Where a frame section has failed as well, that section is replaced and matched to the existing profile and finish so the run still reads as one system from the sidewalk.

On an open business the sequencing is the whole job. We measure during trading hours and set the glass at the start or the end of the day. A single lite comes out and goes back in one visit. A full elevation is phased bay by bay with the door bay done last, so the entrance stays in use. Where a bay has to be closed off during the change, the closure is agreed with the tenant beforehand and written into the scope, with the barrier and the signage on our side of the line. Glass beside a door or close to the floor is safety glazing, and the replacement is ordered to that requirement rather than to whatever was in the pocket before.

Commercial siding and metal panels

Light-commercial and multi-family buildings carry the same cladding families as houses, plus metal panel systems a house rarely sees: ribbed and flat panels hung on furring or girts, with concealed or exposed fasteners. The first job on an existing building is to identify what is on the wall now, because a partial re-clad has to match the profile, the gauge and the finish of the elevation it joins. Where the original panel is out of production we say so at bid stage and take the change to a corner or a change of plane, the same rule that governs a phased siding job.

The detailing is where a commercial wall differs from a house. Panel joints, trim closures and the transitions at parapet, base and window head are line items in our scope. The fastener type and spacing are set to the manufacturer's installation instructions for that panel on that substrate. A fastener that suits the panel and not the girt behind it is the usual reason a metal wall oil-cans or leaks at the laps.

Commercial doors and their hardware

A storefront door is an aluminium stile-and-rail door hung in the same framing system as the glass beside it, and it is the hardest-worked part of the elevation. Replacement often starts with the hardware rather than the door: the closer that no longer holds, the pivot or continuous hinge that has worn, the lock and pull that no longer match the rest of the building. Where the door itself is the problem we replace it in the existing frame, or replace the door bay as a unit, matching the stile width, the glass and the finish of the run it sits in.

A public entrance carries hardware the code requires: the opening force and closing speed of the closer, the clearance at the threshold, the shape of the pull and the lever on the inside. We specify to that as part of the scope rather than as an extra. We also carry over any access-control or panic hardware the building already runs on, or specify the new equivalent, so a door that locks at night still opens the way the tenant expects at close of business.

On all three the door bay goes last and the entrance stays open. A shop that closes for a day it did not plan for has paid for the work twice. That cost belongs in the phasing plan rather than in a change order.