Why You Should Hire A Designer

Why You Should Hire A Designer

Fixing Your Own Car

It’s an understatement to say that the internet has changed how we live, work and play. My Dad was a librarian, and he loves books. He would read for pleasure and for information, and he was a pretty handy guy (and still is). Growing up, we had a 1986 Volkswagen Jetta GLI, and when it broke, if after a quick examination beneath the hood, it was deemed a problem he felt he could fix, the vehicle’s manual would come out. When I say manual, I don’t mean the book in the glove box that tells you how to sync your stereo, I mean the repair manual that gives you a step by step guide to fixing most problems on your car, major and minor. As much as he loved learning, there were some things that my Dad, handy as we was, just didn’t endeavour to attempt, because he didn’t have the expertise. These days, Instagram and Youtube have made so many skills and DIY jobs accessible, and I use them all the time for that, but they may have given some of us a false sense of ability, especially when it comes to home design. A collection of reference images and floor plans doesn’t equate to expertise. So like my Dad, understanding your capabilities realistically might mean calling in a professional. Here’s why you should hire a designer:

Standard Dimensions

Designers understand standard dimensions. They understand how wide a bathroom needs to be to accommodate a bathtub, how much room you need around a toilet, what the standard sizes of internal and external doors are, how large a queen sized bed is, standard sink and dishwasher sizes, etc. All of these dimensions are second nature to designers, it’s what we do all day, everyday, and DIY designers sometimes have real trouble with it and cause problems with room dimensions.

Scale, Spaces, Proportions

Along with materials, designers understand space requirements for rooms. I was involved in a doctor’s office project as the builder, and at framing stage, the client walked in to a couple of downstairs rooms and said “these rooms are too small! I can’t rent them out, they need to fit an exam table, a chair, and a desk, and this won’t work.” Evidently, the architect didn’t ask what the space requirements were, plus the plans were in metric, and the client didn’t understand what 2700mm meant in feet and inches. The point is, even professionals get it wrong, so amateurs have an even tougher road. Designers understand spatial needs for clearances around furniture, in kitchens and bathrooms, so the client doesn’t end up with spaces that don’t serve their function well.

Building Code Requirements

One thing that Instagram and Tik Tok, and Youtube don’t tell you is how to make those beautiful pictures comply with your local building codes. As designers, it’s our job to design within those boundaries. For the DIY designer, building codes are murky waters, at best.

Trade Connections

Unfortunately, for those that aren’t in the industry, getting a call back from a trade can be difficult, getting consultation from someone you don’t have any connections with can be nearly impossible. Many times I’ve had to make calls on my client’s behalf just so the tradesperson will recognize my phone number and pick up. This is a “who you know” kind of industry, and designers often have a trade network of vetted companies they trust, and these networks can really help clients navigate their way through projects.

Process Requirements

Designers understand municipal documentation requirements, communication pathways, engineering thresholds, permit applications etc, which is often a world very foreign to clients. Having an expert in your corner to navigate this world for you saves so much time, money and frustration.

Design Optimization

Part of a designer’s skill is the interpretation of clients’ needs, wants, and desires, then synthesizing those into a cohesive design that optimizes aesthetics, budget, constructability, and function. Optimizing space functionality can lead to less construction cost, better flow within a space, and more pleasurable spaces to live in.

Product or Material Knowledge

When I was in custom home building, our clientele were generally older couples that had the means to build a custom home. When reviewing the specs of the home, clients would usually want wired in speakers and alarm systems, and we would suggest that technology had come far enough that wireless systems could be installed more cost effectively and with less disruption. Same with plumbed in vacuum systems, they could get a handheld vacuum for less than 50% of the cost. These are examples of areas where experts simply have a higher level of product knowledge and can pass those benefits on to the client.

Behind The Music

There is a beauty of learning skills online. I have done it, and I’ll do it again. My dishwasher is currently on the fritz, and I have exhausted all the how to videos I can find on my make and model. I was getting my hair cut this morning, and my barber mentioned he was an appliance technician for 7 years. I asked him about my make/model, and he had some practical insight that I never would have gleaned from my online searches. Thanks to that interaction, I have an expert’s knowledge that is unique to my situation. While learning online is great for information gathering, the knowledge base that is gained by putting in repetitions at the acquired skill remains where the true value is. And that knowledge can be yours too, but your 1986 Jetta might have to break down a few times to get it.

Great Expectations: Clients Are From Mars, Contractors Are From Venus

Great Expectations: Clients Are From Mars, Contractors Are From Venus

Ships In The Night

The Architecture/Construction/Engineering industry is such a unique industry in many ways. As a former project manager, and now designer and construction consultant, I have seen all/most sides of this industry and have experienced first or second hand that the biggest hurdle for a harmonious and successful project is a mountain of expectations. How do you hurdle a mountain, you ask? Well you don’t, you climb it one step at a time. There is no silver bullet here, folks. But by the end of this blog post, we should have actionable items, and a roadmap of how to get to the other side safely.

Ultimately, what we’re talking about is expectations from two different groups, and how their misalignment can cause problems. I’m going to focus on the contractor and the client, because architects and engineers, while not perfect, have more straightforward scopes and generally understand that they are service providers a bit more clearly. With our contractor and client, we have two entities that really don’t know much about each other and what they do, and that’s where our problems begin.

What We Know

Imagine we have a client that needs a medium sized home renovation done on their family home. They don’t know anyone in contracting, but a friend has a friend that just used a contractor, and didn’t have “horrible things to say” about their experience. Good enough, it seems. So by all accounts, the client knows nothing about the contractor, and the contractor knows nothing about the client. Breaking it down elementally, the client knows that this person or company has the expertise to complete a home renovation of their size and scope, and the contractor knows the client is willing to exchange their money for their home renovation. These facts are all we know at this point, so information beyond this must be acquired.

