AL General Contractor common mistakes
AL General Contractor · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Answers all lien and notice questions using the deadline and notice sequence the candidate learned in another state (or from a general textbook), without checking whether the rule is an Alabama rule tied to the project's county probate office.
Most candidates come in with out-of-state field experience or with study material written for national exams, so the state-specific statutory timeline gets mentally replaced by whatever 'felt right' on the jobsite.
What to do instead
Build a single one-page Alabama-only card: preliminary notice requirements, the verified statement of lien, where it is filed, the filing window measured from the last furnishing of labor or materials, and the deadline to enforce. Re-derive every practice lien question from that card rather than from memory, and treat any question mentioning another state as a deliberate distractor.
Identifies the critical path by eye ('it looks like the longest chain of activities') and mixes calendar days with work days when comparing a computed duration to the contract time.
CPM questions are usually drawn as a small network that invites guessing, and most field people schedule in calendar days while the network and the contract calendar are stated in work days.
What to do instead
Always run the arithmetic: forward pass for early start/early finish, backward pass for late start/late finish, total float = late start minus early start; the critical path is the chain with zero total float, and a second path can tie. Convert durations to the stated project calendar (five- or six-day week, holidays) before answering any 'days of delay' or 'liquidated damages' item.
Computes cut and fill in bank cubic yards and compares that number directly to a compacted-fill pay quantity, or to a truck-haul quantity, without applying swell or shrinkage factors.
'Cubic yard' is used casually in the field for all three conditions, and the exam deliberately states the pay item in one condition while giving excavation data in another.
What to do instead
Label every quantity with its condition before doing arithmetic: bank (in place), loose (hauled), compacted (fill in place). Apply swell when converting bank to loose for hauling and shrinkage when converting bank to compacted fill, then re-read the bid item to see which condition is actually paid and measured.
Uses 7-day cylinder breaks as the acceptance criterion for the mix, judges a batch by slump alone, and assumes forms can be stripped when the 28-day design strength is reached.
Slump and early breaks are the numbers that show up on the field ticket and in the lab report the super sees first, so they get mentally promoted to 'the spec.'
What to do instead
Separate the questions the tests answer: slump and air content are workability and durability checks, not strength; acceptance is on 28-day tests with the standard statistical rule (average of three consecutive tests at or above the specified strength, no single test more than a set margin below it). Form removal and post-tensioning follow the specification, approved maturity method, or field-cured specimens - not the 28-day design value.
Treats every bolted connection as pretensioned, and reads a welding symbol from the wrong side of the reference line (arrow-side versus other-side welds reversed).
In the field most bolts are simply run down tight, so 'snug tight' becomes the default mental model; weld symbols are small, dense, and rarely read closely outside the shop.
What to do instead
First classify the connection from the drawings and specification - snug-tight, pretensioned, or slip-critical - because that classification drives the installation method and inspection. Then decode symbols in a fixed order: size to the left of the symbol, weld type in the middle, length to the right, pitch after that, tail for the process, and a symbol below the reference line is the arrow side while one above is the other side.
Details or accepts roof plies and flashing so that the upper ply laps over the lower ply against the direction of water flow, and terminates base flashing without a counterflashing or reglet.
Candidates answer from the picture that 'looks finished' rather than from the direction water actually runs, and membrane details are usually memorized as shapes rather than as a water-shedding logic.
What to do instead
Apply one rule to every lap question: water must flow over the lap, never into it, so each successive ply or course laps in the downslope direction. For terminations, check that base flashing is paired with cap or counterflashing secured in a reglet or receiver, that fasteners are above the water line, and that the detail shows a sealant or termination bar where the membrane ends.
Reads the door schedule nominally - assumes a 3'-0" door yields 36 inches of clear width for egress - and ignores the fire rating label and hardware set when matching a door to its wall.
Nominal size is what is printed in the schedule and what is called out on site, while clear width, label, and hardware live in separate columns or notes that get skimmed.
What to do instead
Convert nominal to clear before answering any egress question: subtract the door leaf thickness and frame stop, so a 3'-0" opening lands roughly two to three inches under nominal and must still meet the minimum clear width for the occupancy. Then cross-check the label (20-, 45-, 60-, or 90-minute), the required closing and latching hardware, and the wall rating the frame sits in.
Assigns responsibility for hangers, supports, and penetration work by trade habit rather than by the specification, and ignores that every rated floor or wall penetration needs a listed firestop system installed with the sleeve.
On real projects these items are settled by whoever gets there first or by unwritten precedent, and coordination questions on the exam hide the responsibility in the specifications, not the drawings.
What to do instead
For any coordination item, identify four things: what the specification says each trade furnishes and installs, the clearance and stacking requirement from the code or manufacturer, whether the assembly is rated, and whether the firestop system is listed for that specific penetration and annular space. Sleeves and blockouts must be in place before concrete is placed - answer sequencing questions in that order.
Quotes fall-protection and excavation trigger numbers from memory or from the general-industry standard instead of the construction standard, and blurs the two together.
The two sets of numbers are close enough to feel interchangeable, and many candidates have taken an OSHA 10 that mixed general industry and construction examples.
What to do instead
Anchor answers to 29 CFR 1926 for construction and memorize a short table of the numbers actually tested: fall protection at the construction trigger height (not the general-industry height), a protective system required once an excavation reaches the depth threshold, spoil and equipment kept back from the edge, ladders within the stated travel distance and extending the stated amount above the landing, and guardrail and scaffold rail heights within their stated ranges. When two options differ only by a number, decide the standard first, then the number.
Measures a dimension off a drawing with a scale rule without confirming the print is full size, and reads a section or elevation callout as if it were a plan dimension.
Prints are routinely reduced in reproduction, and plan, section, and elevation views sit inches apart on the same sheet with different reference points.
What to do instead
Verify scale against the graphic scale bar using a known dimension on the sheet before measuring anything, and use the stated scale for each individual view. Identify the view type and its datum before reading elevations, and on every 'which of the following' item, underline EXCEPT or NOT before evaluating options so the wrong-direction question is not answered with the true statement.