Alexander Kalashnikov
Construction for dummies in Russia: save money and mind

Foreword

Greetings English-speaking readers! This book is mainly about how things are in the construction industry in Russia. It contains our specific Russian features in the legislation and in the current situation in the economy. This book has become a comprehensive expression of the experience that I personally, or my colleagues, had to face in practical activities in construction. I got into construction quite by accident, I have no construction education, so I immediately had to figure out all issues on my own and look for ways to solve certain problems, without having any theoretical ideas.

Nevertheless, for 10 years in construction, I managed to be a foreman, designer, lawyer, economist and PTO engineer, supplier, project manager, certification specialist, commercial and executive director, customer and contractor, and I have seen enough of it all from the inside.

Moreover, I saw those aspects of construction and those nuances that not a word will be said in a construction university, both pluses and minuses, as well as the most common problems.

This book will not teach you how to build, assemble structures, pour concrete or lay bricks, but will give you a more advanced understanding of building and doing business in this area, i.e. about matters no less important than the direct construction process.

All in all, this book should be interesting.

People who want to be builders;

Students and graduates of construction universities;

Ordinary people or specialists of organizations who want or are forced to be customers of construction work in order to build or repair something;

People who want to manage construction organizations and earn money from this activity;

Designers and VET workers (in terms of parsing constant errors in estimates and projects).

1. Problems of the construction industry with staffing. Causes, consequences, ways out.

In construction, there are two constant problems with personnel:

maintaining the optimal number of staff;

management of the composition and qualifications of employees.

Causes

1. Low predictability of work volumes

Much more factors affect the receipt of volumes of construction work than in other industries. For example, there is an Olympics or a World Cup – there is a construction site, no – accordingly, there is nothing to talk about. Only developers of residential complexes or districts have it easier in this sense, because they can plan the work as a whole and for 3 and 5 years ahead – but this is not more than 1% of the number of all organizations.

2. Taxation, and primarily VAT and a high percentage of deductions from wages

Most construction projects fall under the need to work on the general taxation system. Contractors on the simplified tax system do not fit into the system because their customers need input VAT, and because the maintenance of large facilities means an annual revenue of 200 million rubles, i.e. the impossibility of applying the USN.

Example. You received 100 rubles for the work performed. with VAT, while you need to officially pay a salary of 70 rubles to workers. What is left after paying taxes?

Answer: Shortage of 20.1 rubles. either wages or taxes.

3. Seasonality

Seasonality is determined not only by climatic conditions. It also depends on the budget. Basically, objects are put into operation in the spring and must be delivered by December, i.e. by the end of the financial year, respectively, from January to April-May, there may be no work at all, and from May there is a terrible shortage of people, when both factors add up.

4. Competition

For comparison, in the USSR there were around 10-15 thousand construction organizations, and a few years ago in Russia there were more than 100 thousand of them. Yes, not as powerful as the DCS and SMU used to be, provided with equipment, people, etc … And so , sometimes firms that have only one seal from their fixed assets. But 100 thousand ! It's an Achievement!

But how much higher the competition, and how much lower the level of training of specialists, because it holds back the profits received by the “builders”, and they are accordingly forced to save on everything and make do with less qualified personnel.

5. Self-regulation in construction

The principles of self-regulation, which apparently came from Masonic organizations on the principle of “pay a fee and if you come out with a face, we will accept you,” and the current state policy in this matter only leads to the degradation of all participants. SRO checks – fiction, paid fees – sleep, i.e. work calmly. At the same time, only the funds themselves are clearly in the black – in fact, parasites. At least contributions to SROs could be directed to training and education!

6. Low quality of management of the national economy in general and the construction industry in particular

It must be admitted that our condition directly depends on how we are managed.

7. Population depopulation

Including in view of the above reasons – minus about a million people a year.

Consequences

1. Lack of permanent employees in the staff of the organization and social guarantees for workers

The number of AUP and ITR in organizations in general can consist of only one or two people when they solve the whole range of issues, and the main working staff are people who are recruited only at specific facilities.

