Construction Administration Podcast Episodes

Canada-U.S. tariffs are hitting construction, raising new questions about material costs, steel prices, procurement, contracts, and who ultimately pays when prices suddenly change. With new 50% U.S. tariffs affecting billions of dollars of Canadian goods and Canada preparing retaliatory measures, construction materials including steel, aluminum, lumber, cement, plywood, paint, and other building products are caught in the middle. In Episode 48 of What the RFI?, Matt Brennan looks beyond the p...

Your construction project is 99% complete. The walls are painted, the flooring is down, the lights are on and everyone is talking about move-in day. So you’re basically done, right? Not even close! Getting a building ready for occupancy requires months of preparation, testing, documentation and coordination between the contractor, consultants, owner and Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ). In Episode 47 of What the RFI?, Matt Brennan kicks off a four-part series on construction occupancy and ...

You want me to strip what? Some of the biggest financial risks on a construction project happen before the building ever gets out of the ground. In Episode 46 of What the RFI?, Matt Brennan digs into earthworks, geotechnical reports, test holes, stripping plans, and the steps architects and owners can take to reduce the risk of costly surprises underground. Because a $100,000 earthworks budget can turn into $1 million in extras remarkably quickly when actual site conditions don’t match what e...

You have 24 months to build a school… yet somehow every deficiency, training session, closeout document, hardware adjustment and commissioning issue seems to appear in the final two weeks before occupancy. Why? In this episode of What the RFI?, Matt talks about procrastination in construction and why the final stretch before occupancy can become absolute chaos. Using two school projects currently approaching occupancy, Matt shares some of the challenges from the past week—from fire alarm veri...

How do you run the first construction site meeting? In this episode of What the RFI?, Matt Brennan explains how Architects, Contract Administrators, Project Managers, Engineers, Owners, and General Contractors can prepare for and lead a successful First Site Meeting. The kickoff meeting is one of the most important milestones in Construction Administration. It establishes expectations, communication procedures, documentation requirements, project schedules, and responsibilities before constru...

Meeting notes are one of the most important records on a construction project, but what should actually go into them, who should run the meeting, and how detailed do they really need to be? In Episode 43 of What the RFI?, we continue our three-part series on construction meetings with a practical walkthrough of how I prepare for, run, document, and follow up on site meetings as part of the Construction Administration process. We cover construction meeting notes vs. meeting minutes, preparing ...