Tag: housing

Don’t Plug-in Appliances in the Sales Models

            There is something inviting about the digital clock numbers lit-up on the kitchen range, and people are tempted as they walk through the sales models to push buttons and “kick the tires.” 

            The same thing occurs with the microwave oven and the dishwasher, for example.  If people push a button and hear a beep, or turn a knob an get the water to run…their interest is aroused and they may continue to play with the appliance. 

            If the sales models for a large project get several thousand visitors over the span of a year or more, a lot of people are touching and experimenting with the kitchen appliances. 

            If people push a button or turn a knob on one of the appliances and nothing happens, however, they leave the appliance alone and move on to something else.

            One problem to avoid here is the builder needing the appliance technician to replace electrical circuitry inside the sales model appliances that has become worn-out, after the builder has converted the sales models into occupied units and the new homebuyer discovers that their appliances do not work.

            The builder can avoid this problem by simply not plugging in the appliances in the sales models. 

            Appliances are there for everyone to see, but offer no response when people push the buttons.

Bath Fans in the Sales Models

            Bath ceiling fans in the sales models should not be hooked-up to the bathroom light switches, while the units are sales models.

            The builder does not want the bathroom fan motors running all day and night simply because people turned the switch on while walking through the sales models.

            By having the switch to the bath fans dead, but the electrical wiring hot, the builder exclusively controls the interior lighting and fans, not prospective homebuyers.

            When the sales models are converted to livable units, the builder can plug the bathroom ceiling fans back in when the electrical wiring is changed over into normal wiring.

Allow Enough Time for the Sales Models Grand Opening

            The grand opening of the sales models and the sales office, which can be very exciting for the people from the main office, can be a major setback for morale in the field if everything is handled in the last-minute, rushed atmosphere typical of most new project grand openings.

            The standard protocol is for the main office to set a date, order all of the brochures and promotional literature, start the advertising, but fail to anticipate all of the small details that must be taken care of at the last minute. 

            The construction people in the field are then locked into a date that might not be realistic in terms of pulling everything together in a smooth and orderly manner.

            In one particular case, the builder had trouble deciding whether the sales office should be in one of the condominium units…or in a separate structure. 

            The homebuilder procrastinated to the point of having two unfinished double-wide trailers delivered to the jobsite for a sales office, only 10 calendar days before the grand opening.

            The jobsite superintendents were forced to schedule most of the subcontractors on top of each other with landscaping, masonry block work, finish carpentry, and painting all occurring simultaneously, late into the previous night and early the next morning, down to the last minute before the opening on a Saturday morning.

            When people from the main office came out to the jobsite two days before the grand opening to view the progress and to help in the last-minute preparations, they thought as construction novices that all of the tradespeople running around bumping into one another was normal for building construction.  They saw all of this frenzied activity as exciting compared to the mundane routines of the office.

            What the people from the main office did not realize was the damage being done to the reputation of the jobsite superintendents among the various subcontractors and tradespeople involved. 

            Tradespeople commented that this company was just as disorganized as all the other homebuilders in their past experience, and that everything being done in preparation for the grand opening of the sales model complex was a last-minute panic, as usual.

            It took the jobsite superintendents months of orderly and organized construction, after the sales models grand opening, to regain the confidence of many of the tradespeople and subcontractors who participated in the sales models work.

            The point here is that the main office should plan and schedule the grand opening date with the assistance of the construction department, and then abide by their own activity milestone dates in finalizing decisions, selections, and the ordering of various materials and furniture for the sales models and sales office.

            If the grand opening date is unrealistic, or if the main office cannot themselves stay on schedule, then after the promotional literature has been printed and advertisements published in the newspaper and on the internet, the construction must hold to that date.

            This forces the field personnel into almost impossible situations and working conditions that are then adversely criticized by the tradespeople involved, potentially damaging the building construction morale for months after the sales models grand opening. 

Temporary Power Pole Placement

            The placement of temporary power poles on the jobsite should be analyzed and planned so as not to be in the way of future concrete walkways and driveways, trenching for underground utilities, and large landscaping trees.

