02 / Construction
Understanding the main building systems helps you ask useful questions about drawings, pricing, coordination, and construction. Use this overview alongside the project drawings and the responsibilities established with your design and construction team.
Foundations support the building and connect it to the ground. Framing forms the floors, walls, roofs, and openings. Drawings explain the layout, members, connections, and details that the construction team needs to coordinate.
Explore the Foundations and Structural Systems guide for common foundation arrangements, load paths, structural coordination, and questions to resolve before construction.
Exterior walls, roofing, windows, doors, waterproofing, and insulation work together to manage weather and interior conditions. Pay attention to the details where materials and assemblies meet, including roof edges, openings, and foundations.
Read the Building Enclosure guide to understand water, air, vapor, and thermal control across walls, roofs, and windows. Includes coordination questions, a comparison table, and a window installation scope example.
Mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire-protection work must fit within the architecture and structure. Equipment locations, service routes, access, penetrations, and ceiling heights are common coordination points.
Explore the Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing Systems guide for early equipment decisions, service coordination, proposal scope, testing, and handover. Includes a scope comparison table and an example of resolving a duct route near a structural beam.
Partitions, ceilings, doors, cabinetry, and finishes turn the building structure into usable spaces. Compare plans, schedules, details, and selections so the intended scope is clear before it is priced or installed.
Use the Interior Construction and Finish Selections guide to organize room finishes, coordinate doors and built-in work, clarify allowances, and plan approvals. Includes a room-by-room example and a flooring-change coordination example.
Understand how plans, elevations, sections, details, schedules, and notes describe the work.
Review drawing scope and coordination, record questions, and track follow-up with your design team.
Review permit drawing requirements with your project team and local review authority. Use the Project Planning Checklist to organize the work leading up to construction and the Bid Comparison Worksheet to compare contractor proposals.
Before requesting prices, read the Construction Bidding guide. Learn what to include in a bid package, how to compare scope and allowance assumptions, and which questions to resolve before selecting a contractor.
Build the timeline around the work that makes each activity possible. The Project Scheduling guide explains milestones, critical paths, material lead times, progress updates, and handover planning, with a worked example.
For project roles, communication, and closeout, continue to Project Management.
Keep the next decisions organized with a working checklist or worksheet.
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