Company Overview

Hanscomb Limited, a leading organization of quantity surveyors and cost consultants, has been privileged to serve both Canadian and international clients on a wide variety of construction projects for more than 40 years. The major services provided by Hanscomb are: Cost Planning and Control, Scheduling, Quantity Surveying, Project Management Overview, Value Management, Arbitration & Claims Settlement and Feasibility Studies.

Hanscomb's mission is to serve building owners and design professionals in achieving sensible economy and optimum productivity in the design and construction processes. By controlling cost, time, quality and performance in an unbiased professional manner, Hanscomb has become an internationally recognized leader in the coordinated management of capital projects. Hanscomb is successful because it's people bring together the professional and practical skills of both project management and quantity surveying.

Hanscomb takes pride in its multi-disciplinary nature and provides a working environment that promotes a free exchange of knowledge resulting in a wider utilization of the experience of our specialist professionals.

Visit our website at http: //www. hanscomb. com for information or the address of an office near you.

Company Information

Additional Details

Legal Name: HANSCOMB Limited

Number of Employees: 120

Contacts

Services

• Arbitration & Claims Settlement

  Representative Experience

  Hanscomb acted as technical consultants for the owners in defence of a claim submitted by a contractor responsible for the installation of the fuel facility at Pearson International Airport. Settled out of court. Regarding a seven figure claim by a developer against CMHC.

  Hanscomb acted as technical consultants to CMHC and successfully refuted the claim in court. Regarding a claim by a developer against his lawyer, and subsequently against the Law Society, for misrepresentation at the time of land purchase. Hanscomb prepared documentation for the claim which was agreed to by the Law Society without going to court.

  Hanscomb acted as a technical consultant to Ontario Hydro during a Royal Commission investigation. Hanscomb acted as a technical consultant to the City of Toronto against CIPREC (Canadian Institute of Public Real Estate Companies) during a Municipal Board Hearing.

  Regarding Datasphere Sales et al vs. Gentry Environmental Services Ltd. Hanscomb was retained to analyze the sufficiency of the Gentry backup material in connection with the particular change notices, performing a quantity survey with respect to the work covered by those change notices and rendering a report. Settled out of court.

  Hanscomb was retained by major sewer and water contractor to prepare a $1.2 million claim for changes in construction methods and design, breach of contract, changed subsurface conditions and sequencing of work.

  Hanscomb acted as an expert for a major general contractor who submitted a claim in a dispute with a bonding company over a subcontractor default.

  Hanscomb was retained by major general contractor as an expert in defence of a $26 million lawsuit by the owner.

  Hanscomb was retained by major industrial client to 'dismantle' a $6.5 million claim by the general contractor.

  Hanscomb was retained by major hospital to act as an expert witness in defence against claims by a defaulting general contractor's bonding company.

  Hanscomb acted as an expert witness in a $1.2 million lawsuit regarding failure of a connection in a water line.

  Hanscomb acted as an expert witnessin two residential disputes over scope and quality of work provided by the contractor.

  Hansocmb acted as expert in $1.5 million claim by a bonding company against an owner.

  Hanscomb acted as an expert witness in defending an engineer from claims by owner/general contractor.

  Hanscomb prepared a $2.0M claim for a contractor against an owner for breach of contract and delays.

  Hanscomb acted as an expert witness for the Government in defence of a $400, 000 claim for wrongful tender award.

  Hanscomb acted as an expert witness for a contractor in $1.5M suit against the owner for breach of contract.

• Construction Management

  management of all types of building and civil engineering construction on behalf of owners

• Cost Planning & Cost Control
• Loan Monitoring
• Project Management

  Hanscomb has been involved in numerous major projects in Canada and the USA as Project and/or Construction Managers and has provided services covering the overall coordination and direction of the planning, design, construction and commissioning phases including program development, capital and operating budgets, cost planning and cost control, time planning and scheduling, specifications, contract documents, tender calls, site supervision, progress payments, change orders, final accounts, monitoring move in and start up, deficiencies, etc.

• Project Management Overview

  Program Management Overview can be primarily defined as providing a proactive reporting process to the owner's senior management team, the funding groups and the design and project management team responsible for the programs' success. This approach concentrates on issues that could produce potential cost and time overruns. Cost and time are the two key areas that historically have been the most difficult to contain within the approved guidelines, especially on larger, complex capital cost projects.

  The role of the PMO is independent of the owner, funding authority, design consultants, contractors and the inherent interests of those groups. This independent approach is necessary in order to provide an unbiased opinion of the status of the project at regular intervals. This is carried out primarily through the Program Status reporting system which assembles the relevant data on time and cost from the many sources, to provide a comprehensive 'snap shot' of the current position and will identify any immediate or potential problems. These problems can then be analyzed to assess the critical nature of the issue in order that both the project management team and the senior management group are aware of the facts. This will give the various management levels of the project the opportunity to determine the appropriate measures to take to effectively deal with the issue. To do this, the information in the Program Status report has to be current, accurate, and complete. This can only be achieved through timely and effective management of information.

