Change orders are frequently viewed as an inevitable part of the construction process, as an unfortunate, recurring cost of doing business. Yet in our experience, they are often the result of preventable missteps. Most change orders stem not from unexpected conditions in the field, but from insufficient planning, coordination, and decision-making in the early phases of development.
We believe that change orders, when frequent and unmanaged, are a sign of systemic dysfunction, not project complexity. They represent more than financial cost; they signal a breakdown in communication, alignment, and foresight.
The Misconception: Change Orders Are Inevitable
The notion that change orders are simply a byproduct of complex projects has become embedded in industry culture. Owners assume they’re unavoidable. Architects and engineers anticipate redesigns. Contractors build buffers into schedules and contingency lines into budgets, expecting documents to be incomplete or misaligned. Each party works with an assumption that gaps in information will be resolved downstream, when in fact, that assumption is the very thing that generates avoidable rework and conflict.
This mindset is what Nautare actively resists.
At its core, the change order culture is a byproduct of reactive project delivery. Decisions are made in isolation, documentation is issued prematurely, and the team is asked to execute without a complete or tested narrative. The result is predictable: redesigns during construction, cost increases, recoordination efforts, and project delays.
But this is not inevitable. It is a choice, a consequence of when and how strategic thinking is applied.
The Real Cost of a Change Order
While the direct cost of a change order is easy to quantify on a ledger, labor, materials, margin, the indirect costs are where the true impact lies. These secondary effects, often unmeasured and underestimated, compound over time and affect every aspect of the project.
1. Schedule Disruption
Even small changes in scope can create cascading delays. Changes require clarification, pricing, approvals, and often resequencing of trade work. When a critical path activity is delayed by a single week, the entire project timeline can be compromised, leading to extended overhead, missed milestones, and in some cases, liquidated damages.
2. Field Productivity Loss
Change orders often arrive during construction when crews are mobilized and momentum is established. Introducing changes midstream disrupts workflow, causes rework, and introduces inefficiencies that reduce productivity and increase cost. Crews must shift focus, wait for new instructions, or demobilize altogether. These inefficiencies rarely appear on invoices, but they’re real.
3. Erosion of Trust
When change orders accumulate, trust between stakeholders erodes. Owners begin to question the reliability of the documents and the intentions of the builder. Contractors question the completeness of the design. Consultants grow defensive. The result is an adversarial posture that undermines collaboration and makes problem-solving slower and more fraught.
4. Governance and Oversight Fatigue
Each change order requires administrative overhead, documentation, approvals, budget adjustments, communication. Multiply that by dozens or even hundreds of changes across a complex project, and the governance structure begins to falter. What should be strategic time spent advancing the project becomes tactical time spent managing exceptions.
5. Owner Distraction
Most importantly, change orders shift the owner’s focus from vision to damage control. The energy that should be directed toward long-term outcomes, branding, operations, future phases, is instead spent reconciling budgets, resolving disputes, issuing construction change directives and making reactive decisions. This drift in focus reduces the overall value of the investment.
In short, change orders are expensive not just in dollars, but in clarity, cohesion, and confidence.
The Nautare Approach: Build the Project Before It’s Built
Our philosophy at Nautare as an owner’s project manager is simple: the best projects are those where strategic thinking happens early, before drawings are issued, before contracts are signed, before irreversible decisions are made.
We operate upstream, at the convergence of ambition, risk, and design intent. This is where we prevent the majority of change orders, not by suppressing change, but by anticipating it.
Here’s how we do it:
Validate the Narrative
We challenge our clients, architects, and engineers to test the story of the project long before the first deliverable is submitted. Is the scope truly defined? Are the end-user needs integrated into the program? Are the systems and materials appropriate for the budget and schedule? Many change orders result not from technical flaws, but from narrative gaps, decisions made without full context or input. We close those gaps.
Bring Builders Into the Process
We integrate preconstruction advisors or contractors into the design process, not as estimators, but as builders. Their early feedback on constructability, logistics, and sequencing uncovers issues that, if left unaddressed, would later manifest as costly change orders. This collaborative preconstruction model is at the heart of Nautare’s delivery philosophy.
Model the Decision Timeline
We build a roadmap that identifies not only what needs to be decided, but when. This includes high-risk details, owner-furnished items, specialty systems, and design allowances. By actively managing this decision schedule, we avoid deferred decisions that later force costly changes in the field.
Align Contract Language With Reality
Many contracts are silent or ambiguous about how change orders are handled, creating loopholes that are exploited later. We work with legal and procurement teams to structure agreements that reward accuracy, penalize vagueness, and define a fair process for managing legitimate changes. This establishes a clear framework that reduces disputes and accelerates resolution.
In short, we aim to build the building on paper, with the right stakeholders at the right table, before anyone pours concrete.
A Better Way Forward
We’ve seen firsthand what happens when projects are front-loaded with smart thinking:
- Construction proceeds with fewer surprises
- Stakeholder relationships remain strong
- Project timelines stay intact
- The owner remains focused on value creation, not value recovery
The result isn’t just fewer change orders, it’s better buildings, better outcomes, and a better experience for everyone involved.
Planning Is a Strategic Advantage
Too often, owners are told that change orders are simply part of the process. At Nautare, we reject that narrative. We believe change orders should be rare, not routine, and that the best way to avoid them is to think strategically from day one.
One of the ways we ensure this is through Nautare’s Technical Audit: a rigorous, independent review that bridges the gap between design ambition and construction reality. We assess constructability, coordination, scope clarity, and sequencing, long before a shovel hits the ground. This level of technical oversight helps prevent downstream conflicts, reduce rework, and align all stakeholders around a shared plan for success.
Let’s talk about how to avoid them entirely.
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Nautare is a national commercial real estate project services firm. We partner with ambitious clients to plan and deliver complex real estate projects with clarity, precision, and long-term value.
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