If you hold one of AWI-QCP’s 35 architectural woodworking licenses, you’ve proven that your firm’s knowledge and skills are among the best in the industry. Add to that your extensive experience in AWI Standards, project estimation, materials sourcing, and more, and any hiring architect can have total faith in your capabilities.
But even though your QCP license affirms your superior talents, you’ll still come across plenty of projects that aren’t QCP certified. While you’re free to bid for an uncertified project, it’s in your best interest – and that of the entire project team – to insist on registering it with QCP.
Benefits of project registration
Use of AWI Standards
In an uncertified project, it’s the architect’s responsibility to specify in a way that the woodworking firm can clearly understand and fulfill. But without industry-recognized compliance standards, the architect needs to be hyper specific in their instructions.
As well as being a huge and avoidable time investment, this still doesn’t eliminate the risk of misunderstanding. With your different perspectives on the project, specs that seem unambiguous to the architect might not be so clear to you. And if this miscommunication leads to an unsatisfactory product, it can create frustration and resentment on the job site that harms the entire project.
But since QCP-certified projects require AWI Standards, registering the project ensures a definitive mutual language for communicating woodwork specifications. This means the architect doesn’t need to waste time over-specifying, and they can be sure that their specs constitute quality woodwork. As a result, you significantly raise the likelihood of project success for the whole team, and protect all parties against uncertainty.
Inspections from industry experts
Although architects are highly skilled in designing construction projects, their abilities don’t necessarily translate to verifying the quality and integrity of woodwork. So, when final product inspections are left to the architect, it’s much more likely that flaws or non-conformities can be missed.
Failing to resolve these issues can compromise the lifespan of interior architectural woodwork. This leaves the client dissatisfied with their project, and the hiring architect will be inclined to direct the responsibility to you as the woodworking expert. Without proof to defend yourself or the quality of your work, you leave yourself open to severe backlash and a loss of reputation.
To protect you, the architect, and the client with quality and risk assurance, QCP-certified projects are eligible for official evaluation from a trained woodwork inspector. These inspections typically take place at 80% fabrication and once installation is complete, though they can be requested at other points as well.
The QCP inspector will carefully check your woodwork against AWI Standards to make sure it conforms appropriately. If your products meet the project specifications, you have objective proof of quality and compliance to satisfy the architect and defend yourself against disputes. If they don’t, the inspector will advise you on how to fix these nonconformities, and return to validate your work once you make the necessary changes.
When discussing project registration with a potential client, QCP inspections are perhaps your most powerful argument. They de-risk the project for all involved, and inspire unshakeable trust and confidence even when working with new partners for the first time. By registering a construction project with QCP, architects and clients can relax knowing that the outcome of their project is in capable hands.
Better project communication
Project registration doesn’t just clarify communication through AWI Standards. It also streamlines access to documentation and project updates to ensure all parties are operating with current, relevant information.
Each time the status of your project changes, you, the designer, or the general contractor can inform QCP through our Update A QCP Project Status online form. Once we receive this update, we’ll contact the entire project team to let them know. As this communication will come directly from QCP, it prevents the project update from becoming lost in recipients’ inboxes, and makes searching for updates simple.
How much does it cost to register a project with QCP?
This is one of the first questions an architect will ask when you try to explain the benefits of project registration. So, it’s important to have an answer prepared.
The project registration process itself is completely free. But registration is the first step in QCP certification, which does carry a small cost.
Certification costs 0.5% of the project’s woodwork subcontract value, or $500 (whichever is greater). But there’s also an upper limit of $10,000 to help architects avoid astonishing costs on large-scale projects. By keeping costs as low as possible while delivering incredible benefits, project registration consistently provides high ROI.
Remember to reassure the architect that these costs aren’t hidden or extra. Since you as the woodworking firm will manage QCP administration and payment, the costs will appear as part of your bid. So, once you submit your bid, they’ll have a definitive figure against which to measure the incredible value of project registration.
How to register a project with QCP
Once you convince the architect to register their project with QCP, it’s your responsibility as the woodworker to ensure this is carried out. And thanks to our convenient online form, you can complete the entire registration process in just a few minutes by filling in these four sections:
- Your contact information as the woodworking firm.
- Details of the project you’re registering.
- The contact information for the project’s design firm.
- The contact information for the project’s general contractor.
When we have the necessary details, we’ll send you an email with a QCP project number within 24 hours. Add this to your project specifications, and your project will be considered registered with and certified by AWI-QCP.
Register your project today
Registering a project with QCP leads to compliant woodwork, clear communication, and quality assurance. And with the right information to hand, registration is quicker than making a cup of coffee.
When you’re ready to register your project, simply head over to our online project registration form, and start your certification process right away.
