Div 07 · Construction Administration
A job site tells the truth to whoever shows up to look.
Construction is the one phase where money leaves every month, and the paperwork explaining why is written by the party receiving it.
By the time construction starts, every decision that used to be a conversation has become a cost, a delay, or both — and the documents governing all three arrive on a monthly cycle from the party being paid. Construction administration is the owner's side of that cycle: pay applications checked against work actually in place, RFIs and submittals tracked so answers arrive before the schedule needs them, field observation reported by someone who was there, and a punch list that closes instead of lingering. We hold no construction contract and no means or methods. What we hold is the record, and the discipline of reading it before you sign.
Written recommendations within two business days · Nothing to prepare · Mutual NDA from the first conversation
Division
Div 07
Phase
Construction
Issued for
Owner review
Sheet
S-107
The record behind the judgment
$280M+
In capital projects delivered
20 yrs
Design and construction, both sides of the table
Zero
Unplanned outages, live data-center upgrade
Secret
Active U.S. DoD clearance
What construction administration covers
The service is a cycle, and it runs every month whether or not anyone is watching it. Pay applications get checked against the schedule of values, the work in place, stored-materials documentation, retainage math, and the lien releases owed from the previous payment — inside the certification window, because after it closes the money has moved. RFIs get tracked from the day they are raised, since an unanswered RFI is a delay claim with a date stamp already on it. Submittals get logged against the specification and the long-lead schedule, so a deviation surfaces as a review comment instead of as installed work. Field observation happens on site and lands as a written report with photographs — not a memory, not a phone call. And change orders get traced to their origin before they get priced, because the origin decides who pays.
Closeout is where the same discipline pays a second time. A punch list assembled early and worked down weekly closes; one assembled at substantial completion becomes a negotiation over retainage. Warranties, O&M manuals, as-builts, and final lien releases are conditions of final payment, and the leverage to collect them exists only while money is still owed. The deliverable throughout is the written record: what was observed, what it means, what to approve or withhold, and by when. You certify and you sign — our job is that nothing reaches your signature unexamined.
Where owners lose money during construction
The patterns repeat from job to job. A certification window passes without a real review, and the month's application is approved by default — which is a decision, just not a considered one. Percentages complete are accepted from the application instead of compared against the site. Stored materials get paid on an invoice rather than a bill of sale, proof of insurance, and a location someone can go stand in. RFIs sit unanswered until the contractor's delay position is fully documented and the owner's file has nothing to answer it with. A submittal deviation gets installed before anyone matches it to the spec, and the correction arrives priced as a change order. Retainage gets released early as a goodwill gesture, and the leverage to finish the punch list leaves with it. None of this requires bad faith; it is what happens when the only party reading the paperwork closely is the party who wrote it.
What we deliberately don't do
Aldermont holds no construction contract, directs no trade, and takes no responsibility for means, methods, sequences, or site safety — deliberately, and not as a hedge. Those belong to the licensed general contractor, and an advisor who assumed them would be reviewing their own work. We do not stop work, instruct crews, or approve design changes: the licensed A/E interprets their documents and carries the design liability. What we do is observe, compare what we find against the contract and the drawings, and put it in writing before you certify a payment or sign a change. The owner decides. We advise.
Asked about this service
What is construction administration?
Construction administration is the work of governing a project's paperwork and field record while the building goes up: reviewing pay applications, tracking RFIs and submittals, observing and documenting the work in place, processing change orders, and driving closeout through the punch list to final payment. The term covers two different jobs, which is where owners get confused. The architect's construction administration protects the design intent in their documents. The owner's construction administration protects the owner's money, schedule, and contractual position. This page is the second one.
Doesn't my architect already provide construction administration?
Usually yes, and it is worth having — but it answers a different question. Your architect's CA scope exists to confirm the work conforms to their drawings and specifications, and their obligation runs to design intent and their own professional liability. It rarely includes testing whether a pay application's percentages match the site, whether a change order is entitled under your contract, or whether releasing retainage now costs you leverage later. Those are the owner's questions, and the party best placed to ask them is the one with no design scope and no construction contract to protect.
Who should review the contractor's pay applications?
Someone on the owner's side of the table, and someone who was on site. A pay application is a claim about how much of the project now exists, and it is measured against a schedule of values negotiated once at the start — so the review has to cover the schedule itself, the percentages against work in place, stored materials and their documentation, retainage math, and the lien releases owed from the previous payment. It also has to happen inside the contractual review window: once the money moves, recovering it runs from painful to impossible. Our field note on pay applications walks the full sequence.
Can you take over construction administration on a project already underway?
Yes, and it is the most common way this engagement starts — usually after an application, a change order, or a schedule update stopped making sense. We begin by reconstructing the record: contract and schedule of values, applications paid to date, the change order log, open RFIs and submittals, and the current schedule against the critical path. That reconstruction alone frequently finds the problem. The $350 project review is a fair way to test it before committing to anything — bring the last application and the change order log, and it is credited in full against your first invoice if you engage us.
Two ways in
Start where the risk is lowest.
Orientation call · 20 minutes · no fee
Find out whether you need us at all.
Fifteen minutes on your project, five on a straight answer: whether an advisor is worth your money at this stage, what it would take, and what it would cost. No documents, no preparation. If the answer is that you don't need one yet, you'll get that answer too — it's the cheapest thing we can tell you.
Project review · 60 minutes · $350, credited if you engage
Bring the project. Leave with recommendations.
A working session on your actual documents — the parcel you're weighing, the drawing set, the budget, the permit path you can't see through. Written recommendations land within two business days, in your hands to act on with or without us. If you engage us, the fee comes off your first invoice in full.
What to prepare: nothing.
Send whatever is already on your desk — a site address, a PDF set, a bid, a change order, a letter you don't like the tone of. Or send nothing and just talk. Working out which of it actually matters is the job you're hiring, not homework you owe us first.
Related field notes