There are more pants in large organizations, or in specialized installations of engineering networks, structures, etc., and then a couple of people of especially valuable employees can form the basis, and the rest will be involved in work only periodically.

2. Lack of opportunity / desire to improve qualifications

90% of the workers are people in free flight, who themselves have somehow learned something somewhere, wander from one construction site to another and who are not particularly forced by anyone to improve their skills and engage in at least self-education, to know SNiPs and GOSTs. In fact, no more than 10% of people are engaged in this, and the rest, if it is an emergency, watch videos on YouTube , at best, and not always what is supposed to be.

And when to study, if you need to earn …

3. Skill level

The average qualification does not always reach even the level of self-taught artisans.

4. Work culture – and quality of work

The nomadic lifestyle of workers in the industry, with an abundance of “so-so employers” who do not always meet their payment obligations in full or on time, the general level of education of workers leads us to a disregard for the results of our own labor.

In general, it would not be bad to conduct an objective sociological study on the topic of the attitude of the population to their work – it will be tough.

5. Labor cost

Real professionals literally have to be persuaded to go to work, despite the fact that the cost of their services can be two or even three average wages for the same job, because there are really few of them, and their workload with current work can be two Three months ahead, or even more.

At the same time, just good performers receive the usual average salary, nothing higher than people with a complete lack of qualifications. No one wants and agrees to receive “little”, or rather, in accordance with their qualifications, and they keep the average price level, because there is already a huge shortage of people in the industry during the season. Only at the same time, hacks are often kicked out of the objects, but they manage to earn some of the money and further push prices up.

The increased degree of demanded payment by employees is influenced by a lack of confidence in employers in general. Therefore, people include risks in the price: they didn’t get it there, they didn’t get it, but they bounced back elsewhere.

Construction organizations today are in extremely difficult conditions, when professionals are extremely expensive, and non-professionals are simply expensive, despite the fact that involving them in work has the risk of poor-quality work, violation of deadlines, destruction of building materials, etc. – in short, to losses, the fault of which is all of the above.

Ways out of the situation

I think I managed to show the deepest systemic crisis and imbalance in the industry. We do not have enough managers to sort it all out. People who are strictly forbidden to be trusted are allowed to manage the national economy. It is impossible to improve the situation without changing the socio-economic model, the right, including the electoral one.

We urgently need:

New training programs for managers from among specialists from various industries – "management" has not justified itself;

New mechanisms for the selection and involvement in the state apparatus and the legislative branch of people who started their careers from the very bottom and have reached a certain level of professionalism, understanding all the specifics of their industry;

Work on the education of citizens through the formation of a normal cultural environment, in which managers are also formed, and the adjustment of value orientations from personal benefit to personal contribution;

The system of evaluation criteria and the procedure for the examination of state management decisions for their compliance with the long-term interests of citizens, with the introduction of criminal liability for their violation.

2. Construction and democracy are incompatible

Normal statement, right?

And the point is this. At the heart of democracy is the election of officials of various levels.

Often officials are representatives of any parties. In general, democracy creates a situation in which various people and entire parties are fighting for votes, for ratings and for winning elections.

construction projects of various purposes, especially kindergartens, schools, stadiums, hospitals, houses for migrants, etc. , created “with their participation,” and often even in spite of such participation. become a sort of fat plus in the eyes of voters. Therefore, by the agreed date, or rather by the beginning of the elections, the objects must be handed over at all costs – this is the task facing those who are currently in power.

There is another side of the coin. For example, the president approves some target program, allocates funds for its implementation, and sets specific deadlines. This applies to all the Olympics, International Economic Forums, and the elimination of the consequences of emergencies. The allocated funds are under special control, to break the deadlines is fraught with deprivation of access to the feeder and loss of position. But there are elective positions everywhere, it’s not easy to get this …

So, democracy drives officials into a rigid framework in terms of monitoring the timing of the construction of facilities: on the one hand, voters and elections, on the other, higher-level officials who have exactly the same responsibility to society and a more significant level of tasks to achieve which they will not stand on ceremony with "local officials" for a long time.