            The builder should attempt to avoid the common occurrence toward the completion of the project of having to move one or more temporary power poles, not only costing money, but disrupting electrical power to a portion of the project while it is moved to another location.

            For high-density condominium and apartment projects, and for large multi-unit tract housing, the initial placement of temporary power poles so as not to interfere with any future construction activities, can be difficult because of the scarcity of open, unused space within the completed project. 

            These projects often have most of the available space filled-up with walkways, driveways, courtyard patios, common area parking, recreation and swimming pool areas, and landscaping.

            For tight projects with limited space such as these it is sometimes best to have the civil engineering surveyors stake the locations for temporary power poles as a separate distinct activity, or along with and in addition to some other early staking activities that brings the surveyors out to the jobsite.

            The builder must spend some time at the start of the construction determining the desired locations for temporary power poles, so their exact locations can be plotted and laid-out in the field.

            For detached tract housing the exercise of choosing locations for power poles is made easier by the leftover open space on each lot.  But the builder still needs to ensure that the temporary power poles are out of the way of concrete driveways and walkways, as well as the underground utilities.

Keys to Storage Bins

            Subcontractors should notify the jobsite superintendent in advance when a storage container bin, full of materials, is being delivered to the jobsite, and instruct the bin delivery person what to do with the keys.

            An occasional occurrence on a construction site is for a particular worker to ask the jobsite superintendent on the first starting day for that particular building trade, if the superintendent has the keys to open their bin.

            Whenever a subcontractor’s storage bin is delivered to the jobsite, the superintendent should ask the delivery person if the bin contains materials and is therefore locked, or empty and therefore unlocked, and what if anything are the instructions regarding keys to locked bins.

            The problem to avoid here is placing the jobsite superintendent in the position of being clueless as to the situation regarding storage bins, locks, and keys, which the superintendent should not be involved in, but nevertheless becomes involved in by virtue of often being the only person present to receive the delivery of the subcontractor’s storage container bin and to direct its placement on site.

            The communication fiasco of not being able to start the work smoothly because the subcontractor failed to coordinate clearly who had the keys to the storage bin, can be avoided by the simple policy of requiring subcontractors to notify the superintendent when storage bins are being delivered, and what if anything to do about the keys to fully stocked, locked bins.

Location of the Trailer

            I have worked on two projects in which the builders used detached houses that came with the purchase of the land, as the construction jobsite office in lieu of a temporary trailer.

            This approach saved the builders the expense of providing a temporary office trailer, but in these two projects these fixed-in-place houses became farther and farther away from the construction in-progress as each new phase of tract houses moved farther away from the first phase closest to the house office.

            These growing distances resulted in a forced and unnatural isolation between the field office and the construction, especially when the distance became too great to cover on foot.

            A temporary office trailer allows the trailer to be moved so that the construction office is not more than a few hundred feet from the actual construction in-progress.

The Construction Office Trailer

            The following group of topics describes my ideas for the construction office trailer and surrounding building site.

            Not everyone will agree financially with these ideas. 

            Some builders might not have the budget to outfit a construction trailer with the office equipment and furniture I recommend. 

            The goal here is to analyze the pros and cons of a good construction office, so that the decisions regarding the construction office trailer can be the result of thoughtful consideration as well as budget constraints.

            A friend of mine builds high-end custom houses in the beach communities of Southern California.  He works alternate Saturdays on his construction projects and often uses this time to secure new business, utilizing the construction office trailer as a selling tool.

            On the weekend, people drive up to his projects, typically large single-family houses under construction, saying that they own a lot around the corner or down the street, and ask questions about his construction company. 

            My friend takes them into the construction trailer and shows these prospective clients framed photographs of past and current projects, 24×36-inch hand-drawn and colored activity-on-node “box” construction schedules, and computer-generated estimating spreadsheets they use to help customers establish budgets and to secure bank construction loan financing.

            The construction trailer has a conference table, comfortable chairs, floor carpeting, bookshelves, a drafting table, an organized plans table, copy/fax machine, laptop computer, and isometric three-dimensional sketches of details pertaining to the construction.

            The interior look and feel of the trailer, combined with the framed photographs and schedules on the walls, leaves the prospective clients with a very good first impression. 