  The result of a proactive approach is that the teams involved in those decision making processes are all working with the same data base, improving communications between the various levels of management (funding authority, owner's senior management and project personnel and the design team). As an example, knowing where the budget stands at any one time can be an extremely important piece of information before making any decision, but all too often this is the item that is least understood, resulting in poor decision making.

• Property Management
• Quantity Surveying
• Risk Analysis
• Risk Management
• Scheduling & Planning

  To achieve the objectives of time control it is important that every member of the team both consultant and client representatives) be conscious of the fact that time is of the essence. The best way to emphasize the time restraints and to obtain the cooperation of every team member is to establish a realistic time frame with built in room for adjustments without effecting the end dates. This will give the team members the confidence they need that the schedule is achievable.

  The major objectives of time control during the design phase are:

  • To establish with the client realistic completion dates

  including the required intermediate target dates.

  • To establish the manpower requirements to meet the target and

  completion dates.

  • To monitor progress in relation to the established schedule.

  Keep all team members informed of the overall status and to instigate remedial action if target and/or completion dates are threatened.

  • To instill the confidence in the design team that the target

  and completion dates are achievable.

  • To meet the client's objectives. (All objectives of the time

  control will have but one thing in mind: to achieve the client's objectives!).

  The time control effort will commence with the preparation of a Work Breakdown Structure for the project identifying the tasks to be completed, and the discipline responsible.

  This will form the basis for a master schedule which will probably be prepared using the 'Primavera' scheduling software (Release 2.0) and will identify at a summary level the principal tasks and their durations for the entire project.

  Sub schedules will be prepared setting out in detail the tasks, allocating resources and relationships by discipline and calculating durations for discussion with team members. Resource levels will be adjusted as necessary to achieve the set target and completion dates. The schedule will then form the basis for internal monitoring of performance to ensure timely completion.

  A master schedule together with a detailed schedule for the ensuing working drawings phase, again broken down into sub schedules for the various disciplines, will be prepared. This will be discussed in detail with the client so that appropriate allowances can be made for all necessary approvals and similar client activities. The resulting schedules will be used to monitor ongoing time performance by all participants and instigate corrective action where this becomes necessary..

  As working drawings proceed, detailed schedules for procurement, construction, equipping commissioning and occupation will be developed in turn. These will be confirmed with contractors, suppliers, etc., as they are appointed and will similarly form the basis for ongoing monitoring and control.

  During the monitoring process, the Primavera scheduling program facilitates resource leveling and can thus provide the project's managers with alternates and scenario modeling if key completion or delivery dates are threatened at any time.

• Value Mangement

  The design and construction of any modern building is a very complex matter which offers for each discipline numerous alternatives that are often interdependent and have competing, functional, aesthetic capital cost and long term operating (life cycle) cost implications.

  Applied to the building industry, Value Management is based on the following principles:

  A. that every design has room for improvement (this is not a reflection on designers), B. that more creative ideas of alternatives are generated by groups rather than by individuals, C. that a methodical approach produces better results, D. that everyone is basically creative, and E. that facility life cycle costs (initial and future) should be as low as possible.

  A technique contingency on these principles must be capable of producing maximum value for funds expended. Value Management fulfills this need. This explicit, formal and visible approach to problem solving, based on carefully documented interdisciplinary cooperation among all members of the design team, ensures that value is achieved.

  Synonymous with Value Engineering or Value Analysis, Value Management is a conscious and explicit set of disciplined procedures designed to seek out optimum value for money. It involves the intensive analysis of all facets of the proposed design with a view to reducing both initial capital and long-term operational costs without a bridging utility, function or performance. Applied to facility design, Value Management is best delivered through intensive workshops attended by a core team with appropriate experience in architectural, mechanical, electrical and structural engineering, construction techniques and cost estimating. Specialist consultants are brought in to assist the core team where specific expertise is required. The Value Management team may, depending on the nature of the project, be made up of key members of the study building's design team or an independent team assembled specifically for the assignment at hand.

  Ultimately, the success of a Value Management program is a function of the degree of participation and cooperation extended by all members of the design team, and in particular, the active support of the owner and users. It is important that design team members be aware, before designs are initiated, that their participation is required in a Value Management program.

  The design team must also understand that the Value Management function is complementary to their own and intended to facilitate and expedite their tasks, not hinder or frustrate them. A Value Management program is not intended to contribute technical expertise, but to create a forum that allows for different ideas and viewpoints to be expressed freely and evaluated objectively in a timely fashion. It bears remembering that during the early design phases (representing 10-15% of design costs), decisions will commit 80% of the project budget.

NAICS Categories

• 236210 Industrial Building and Structure Construction
• 541990 All Other Professional, Scientific and Technical Services

Additional Information