All this leads to tight deadlines for design and construction work, for the selection of contractors for their implementation. In general, an emergency. Is it necessary to explain that in such situations an unimaginable number of mistakes are made, threatening, among other things, the durability and safety of buildings. There are many examples of such errors and miscalculations.

But deadlines are deadlines. Therefore, many violations remain uncorrected, or are corrected retroactively, after the ribbon is cut – anything can happen. And all these situations are excellent grounds for forced official forgery, when many, out of fear of losing their jobs, take work at their own peril and risk. Therefore, from the point of view of the safety of construction projects, democracy and elections are a clear hindrance.

3. About some errors in construction documentation leading to losses

I was approached by people from educational organizations, Internet portals that train workers or improve their qualifications, so that I would prepare for them some useful, scientifically oriented, “interesting for their audience” publications … And I told them that it makes no sense to teach their professionals to something like that, or retrain if they make thousands of the dumbest mistakes every day, the same ones over and over again, from which customers and contractors then have serious headaches, up to lawsuits and losses amounting to tens of millions within the framework of just one object…

I insisted and insist on the fact that it is these very elementary examples that designers and estimators need to wash their heads on a daily basis. Personally, about 20% of my work at the construction site was involved in eliminating the consequences of all this – this must be stopped.

You may also encounter them, so do not be too lazy to go through this material – it can help you more than once, at least by paying attention to it.

3.1. Errors in the estimate documentation and their consequences – losses

1. Errors in units or decimal places

Not a very common mistake, but sometimes people make mistakes in the number of decimal places or units of measure. For example, meters – meters, are confused with tens or hundreds of meters – 10 meters, 100 meters, forgetting to divide or multiply the value by 10 or 100, respectively, less often – by 1000.

On one of the objects worth about 700 million rubles. due to such errors, the total estimate turned out to be 90 million rubles. more than it should have been. That is, in fact, the estimates included hundreds or thousands of times more work or materials than can be applied in principle at this facility.

For example, instead of the actual 26 square meters of plaster, the volume was indicated as 2,600 square meters, and instead of the actual 350 kilograms of reinforcement, 350 tons. The case is outstanding, but absolutely real.

Thus, the total cost of these errors amounted to about 15% of the total cost estimate. All these works could not be performed, although they were in the estimate, so we had to bring the estimate in line and terminate the contract for the amount of erroneously overestimated volumes. All this certainly affected the profitability and the level of profitability of the object (the ratio of profit to the cost of work as a percentage).

As a rule, those who use ready-made estimate documentation in their work notice such things, but those who draw it up do not notice. It is very bad when such moments are clarified already in the process of execution of the contract, when it remains only to state the fact of budget cuts.

It is quite easy to detect errors in estimates if they are small – on 3-5 sheets, and it is almost impossible to immediately notice them if the estimate exceeds 50, 100 or 500 pages.

However, there are benefits to be gained from this situation as well. Since funds have already been allocated for construction work, especially if the object is budgetary, the Customer can go to a meeting and spend the saved funds on other work that is necessary or on the purchase of any equipment with its installation, within the freed amount of within the framework of the contract already concluded with you, if it does not contain any prohibitions on this. As a rule, the amount of changes under government contracts cannot exceed 10% of the estimated cost.

2. Errors in the types of work

The second group of mistakes is when they forget to accidentally add some types of work to the estimate. Sometimes such errors violate the technological sequence of work as a whole, which can also lead to losses.

Examples:

We had a facility where work was to be done to strengthen the wall by installing buttresses. Their technological sequence was as follows: earthworks (clearing the work site from the ground, digging pits with an excavator and manually to a depth of 2.5 m), laying footings, installing metal frames and formwork, pouring them with concrete, backfilling pits, compacting soil. So, in the estimate, the very initial earthworks in the amount of approximately 300 cubic meters were completely absent .

You must mount any equipment in the building. But the dimensions of this equipment exceed any maximum openings in the walls; accordingly, it may be physically impossible to bring this equipment inside without temporarily dismantling sections of the walls to increase the openings in them. Not every designer or estimator can foresee such things. Therefore, inspect the place of work before performing work or concluding a contract.