            This approach works very well for his type of work because people thinking about building a new house often drive around the area to look at what is actually being built, rather than going to a builder’s or general contractor’s business office.

            The opportunity to create the right impression and thereby find new business in this case is on the project site, and the construction office trailer plays an important role.

            If daily construction loan interest on large projects amounts to hundreds of dollars, then the construction office trailer should not be something to be economized.

            Instead of looking at the office trailer, furniture, and equipment as overhead costs to be automatically economized, the field office should be looked at as a tool to speed up the construction operation.

            The size of the construction trailer is critical for function as a command center, but some builders think that two or three people can work effectively out of an 8×12 or 8×16 foot trailer.

            A few years ago, I worked as a superintendent on a 282-unit, 22-building condominium project. 

            The size of the construction office trailer was 12×60 feet, with three offices and a plans room. 

            Having previously worked out of the typical 8×12 and 8×16 trailers on other projects for other companies, the luxury of having enough wall space to hang schedules and pickup lists, along with being able to work in a separate office without having random interruptions and attempting to tune-out background conversations as a result of being in a confined space, was a huge benefit toward improved efficiency, time-management, and morale.   

            This book describes management tools such as schedule charts, walks checklists, homebuyer options selections spreadsheets, and cheats sheets.

            All these paper tools require enough wall space to be displayed.  These and other informational aids, such as contact phone number lists and calendars provide information at a glance, thereby saving time and improving efficiency. 

            The typical 8×12 or 8×16 trailer simply does not have enough wall space.

            An archaic mindset of some builders is that by providing an inhospitable and too small office trailer for the field staff, that this will encourage the superintendents to spend more time out in the actual construction site and less time camped-out in the construction trailer.

            This old-fashioned approach backfires at the end of the workday when superintendents need to stay onsite to do paperwork after the tradespeople leave. 

            If the construction office trailer is an uninviting place to work, the superintendents are more apt to leave the project each day when the construction activity concludes.

            In my opinion, the best approach is to provide a construction office trailer that is adequately furnished and equipped to function as a field office.  

New Home Price Affects Final Quality Approach

            The price range of the new house determines the final approach taken to achieve a quality product.

            For high-end, luxury new homes the various subcontractors directly related to visual quality…the subcontractors for painting, finish carpentry, finish plumbing, drywall, tile, and flooring…to name a few…will not allow the jobsite superintendent or anyone else to make repairs to their work.  In this price range…these subcontractors obtain work through word-of-mouth referrals based upon their reputation…so they take full ownership over the quality of their finished work.

            I once worked as the project manager/onsite superintendent on four $6.75-12.5 million houses in Newport Coast, Southern California. 

            At the completion of the first house, I asked the painting contractor for a small amount of flat wall paint so that I could do minor touchup myself instead of adding these items to an already massive punch-list I compiled for this 10,600 square-foot house. 

            He humorously told me that I cannot touch his work, even the flat wall painting, which was a departure for me coming from a previous background in tract housing where the sheer volume of the number of houses needing final prep precluded getting the painter to touchup every last smudge on the walls.

            The opposite approach is found in the economic low-end of production tract housing and condominiums, where the various subcontractors cannot financially afford to do perfect Steinway or Stradivarius workmanship and still make money.

            As a jobsite superintendent in this low to medium price-range I learned that it was easier and less time-consuming, after all of the punch-list repairs were made by the subcontractors, to do final prep repairs myself along with assistant superintendents and customer service staff, in order to aim for zero-item homebuyer walkthroughs.

            Newly constructed houses in the slightly higher middle price-ranges require some mix of subcontractor pickup repairs plus some amount of builder prep-crew final touches to achieve final acceptable quality.

            In my opinion, people in building construction who say: “the subcontractors should be able to make their final pickup repairs to produce homebuyer walkthroughs having zero number of itemized complaints” are leaving-out the important qualifying information as to the price-range of the houses being discussed. 

            Final quality is not an apples-to-apples comparison when house prices can range from $200 thousand to $10 million.  

Projects that Finish Late Lose Money at the Back-End

            Staying with this theme of the management of project costs, one consideration for new housing projects large and small is that construction loan interest becomes larger at the tail-end of the project.

