I would love to hear about your experiences and advice on Site Prep from those of you that have helped with a build. Any advice on prepping for a smooth buid day? I'm ok with the phyical site prep area- we have volunteers to level the surface and auger the holes. I would love to hear about how many people it takes to unload the equipment truck? How many people it took to sort thru the equipment and what advice you have to help prep for Build Day? If you had to do it again what would be a must or something you would have done differently?
I am a KaBOOM! Project Manager and this is my experience with those numbers:
Unloading Equipment:
We breakdown our installation books before the truck even arrives and write down the name of the piece (i.e. Spiral Slide) next to the part number on all big playground pieces. When we are in the truck we call out the part number on the box and have one person who checks this part off and yells what it is. The person in the truck then writes on the side of the cardboard box the name of the piece. This makes it much easier on build day morning.
We normally have 3 people inside the truck and then as many people as possible helping out carrying from the truck to the storage area. I would say a minimum of 5 more people for sure, but we usually have a total of 15.
Sorting Equipment:
If you followed the above advice all of the big pieces should be accounted for. From here you will only need to sort through the actual hardware. We usually do it with just one person, going through and putting different hardware in different buckets. Any more than 4 or 5 people and it gets a bit too hectic and there is a much greater chance that you will be short on nuts and bolts on build day.
Are there any more specific details you would like?
In addition to unloading the truck, sorting and inventorying the equipment I like to do as much preparation as possible prior to build day morning. The weather, site and space will dictate how much you can do prior to the morning, but the more prep you can do the smoother build day morning can be. Below are some ideas of prep day preparations:
setting up the food area (if space permits)
inventorying tools (this will allow you to augment before they are absolutely necessary)
hanging banners (to thank, recognize and direct the volunteers)
creating a box of all necessary items for the registration table (nametags, pens, waivers, team assignments, etc) and safety area (first aid kit, gloves, safety goggles, etc.).
Doing a walk through of the site with your planning committee. This will ensure everyone is on the same page and hopefully avoid any confusion on build day.
Can you prep too much? My Construction Captain (and husband:) ) is planning on the truck coming a Thursday ( we have 15 volunteers this day) and trying to do as much organinzing/sorting that day and Friday (we have 40 volunteers this day) they want to do as many decks as they can and Build Day do the components and left over decks (and side projects) on Build Day.
I'm concerned Build Day won't have the HUGE impact I expected if some of the decks are already done. We are building 2 souper amazing playground with about 100 volunteers so far- no mulch to contend with since we are doing pour and place. Will our over preping result in a build day flop?
I'm not sure why you would build decks prior to build day. They get built while the mulch team and ground crew is putting down the felt and the post crew is lining up the posts where they need to be. The decks aren't that difficult and don't consume that much time but they allow people to complete the first piece of their team's projects. The other projects and components are more time consuming and take more attention. My experience (5 builds) is that the decks get built just in time to be needed. When they're built people move onto other components. You probably won't have the ground crew because you're doing pour in place. My suggestion is completely walking through how things will move throughout the day and make sure that the side projects (if any) are truly ready to go. We had to make adjustments on the last build because the info/checkin/first aid area wasn't set up in the best area, it directed traffic across where people were painting a map, etc. Look at it this way...if you have one group working on each of the decks on build day, they'll get done with the decks in time for them to be mounted in order. Then each group works on components and side projects. If you are working with wood side projects I cannot stress the need to have enough people prepping for those. Directions have been different every time, we've been short materials, wood was wet, etc. which meant on a couple builds we didn't get our side projects done. And, I've never been on a project that required 2 prep days unless materials were not delivered on time.
I would remind him (gently) that the need is to get (1) all components and pieces sorted and organized (2) get all side projects prepared and lined up (3) go over all safety issues and traffic patterns (4) remember it's supposed to be a fun construction day for everyone. My concern with starting in on decks is that it will be really easy to start in on the other components and before you know it you've assembled pretty much everything and you're not letting people have fun on build day.
Believe it or not, part of the fun is the big push at the end. I've been on projects where the side projects are still being worked on due to the fact they take sooooo long sometimes and the playground was done. We had people milling around for an hour before ribbon cutting and it wasn't easy to get them motivated to do the little clean up stuff after words. They felt "their" work was done.
If he absolutely has to do some assembly, I'd recommend any picnic tables and/or planter benches (not knowing what your side projects are). Or, policing the site, trimming landscaping, etc. It's not about getting it done as early as possible, it's about the engagement of everyone who participates.
No matter what, you'll have a HUGE impact. You'll be starting with dirt and ending with a completed playground. That's an awesome accomplishment no matter how you get it done. Have fun and good luck.
Our site prep was completed in advance, as we installed a tricycle loop around the play area. Therefore, it was easy to have the paving company complete the excavation. We had the playground equipment vendor auger the holes and assist the volunteers with the build. Having this person's support was absolutely critical to completing the job by 3PM (we had our volunteers from 8AM - 3PM).
The biggest challenge with our site preparation was space. We were building a playground in a very urban setting, so we had little room for trucks, equipment and supplies. If I had to do it again, I would have thought this through even more carefully than I thought I did.
I am sure that your project will go smoothly. Good luck!