The worst thing is when you have already appointed people, hired equipment and started work, and only then found out everything, because the customer, especially if it is a state customer, may simply not have extra money that he can allocate to complete the data works and all attempts to humanly resolve this issue may lead nowhere . Sue him or incur losses, but do the work, or terminate the contract – this decision is up to you.

In any case, remember that all hidden work must be recorded in acts, and if you completed work today that was not included in the estimate, just so as not to stop all construction or some part of it, then the absence of acts of hidden work, protocols for considering these commission issues, etc. will complicate your situation if you decide to prove your case in court or in any other way to resolve this issue.

There are also other situations. I was once asked to mount a turnkey door. I mounted and forgot about this business until the customer called me and asked “Where are the slopes?”. In his opinion, slopes were included in the concept of “turnkey”, but in my opinion , if they were not mentioned in principle, they were not in the “turnkey”, but there was only a door, its delivery and installation. Speak every little thing, and better reflect in the contracts.

3. Errors in materials taken into account or not taken into account by the estimate

In order to avoid misunderstandings, so that both the contractor and the customer clearly understand what is included in the cost of work and what is not – i.e. whether materials are included in the cost of work, when drawing up an estimate, it is necessary to accurately describe the materials used and their quantity. If you received an estimate for consideration, deal with this issue paramountly.

So, there are two types of estimated or contractual prices:

1. Prices without the cost of materials;

2. Prices including the cost of materials.

Most often, prices that include the cost of materials are used in state estimates, these are the so-called FER (federal) or TER (territorial) unit prices. They facilitate the accounting of expenses of budgetary organizations, budget planning, and are also adjusted for inflation, etc.

Let's compare two types of rates:

Prices without the cost of materials:

FER15-01-090-03 (approved by the Order of the Ministry of Construction of Russia dated December 30, 2016 No. 1039 / pr ) – “Arrangement of ventilated facades with porcelain tile cladding: with a heat-insulating layer”.

FER11-01-027-02 – “Installation of cement mortar coatings from ceramic tiles for multi-color floors”.

Prices including the cost of materials:

FER15-04-012-02 – "Painting of facades from scaffolding with surface preparation: organosilicon".

FER12-01-010-01 – “Installation of small coverings (firewalls, parapets, overhangs, etc.) from galvanized sheet steel (adjoining the profiled sheet to the wall)”.

As you can see, it is impossible to determine visually only by the name of the price what exactly it may include: only work or work and materials. Therefore, if materials are not indicated in the estimate, contact the estimator for help so that he “unfolds” the price and shows what exactly it includes – there is such a technical possibility in the “Grand Estimate”, etc. programs, or look for their decoding on the Internet or in specialized directories.

4. Errors in the number of materials

Example:

The project provides for the insulation of the facade with a 140 mm thick insulation: an inner layer of 100 mm and an outer layer of 40 mm. The total scope of works is about 2000 sq.m. Those. the total amount of insulation will be: 2000 sq.m. x 0.14 m = 280 cubic meters . The estimate turned out to indicate the volume of insulation 380 cubic meters , i.e. with an area of 2000 sq.m. its thickness should be 190 mm, which is 50 mm. more than design thickness. At the same time , from 2000 sq.m. the volume of excess insulation amounted to 100 cubic meters . So someone's mistake reduced the cost of work and materials by about 100 cubic meters . x 8000 rub. = 800,000 rubles, and zeroed out the profit.

Provided that the brackets of the ventilated facade have already been mounted according to the project with a projection of 200 mm. from the wall, it was no longer possible to mount an extra insulation, so the customer terminated the contract for the cost of the insulation mistakenly included in the estimate.

Recommendations:

Absolutely always compare the design data with the estimate before deciding to conclude a contract.

3.2. Errors in project documentation – again losses

The attachment points of any structures have not been worked out

Next, we will talk about the most revealing errors in projects. An error of such a plan may be made in the project: the attachment points of any structures are not worked out, or they are made with an error.