            Construction loan interest costs are fixed monthly expenses which must be paid to avoid a loan going into default.

            They are calculated on the total amount of funds that have been disbursed through the loan, and are therefore a growing unpaid balance until the property is sold and the loan balance is paid off.

            At the beginning of the construction the disbursements out of the construction loan are relatively small compared to the total loan amount, and thus the interest costs are also relatively small. 

            But the vigilant management of time and the sense of urgency in prosecuting the work should never let-up from start to finish, because time gets more expensive as the construction progresses and disbursements accumulate.  

            This is one reason why constructability analysis based upon recorded past lessons-learned is a proactive investment in preventing construction problems that cause delays in time. 

            Unanticipated design and construction problems arise throughout the course of the actual construction can cause work stoppages, which dovetail with other adverse events like bad weather or materials procurement problems.

            Proactive and preventive debugging should be a part of the upfront analysis in terms of minimizing loan interest costs at the tail-end of the project, or equally important the inflated costs of jobsite congestion of workforces to accelerate the work to catch up on the schedule.

            Paying two or three months of loan interest costs at the end of the project for a high-end luxury house that has a loan balance of several million dollars outstanding because the structural plans had problems requiring re-design and resubmittal to the city/county for plan check, part-way into the construction, is a difficult financial pill to swallow.

            The same concept applies to tract housing, custom homes, and apartment projects.  Time is money, whether in construction loan interest or lost rental income, when projects are completed late.

            The point here is to suggest that the value of preventive constructability analysis upfront can be viewed in hindsight as huge when looking back on the costs of a project that finished late. 

            The value of mistake prevention looking forward at the start of a new project is difficult to calculate. 

            How could the avoidance of a future potential problem that was eliminated ahead-of-time, that did not occur, be evaluated in terms of dollars? 

            The idea that diligence and urgency is an approach that should be applied uniformly and universally throughout the duration of a housing construction project from start to finish is a concept that is reinforced by the accelerating accumulation of loan interest costs as the work progresses.          

Note: For builders, architects, interior designers, tradespersons, college professors, and students around the world viewing these construction blogs and videos, go to my You Tube channel at Barton Jahn to see longer videos.

In-House Interior Design

            One downside of having an in-house interior design person or small group within the office staff for the high-end custom homebuilder is that some of the architectural and all of interior design decisions are managed from within the homebuilding company.

            The homebuilder then owns the myriad of RFI’s (requests for information) which are now internal within the company staff and cannot be “farmed-out” to an outside, independent interior designer “of record” to answer and resolve.

            If not addressed in an organized, systematic, and timely manner these RFI’s internally circulated can quickly snowball into questions and issues that delay the construction operations in the field.

            The standard, arms-length arrangement of owner/architect/general contractor divides up the varied duties, roles, and responsibilities into relatively clear lines of demarcation. 

            Questions from the construction as requests for missing information in the plans and specifications that arise during the course of the construction are handled through RFI’s from the general contractor to the architect and/or structural engineer, for example.

            These RFI’s are then individually monitored for timely response by the general contractor. 

            RFI’s which have not been answered that might adversely affect the construction schedule are communicated to the owner, often during the weekly owner/builder meeting.  The owner then contacts the appropriate design professional regarding the particular question or issue.    

            The point here is that if the owner, being the spec homebuilder and/or custom homebuilder, is the party generating new architectural information by moving walls, changing interior layouts, moving interior doors, etc., and thereby making all of the interior design decisions, then a “circular firing squad” reality is created.

            In this arrangement, the builder would be sending RFI’s to itself, which in practice becomes the reality.

            If RFI’s are by definition always discovered in the reactive mode through questions unearthed during the course of the construction, and these questions belong to the builder rather than to outside consultants such as the architect or interior designer, then the builder generating these questions and problems through their own in-house decisions must have an adequate response mechanism in-place internally to be able to react in a timely manner.  

            The procedure of sending RFI’s to the appropriate design consultant and expecting prompt replies no longer exists for the builder co-opting design decisions through in-house interior designers and owner’s changes. 

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