How long should an Aged Care Facility take to build?

It’s a question that will be answered after the following preliminary items have been carefully considered:

1.Does the parcel of land you wish to build on have any significant rise or fall across the site.

The slope associated with any particular parcel of land will have a significant impact on any construction schedule if the site requires either excavation or fill or both.

2.Does the site you wish to build on contain rock or contaminated soil that will need to be removed prior to construction commencing.

Rock and / or contaminated soil on any building site will create additional time being added to the construction time line. Excavating and the removal of rock from any site is a time consuming process. Heavy machinery is generally required to break up the rock and finding a nearby tip site that can take the rock can also be problematic. Contaminated soil adds another layer of time consumption and tip sites that take contaminated soil are few and far between and add significant cost in the disposal of it.

3.Are there any constraints or limitations around site access?

The proposed site may also be constrained by the following ; local council parking regulations which may make it difficult for construction workers vehicle parking, the width of the street that will provide access to the site, the number of local vehicles that utilise the street at any given time. All these items have the potential to add significant time to a project and need to be carefully considered when formulating expected construction timeframes.

4.How many bed places are you wanting to create?

The number of bed places will initially dictate a construction time frame once the specific site conditions like those detailed above have been allowed for and completed. General rule of thumb that we have developed at ACD for single storey, slab on ground type development is once site ground works have been completed a construction time frame of “2 beds per working week” can generally be achieved.

5.Will it be a vertical buildings comprising 1, 2, 3 or 4 levels?

Over the past 10 years multi level or “vertical” aged care facilities have become more the “norm” as land availability in inner suburban areas has become more scarce. Quite a number of these “vertical” aged care residences come complete with basements which can accommodate not only staff and visitor motor vehicles but storage areas and commercial type kitchens and laundries as well. These buildings require significant additional time to construct as they have numerous additional items built into them like lifts, stair enclosures, numerous fire protection services etc etc which add significant time to any construction program and definitely require specific time frames being allocated based on the design, number of levels, number of resident bed places and standard of fit out.

 6.Are you adding onto or extending an existing aged care building?

Adding a number of bed places to an existing aged care facility simply requires taking into account the information that l have already provided AND making sure that appropriate allowances for the potential relocation of some existing residents when works commence close to the existing building. Special care and consideration needs to occur when making the connection of the new building to the existing one as some residents will no doubt be affected by the noise, disruption and interruption to their daily routines that construction works bring. It has been my observation and is interesting to note that quite a number of aged care residents really enjoy the activity that is created by new building work.

Computer software programs also greatly assist builders and their contractors achieve critical milestone dates throughout the construction phases of any project. These computer programs require continual and accurate updates being entered by the builder or construction manager/s following on from weekly or fortnightly site meetings with heads of trades, to ensure that critical construction targets are being met.

Another major key to a successful build is to put together an experienced and reliable group of suppliers and tradespeople that have a thorough understanding of the complexities associated with residential aged care construction and who carry out their tasks in a professional, proficient and timely manner.

Attention to construction timelines, conducting regular site meetings with heads of trades and engaging with professional and experienced people in the construction process all contribute to what should be a very satisfactory and time efficient outcome.

In closing, l believe that if the appropriate amount of time is spent planning the project and providing due consideration to all of the items detailed above then any project can be completed in an efficient and timely manner.

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