Example:

Once we made a hinged ventilated facade on a two-story building, lined with hollow bricks of the “boar” type. But the designers did not notice this …

For fastening the brackets of the ventilated facade, they provided for the use of chemical anchors. According to the project, a chemical anchor was laid, 100 mm long. The technical supervision of the customer warned that we should use only such an anchor – and nothing else, because. the project has passed the state examination, and a step away from this requirement for us is execution.

But in fact, it was impossible to use such fasteners, because the wall of the brick is very thin (10-15 mm) and practically the anchor only holds on to it, because the brick inside is completely empty, as in the figure – this is the old Soviet brick “Kabanchik”, which is already have not been produced for a long time.

Yes, this project passed the state examination , it was accompanied by acts of testing chemical anchors for pull-out, which supposedly had to securely fix the brackets on this particular building, but nevertheless, this is what happened.

When performing facade work, it is always necessary to test specific anchors for pull-out from a particular wall or object, which must be confirmed by test reports. Accordingly, we called a testing laboratory to the site, which is very common with manufacturers or suppliers of fasteners. Tested chemical anchors. None of the 5 or 6 attempts to confirm their suitability was successful – the brick walls broke under the most minimal (up to 150-200 kg.) Loads.

When asked how the same laboratory (by the way, a world-famous manufacturer, I’ll regret their reputation …) gave the designers a conclusion that chemical anchors of such a length can be used on this object, the answer was something like this : “We don’t know, a person who we have this act issued, it no longer works for us … ”. I repeat, the project with this fastener passed the state examination .

At the same time, we also tested conventional facade anchors with a longer length – 250 mm, which successfully passed the tests, because. they were fixed in ordinary masonry, which followed the facing hollow brick. Having received new test reports, we refuted the design solution, for the third time I repeat, which passed the state examination , and received permission from the customer to use extended length conventional anchors. Question substitutions one anchor to another was also affected by an increase in the cost of fasteners, but with respect to other aspects, nevertheless, this allowed us to get out of the situation at relatively low costs.

However, there were some consequences:

1. Due to carrying out all the tests and agreeing to replace the anchors, a week of time was spent, which led to a delay in the completion of work for this period.

2. For the delay in obligations for this week, the customer (and the contract was state-owned) first presented us with a penalty, although in fact he was to blame. In such situations, government customers never accepted the argument that the time it took to correct the documentation was not our fault, but their own. It is not customary for them, otherwise the performers (technical supervision, department heads, etc.) will then receive a cap for violating the deadlines for carrying out work and failing to take action against contractors. After refusing to pay the penalty, the customer sued us and sued her.

3. We used more expensive anchors, no one compensated us for the difference in price, again because there is an estimate approved in the budget – please be kind enough to fit into it. This is called “replacement without increasing the value of the contract”. Although the increase in the cost of fasteners was about 20%.

Prevention measures.

1. Extremely vigilantly compare not only the estimate with the project, but also the project with the real object.

2. Be sure to correspond and notify the customer in writing about the identified errors and inconsistencies in the design and estimate documentation, draw up acts for all, including commission inspection acts. In the future, this can help not only to make changes to the project documentation correctly, but also to justify the change in the cost of work.

3. Carefully read the contract, sometimes it provides for the possibility of an increase in the cost of work or materials upon bilateral agreement with the customer, but as a rule, such an increase is limited to an amount up to 10 or 15 % of the total contract value.

metal weight

Profit can be lost even where you do not expect it at all.

Example:

We had one object where, among other things, we had to make porches or canopies over the entrances to the building. We had an estimate, which included the amount of metal needed for the installation of the porches in tons, and the project did not contain a word about how these porches should look, no diagrams or sketches. If I'm not mistaken, the estimate was about 300 kg. metal without specifying its type, dimensions, profile and thickness. In the estimate, this metal was listed as processed metal, that is, as finished metal products, which immediately increases their cost, probably twice as much as the cost of pure metal. Complete lack of clarity on how to do the job…

The technical supervision explained how to be something like this: “Do it normally, so that it is reliable and beautiful enough, but without frills …”

We looked at how this is usually done at other objects, figured out what metal would be needed, its thickness, sketched out how it would all look like, figured out that snow could fall on the visors from the roof … It seems everything turned out fine on paper. We bought metal, welded spatial frames, racks, assembled everything, painted it. We are waiting for acceptance by the construction supervisor .

