A Step By Step Guide on How to Make a Construction Schedule

Yes, planning your schedule is time-consuming, but it’s important to do it thoroughly if you want to avoid issues during construction. Taking all the steps and avoiding shortcuts will help you create a more accurate schedule, which will help you manage your construction project more effectively. If you want to learn more about this, then we’ve got just what you need. Here’s a step by step guide on how to make a proper construction schedule.

Gather Information and Tools 

A construction schedule involves many types of resources, stakeholders, and participants. Start gathering all the sub-contractors for the job. There are always many people involved in a construction project. Once you have the list, contact them and ask how long it will take to procure the materials. Next, ask how long each person’s part of the project will take. The information is key for making accurate project schedules on your end. You should also talk with the code office to get a list of requirements and when they need inspections done on your building. 

Prioritize Tasks

 You have context, tools, and strategies to guide your process, and now you need to step up to the project and break it down into tasks. These are the steps that need to be completed in order to turn it from a construction plan into a completed project. You can’t create an accurate schedule until you have a thorough checklist of every task that must take place to end with a successful construction. You can use a work breakdown structure (WBS) to get a handle on the tasks needed to complete your project. You can think of this tool as a way to visualize your goals and objectives by starting with the deliverable, then breaking it down into the component parts, then further into even smaller parts, until you’re at the most basic units.

 Figure Out the Duration

 Now for each of the tasks, give them a start date and an end date. These dates should reflect both realistic and optimistic estimates. A construction schedule is impacted by the climate, which can be affected by weather patterns. Weather forecasts are only accurate for a few days at most, especially months in advance; therefore, you can rely on historical data to estimate how climate might impact the work.

Setting realistic schedules is essential in construction. You might want a project to be completed by a certain date, but you can’t just rush it to get it done on time. Cutting corners and sacrificing quality will have serious repercussions. The only solution is to plan accurately, giving yourself enough time to complete the project correctly. Don’t forget to consider non-construction-related tasks, such as arranging and tracking the delivery of materials. They’re just as important as completing the build.

Allocate Tasks and Execute

Creating a project construction schedule can feel like juggling a dozen balls at once. How do you manage the interplay between activities and resources? In essence, construction scheduling is about activities and the resources required to complete them. No tasks will get done by themselves, of course, but allocating the work to different teams keeps you on track. By color-coding tasks, you can easily differentiate the different teams and work. Once you assign people to the work, the construction schedule is ready to venture into the real world. Use workload calendars to balance resource allocation. Don’t over-allocate a team if another one is sitting idle. 

Review the Schedule

Your construction schedule is highly complex and always changing. If you don’t watch it constantly and make adjustments when necessary, you will fall behind. Therefore, you should check your schedule on a daily basis and make frequent updates.

We hope this article proves to be useful when it comes to helping you gain a better understanding of how to create a construction schedule. While this may seem like a lot of work, construction schedules are vital to any construction or renovation project. Be sure to keep everything you’ve learned here so that you can make the most informed decisions for your own builds.

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