Freedom Run

During the final stages of a painting project, taking a tour through the area and assessing the quality of the job should be first on the to do list. Here are a few tips from professional painting contractors for a finished surface inspection. If possible, examine the painted surfaces in both natural daylight and artificial light. Different anomalies may be visible in different lighting conditions.

Even Coverage
Look for paint coverage that’s evenly and consistently applied. For finding uneven or patchy coverage, your best bet will be to check around window frames and adjacent corners. Make sure that the lines of the paint job are clean and even and that there are no gaps in coverage.

No Blemishes
Look for bumps, cracks, strange adhesions, and other anomalies on the surface. These blemishes are often the sign of improperly applied coats, or unforeseen complications in the process. If something is wrong, point out the area to your painting contractor and ask for an explanation.

No Bleed Through
A properly finished painting job requires several coats of product for even coverage and good protective qualities Check to make sure that you can’t see any of the old paint through the new paint layers. Similarly, watch out for primer bleeding through the fresh paint.

Looks Good Up Close and from a Distance
Finally, step back and look at the overall results of the project. Occasionally, subtle problems do not reveal themselves until you take a step back and look at the big picture. If you spot something that is just a little off, it may be a sign of a flaw that slipped by a close-up inspection. Take another swing through the project to discover any hidden flaws.

You don’t need to do a rigorous inspection all on your own. Good painting contractors will help you appraise their work and walk through the finished project with you.

The big day has arrived, the day on which your customer decides which of the competing bidders has won his new project.  As the Project Manager, you may or may not be the first to hear the news.  Customers work differently.  Sometimes a member of the customer’s staff, or more than one, will “whisper” the news to his opposite number in the bidding company and sometimes full protocol will be observed, with a formal communication being sent from the customer’s Contracts Manager to your Commercial Manager.  Either way, the Project Manager will be one of the first to hear the good news that your bid was considered to be the best and that the job now starts in earnest.

Bearing in mind that a large part of the Project Manager’s job is man management, one of your first duties should be to arrange a celebration for all the people who worked on the bid.  This sign of appreciation will do wonders for staff morale and will ensure that you have a willing team.  Depending on the value of the project, this celebration might be a beer in the pub or a full blown lunch.  Don’t forget to include everyone or this will have the opposite to the desired effect.  When having your celebration, use the opportunity to praise past efforts and lay out future expectations.

At this early stage, your other major task will be to ensure that someone is arranging your office accommodation.  If you work for  a large company which likes to co-locate its project personnel, you will need to make sure that someone is taking care of space, storage and communications so that your staff can quickly settle down and devote themselves to making the project a success.

After the celebration (the same day might not be such a good idea), call your first project meeting for your senior team members.  At this stage, it is unlikely that your company will actually have signed the contract for this project so before that happens, more work is necessary.  Your team will need to again review the customer’s documentation to ensure that they still say the same as they did when you responded to the bid.  It’s not unheard of for a customer to try and sneak in a few extra requirements when they think you’re not looking.  You will also need to make sure that your responses to both the Invitation to Tender and any subsequent questions have been included in the new documentation and that the price, payment plan, technical solution and everything else, have been acknowledged.

As long as all the documentation is in order, it is normal practice to go ahead with the project, even without the benefit of a signed contract.  Often, the customer will have sent a formal Instruction to Proceed agreeing basics such as the price.  You will probably need this to get project funding signed off by the senior financial people in your organization, enabling you to get on with the job…. and that’s where the next article will take us.