A representative of technical supervision came, measured each element of our porches, measured the thickness of each of their elements. In general, I calculated the real weight of the metal that we spent on the whole thing. In fact, it turned out to be 40 percent less … Accordingly, she said that since there is less metal, there will also be less money, and these 40% were cut out of the cost of work.

We went nuts from such a “flagrant injustice”, because the porches looked quite presentable, reliable. We did not expect this at all – we simply did not think that someone could have such an approach to the formation of technical specifications and to the acceptance of work. They conveyed their claims to the customer, explained that there was nowhere to sculpt excess metal, insisted on accepting 100% of the work … To which an absolutely logical answer followed, that we mounted exactly as much metal as we were paid for, and no matter what salary we paid workers for this work.

As a result, this money was withdrawn from us and it was useless to prove something, except that it was possible to weld this missing metal somewhere else, but it was just stupid, because. the structures were already absolutely finished, it was already unprofitable to pay for these works anew and spend time on this.

Recommendations:

If you are dealing with weight volumes and do not have a project for the execution of work, check everything in advance using a metal weight calculator or metal weight tables.

Even if you have both a project and an estimate in which the amount of material is the same, still compare, at least selectively, the weight of the metal that will be needed the most, again using the metal weight calculator or the metal weight table.

4. Why it is impossible to deviate from the design on the example of facade work. The right approach to preparing for facade work.

When a customer decides to update the facade of his building, he usually asks: “How much will it cost to mount the facade?”. Whatever the question is formulated …, such is the answer. In this review, we will figure out what questions, how and to whom to ask in order to get the right answer.

The solution of the facade issue is a series of stages that mutually influence each other, and at some point it may be necessary to revise the original plan completely.

1. Preliminary concept

First, the desired appearance and, accordingly, the materials used are determined. It is important to understand that in addition to the main cladding of the building, you will have to plan the cost of installing window slopes and ebbs. Also, the cost of installing a new parapet will come out if the roof is flat, and if you have small cornice overhangs, then they may have to be increased.

Of course, you can hire a designer to draw everything approximately or exactly for you. At this stage, no one can tell you the exact cost of the work, but only the order of numbers. Alas, this is just the beginning.

2. Coordination of the facade and its changes by the state executive authorities

For example, in Krasnoyarsk there is a procedure approved by the city administration for approving the passport of the facades of buildings and structures, with the exception of individual housing construction. Therefore, your lawyer should check the existence of such requirements for your object.

In Krasnoyarsk, as part of the documents, it is necessary to provide information on the color scheme, on the materials used, lists and layouts of additional equipment, elements and devices, architectural lighting scheme, etc.

This means that it is easier to make a project than not to do it. But in fact, the project needs to be done. Now check it out.

3. Design

3.1. Design surveys, encumbrances

When constructing the facade, we increase the overall dimensions of the building. This value can be different, from 100 mm to 700 in my memory. In addition, often in the process of facade reconstruction, the owners decide to additionally arrange canopies over the entrances to the building or even porches – accordingly, this is an indent from the building up to 2 meters. Behind the facade, the blind area can also shift.

Therefore, at the design stage, it is necessary to check whether, after the reconstruction of the facade, the violation of the red lines, the boundaries of easements and the security zones of engineering networks will not occur – otherwise, you will have to dismantle everything that you mount in such areas.

3.2. Purpose, fire safety class of the building, height of the building

The parameters indicated in the title of the paragraph affect the requirements for the materials used, the arrangement of individual components of the facade structure, and further on the cost of work and materials. As a rule, most facing materials (granite, plaster, metal and composite panels) meet such requirements, but all kinds of PVC do not. The same with insulation, mineral wool – does not burn, polystyrene foam – is limited in use. In addition, heaters have restrictions on the height of the lined structures. In general, there are enough subtleties.

3.3. Inspection of the condition of walls and suspended structures

There is no point in explaining this. It is clear that all worn-out sections of the structures will need to be restored, which is not firmly fixed – it is necessary to remount. A project for such work is necessary by definition.

