Pre-Construction Coordination: Our Project Management staff will work with you from the very earliest stages of the project in order to gain a complete understanding of your project scope, and then will apply our knowledge and experience to make your project a reality. We will assist in selection of alternates for everything from the structural design to the materials used to provide you the best product at the best price. This process is often referred to as value engineering, but it is best done during the initial definition and design of the project so that the other team members only have to do their job once.  In other words, we will help you achieve the highest value for your budget, the first time.

Project Budget: By combining the information we gain during the pre-design of the project, we can accurately provide a construction budget that is both financially feasible and attainable during construction. This budget is re-examined at key points during design with feedback to all parties regarding the cost impact of various options. We realize the importance of staying on budget and the importance of understanding, during this critical time, the possible cost impact of various decisions.

Construction Services: When building multi-family projects, one must keep many factors in mind. Construction speed is critical to minimizing construction period soft costs, but one must not sacrifice quality, structure, conformance with applicable safety codes or, especially, cost.  We accomplish all these through a careful plan that is designed to allow the project construction to “flow” in an apparently effortless manner. A visit to a Tofel Construction multi-family project will result in an easy recognition of this factor. Visitors will see a clean site and will easily recognize the order of the work. The “flow” is accomplished through several key factors and many much more subtle ones. The keys are:

Subcontractors: When a job flows, all contractors on the job make money, and that is the incentive to keep the flow going. One must use subcontractors who are experienced in multi-family construction and can provide properly trained personnel.

Schedules: Schedules are reduced to their simplest form: Units per day. All workers can understand this simple directive: they will complete a certain number of units per day, they will be following a specific trade, and they have to be complete, because other workers will be following them. As long as they understand this and completely understand their scope of work, the project can flow.

Prototype Units: This is one of the most important steps, and involves all people associated with the job. Simply stated, at the earliest possible time, the first units of each floor plan are built, and the following is accomplished: electric boxes are nailed into position and are labeled as to receptacle, switch, TV, telephone, or data; all cabinets, door swings and light fixtures are drawn on the floor. Then all the subcontractor trades meet and discuss the specifics of how they will install their equipment, where it will go, and what space they need. All conflicts are resolved at this stage, including required modifications to framing (e.g., to accommodate HVAC ducts and plenums). Then the owners and property managers walk through the units to examine for the first time the interiors of the units. If changes are required, they can be made during this early construction period when the cost is either very low or nothing.  In this way, all parties know what is expected at the outset and costly, time delaying changes can be minimized later in the project.