A resubmittal happens when the subcontractor has submitted on an item but the design team gives typically a “Rejected” or “Revise and Resubmit” response. From there you must create a revision of that specific submittal, and the subcontractor will submit the correct item addressing the design teams comments.

Yes, it should be from the manufacturer, but sometimes these can be found with a little digging online by searching the material and finding the data sheets/specs/ required safety forms for the materials.

Saijoo, Great question. MSDS, or now commonly known as SDS are indeed very important submittals. While it may not likley be on the wood floor material itself, it is more likley to be on adhesives or finishes of the floor. From the GCs perspective, these SDS sheets aren't typically needed by the design team (although some want to review them), the SDS submittals need to be transmitted to the site supervisor/ superintendent for safety reasons. If anything happens on site, and there is an incident related to that product, the site crews need to be able to quickly access that document to better understand what they are dealing with and how to properly mitigate it. The storage and maintenance is important because sometimes it cannot be stores with one of the other many products onsite because it may become a hazard.

Well technically a submittal never turns into a change order, but sometimes a submittal may be incorporated as a part of a change order? If changes are exposed through the submittal process (Oh no! We forgot to include the right faucets for the designed sinks), then this may initiate a change order. But, best practice is not to do this using the submittal. If there is indeed a change on the design teams part that was brought to the surface from the submittal process, than an official change document should be issued (ASI initiated from design team or RFI initiated by construction team). Rarely should a CO be initiated from the submitter during this process. This is a quality control check process, so whatever was bid and contracted (and therefore submitted) should have been whatever was already outlined in the contract documents and priced accordingly. If you submit something not listed on the documents...it is at your own financial risk if it isn't approved. If it is being submitted as a substitute, it should be clear as to why. But it goes the other way too...designers shouldent be buttoning up their documents or making changes at this phase or through this process. This is a crucial role of the project engineer or project manager to manage this process and make sure both sides are playing fair and not misusing what the process is intended for. Hope this helps!

Faijal, Unfortunately I do not personally know of any books that comprehensively cover project management for construction. I do know of someone who creates some great online courses for this type of information though. It is construction-education.com/courses/ Anyone else have any books that would be a good source of info?

Janidons World, this depends on who is providing the material. Typically the firm or supplier providing the materials is required to provide the submittals. But this also depends if it is included in their contract. Whoever quoted and is providing the materials is to prove (by way of the submittals), what will be purchased and installed on the project. This is then verified and checked for completeness and that it is correct according to the specifications by the subcontractor or GC and then submitted to the consultant group for approval.

Are Document Controllers responsible for making submittals?

Our terminology may differ, please explain what you mean by document controllers and who that is within a company/ process to best answer your question.

Dave M, LOL. I would agree with that comment. If we are concerned about it, then we most definitely have our priorities mixed up. On the other hand, if we are aware of it, it can be very helpful to maximize the effectiveness of our communication. As we all know, communication is hard enough, so simply to have awareness of non-verbal and instinctual, subconscious social ques can only help us right? An interesting activity is to observe and notice peoples seating preferences in different meetings AFTER everyone is already seated. And to see how those meetings playout (what the intent was, how information was communicated, was it a good meeting or did the 'leader' just need to boost their ego). It's interesting and fascinating what we start to uncover when we start paying attention and listening to what is NOT said, just as much to what is said. (Similar to bids for a project...exclusions can be just as important, if not more so, than what is included).

@@thegirlinthehardhat when I anticipate a meeting will get heated because of a dispute for example I try and sit next to the person who will be against my stance. Trying to show how we aren't teaming up on them and wish to work it through together. Police do this during interrogations to assist with getting confessions also.

Nice work! A great example of how the information can be used. Now if only I can remember to do this next time...continuously learning and working on it...appriciate the application example as these can be so very helpful.

Joe, thank you for your continual and unwavering support.

Brittany, thank you. My experience is from the Project Management perspective in the office. Though, within a med size company we ran multiple projects and we would have the opportunity to be on-site at least once a week (if not more if we could help it). My heart has always leaned towards the field and to understand and support them in anyway I was able to. As of last month I am now on my own and starting my own business...so I guess I am now in limbo.