3.4. Fastener testing

During the examination of the walls, the type of facade anchors and insulation fasteners used is determined. It is not always possible to use conventional anchors, and chemical ones may be required. But the choice of fasteners is made not only by calculation methods, but is confirmed by acts of laboratory tests for pull-out directly at the object. Typically, pull-out tests cost about 5 – 10 thousand rubles. plus a round-trip if the facility is a long distance away, but manufacturers can do these tests at their own expense if you express interest in continuing to purchase and use the tested fasteners from them.

3.5. Thermal calculations and choice of insulation

This is generally a very important question, because. the cost of heaters ranges from 2000 to 9000 rubles / m3 , and possibly even higher. Expanded polystyrene heaters – provide better thermal insulation, but have limitations on use, because. are not non-combustible, unlike mineral wool . A combination of less dense (“cheap”) and denser (“expensive”) insulation materials is allowed to achieve optimal thermal insulation of the walls.

Often, customers have no idea about such subtleties and make a decision “by eye” and at a price – which is fundamentally wrong.

3.6. blind area

Depending on the chosen type of facade, its installation begins either directly from the blind area, or with an indent from it by 20 mm – if a ventilated gap is needed. Therefore, before performing facade work, it must already be completed.

But there is a certain problem with the blind area – this is the state of the soil and its seasonal swelling. The condition of the soil can spoil both a single flooding of the site, and a change in the state of groundwater, showers, etc. In this case, improper performance of work on the blind area may lead to its rise.

From practice, the lifting height can be both 50 and 100 mm. Accordingly, the pressure from the blind area passes to the facade elements, crushing them like an "accordion", shifting the facade subsystem along with the cladding. As a rule, a gap is made between the profiles for thermal expansion of the metal, but it is only about 10 mm. Considering everything, in the best case, only the facade of the first floor, or its lowest part, may suffer, in the worst case, the deformation of the facade will go higher.

Therefore, the development of a project and a survey of the state of the soil in terms of the blind area during the construction of the facade are mandatory.

3.7. seismicity

The choice of facade materials, fasteners, etc. the seismicity of the area in which the object is located. Therefore, in areas with high seismic hazard, the materials used must be certified for use in such conditions, and in the event of earthquakes, they must minimize the risk of injury during failure. This also makes adjustments to the final appearance of the facade, its technology and cost.

3.8. Gaps between metal elements of the facade

Often, customers want the joints between the individual panels of the facades not to be visible and ask to make the installation without gaps. Alas, due to the thermal expansion of metals, facing materials can become unusable, deformed. Even designers forget about it, but you must remember and demand compliance with these standards.

3.9. The layout project of the profile system, cladding and individual components of the facade

Only at this design stage it is possible to see the future appearance of the facade as close to reality as possible, to see the visualization, to understand the cost of work and the need for materials.

But, now we have to wait for the decision of the supervisory authorities … And only then either correct the project, or finally start the work in accordance with the current regulations.

5. Learn how to properly plan money for project management: principles of cash flow ( cash flow ) in practice

It often happens that with the growth of a company or the number of projects or contracts it is carrying out, difficulties arise with planning further activities. The difficulty lies in understanding the question of whether you have enough resources, primarily financial, to complete the work in the future – from the next quarter to a year. Incorrect accounting of finances in this sense caused problems for many enterprises, especially when they took on additional, and in fact “unmanageable” projects at the expense of their own or borrowed funds, because they did not have enough resources at the right time, and to return what had already been invested in them was not possible. This includes, for example, all unfinished .

The second moment, when there is more than one project and they are extended in time, it means that the receipt of funds (revenue) from them will also be extended in time, and at some point, expenses in one project have to be made at the expense of proceeds from another, to the detriment of of course the second. Well, if there are 5 or 10 projects … Plus, such moments as unforeseen circumstances that shift both the execution of work on the project and the receipt of revenue.

Therefore, it is extremely important to distribute the efforts (expenses) and income in such a way that the incoming funds are enough for everything and do not lead to insolvency in certain periods. Getting into such situations, enterprises are forced to look for opportunities to attract additional financial resources (loans), which increases costs even more, and besides, the very receipt of these funds is not always possible for various reasons. Therefore, cash flow planning is a very important part of management, maybe even the most important.

Let's see how to organize and simplify all this.

In fact, there is nothing more visual than a graph or a simple table. In our case, we need a schedule for the receipt and expenditure of funds. But in order to build it, you need to set up accounting for two things.

1. Accounting for current and future costs and liabilities

The usual 1C type accounting system is not enough for this, either more advanced versions or more manual labor are needed. Programs usually show you the current situation – to whom you owe and how much, but your long-term plans will not get here and the data will not show you anything. Therefore, it is necessary to draw up a single schedule.

There are two types of expenses:

“ Prepaid ” – you spent money at a certain moment and received goods or services;

“With deferred payment” – you received goods and services, and you pay for them in a week or two, a month, and, if you're lucky, even after two.

The more detailed you set up planning, the better the result. But in general, the most convenient option is to conduct monthly planning. This should be reflected in the cost plan by date. In the “payment calendar” or “payment plan”, future expenses must be entered taking into account exactly when the need for payment arises, even if you have not yet received goods and services – we are planning for the future.

All expenses need to be planned. With permanent ones (rent, salary, taxes, loans, advertising, fuel, etc.) it is somewhat easier, half of them may not change from month to month, and each new project will require taking into account its specifics. There is no point in explaining how to build a cost plan by date or by project.

2. Accounting for income

In the same way as with expenses, we build a similar plan for cash receipts. For ordinary or core activities, it is relatively easy to plan these indicators. At the same time, each new project has its own specifics associated with the return on investment.

For example, if you take on the construction of an object for a year worth 120 million rubles, according to which the receipt of funds from the customer mainly occurs monthly upon completion of the work, which is stated in your contract, then on a monthly basis you can plan the receipt of revenue in the amount of 1/ 12 parts of the contract amount, i.e. 10 million rubles But some stages of work are more expensive, and some are cheaper – this must be planned and taken into account. In addition, there are projects that you finance for several months, and only then begin to receive a return on investment from them.

And we do the same for all existing projects on a monthly basis.

Do not duplicate or confuse individual indicators

Keep in mind that if you keep records of receipts without VAT, accordingly, its amount paid to the budget should not be included in the payment plan, since it is already “as if paid”. But to complete the picture, it is better to keep records of both revenue and cost including VAT, and take into account its amount in taxes planned for payment.

The same applies to depreciation charges. If you keep a record of them as part of the costs, do not forget to reflect the increase in the size of the depreciation fund in the cash balance, because. these funds are essentially real money, and when buying or repairing equipment (when spending), they are deducted from it.

It is also necessary to separate loan payments and payments to suppliers. What you pay suppliers is an expense. Interest on a loan is also an expense, and repayment of the principal amount of debts is reflected in the balance sheet as a reduction in debt to creditors.

We build a graph (table)

The principle of constructing cash flow ( cash flow ) is very simple, but very informative. We need to compare monthly revenue with expenses. You can accept other periods – at least a week, at least a quarter – but usually all payments occur within one month, and the consolidation of periods is acceptable for long-term planning of future and long-term projects, and not current and those that are already on the way.

The data taken as an example assumes the presence of profitability in the range from 10 to 20% and a certain lag in the return on invested funds from the start of project expenditures. The first project can be the main activity. And all the rest are either the same, meaning just an additional amount of work, or fundamentally different, but generating income.

Table 1

Cash Flow Calculation Example

Rice. 1. Graphical display of cash flow to Table 1

Explanations

Cash flow is defined as the difference between receipts and expenditures over a period—in our case, a month.

Cash at the beginning – in our example, this is a conditional 1000 rubles. free cash that you have at the very beginning of the period under review. It can be equal to zero or negative – but it should reflect the real state of affairs at the moment.

Accordingly, the amount at the end of the period is the amount of money at its beginning plus cash flow.

The amount at the beginning of each period is the amount at the end of the previous period, so in the table the amount at the end changes on an accrual basis throughout the year, incorporating the cash flow values in each of the periods.

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