What We Don’t Know

Of the home renovation, the client (often) doesn’t know or understand:

  • How to accomplish the tasks involved in the renovation

  • What steps or sequences are required to complete the renovation

  • What type of quality is realistic for their budget

  • How much their renovation wish list will cost

  • How long their desired scope of work will take

  • What expertise is required to complete the individual tasks in their renovation

Having little understanding of these items is completely understandable. You can watch HGTV for a year and still have no idea how to renovate a house. You may also have misaligned expectations about how much everyone smiles and how good looking the trades are, but you’ll find that out soon enough. So if clients generally don’t understand these things, how do they acquire this knowledge? SOMEONE TELLS THEM! Who should that someone be? The CONTRACTOR!

Of the client, the builder (often) doesn’t know or understand:

  • What the client’s quality expectations are vs their budget

  • What the client’s communication style is

  • What the client’s communication expectations are (mode, frequency)

  • What the clients expectations are with respect to time, budget

The Great Divide

This information should ALL be communicated or discussed in the initial meeting between the client and the builder. Between the client and the builder, there is only one expert in this field, and it’s the builder. Clients are wading into a world that they know little about, and they don’t know what questions are appropriate to ask or where they might be overstepping, so they will often look to the builder to drive this conversation. In the initial meeting, the builder should provide answers to all of the information that the clients don’t know, even if they don’t ask. A mistake I see builders make, is they assume that if the clients don’t ask, they know the answer. Often clients are hesitant to ask as this world, and sometimes contractors themselves, can be intimidating.

The great divide here occurs because many contractors don’t see the client as a customer in the old fashioned sense, and they don’t realize the client is looking for an ally, not an adversary.

Imagine you get a new job in a new city, and you need to buy a house in a city you don’t live in. Your first call will be to a real estate agent in that city. You’ll rely on that agent for their expertise and inside knowledge of that city. You’ll want to know based on your budget where the best area of town is for you to live, what kind of house will suit your needs the best, and you’ll rely on the agent to curate a collection of homes for you to look at. Inherent in this relationship is the fiduciary duty of the agent to act in your best interests. The agent is going to help you and guide you and ideally give you a great experience, as that industry relies heavily on referrals for client acquisition. Sound familiar? The best contractors understand this relationship well. They communicate clearly, and make the client feel valued. They understand that construction projects can be positive experiences for all parties. Their projects can end in friendship and glowing recommendations.

Bridging The Gap

So how do we bring these two groups together? It’s incumbent on the contractor to drive this bus. Not to read clients’ minds and preemptively answer all their questions, but to create an environment where clients feel comfortable to ask the “dumb” questions. Half of my job as a PM was to explain prior to construction or a specific task, why it was necessary, who does the task, and essentially be part teacher. Clients appreciate it, as often they feel a part (not apart) of the process and feel more agency. The worst thing a client can feel is that their construction project is happening TO them, and they have lost control of this runaway train. They don’t know what’s happening now, and they don’t know what’s happening next. All they do is pay the bills that are sent to them.

The best contractors treat clients like a realtor would. They understand their client’s fears and do their best to find out what the client’s expectations are, and align them with the reality of the project BEFORE the project or task. Knowing that clients may not know the appropriate questions to ask, contractors can be curious and ask the questions relating to the issues I outlined above. Questions are free, and managing expectations is the single most important part of this business. Managing expectations can be the single difference between a client singing your praises or a scathing review on google. The most important part of this relationship is making the client feel like everyone is pulling on the same rope, in the same direction, and managing client expectations as early as possible is paramount. If you’re telling clients after the project that their expectations were misaligned, it’s way too late.

So let’s be proactive, over communicate before under communicate, and make sure we can be the best versions of ourselves. The mountain of expectations gets a little smaller with every step we take.

Thanks for reading…

Aaron

Ch 5. 7 (little) Jobsite mistakes that drive clients crazy

7 (Little) Jobsite Mistakes That Drive Clients Crazy

As a project manager for luxury custom home builds, I was the primary point of contact for the client whenever anything was of concern on a build, and believe me, I heard a lot of concerns. Some were valid, (“there’s a lot of water in the basement”) some were definitely not (“the nail holes are all moldy”) and most were somewhere in between. During a build or major renovation, clients are spending amounts of money they’d often never dreamed they’d be spending, that can be stressful, and sometimes that can leave their nerves a little raw.

As a designer and construction consultant now, I am often the sounding board for client concerns before clients go to the builder with their worries/complaints. They’ll ask me “is this normal?” and in many cases, the behavior is normal and I can head that complaint off at the pass, but sometimes the clients have a legitimate reason for their annoyance. These are some of the most common complaints I’ve heard over my years in this industry that drive clients nuts.

7. Empty Jobsite

This one is frustrating to clients, especially if there is a time constraint on the project, which there normally is. Clients feel let down, and they don’t often understand the reasons for an empty jobsite. They feel like the ugly guy/girl at the school dance, like all the trades have somewhere more important to be. As a contractor, sometimes this happens, a certain trade finished yesterday, another can’t start until tomorrow, someone called in sick today, the drywaller’s mud hasn’t dried etc. There can be lots of legitimate reasons why there’s no one on the building site on any given day, but that still doesn’t stop clients from getting annoyed, especially if they pop by the site unannounced. The contractor/PM will get the phone call, and it sounds even worse if they’re unaware too. Best thing they can do? Get proactive and let the client know there won’t be anyone on site today because… or better yet, reassure them that you won’t lose time in the schedule.

6. Complaints from the City/Municipality

This can cover a wide range of behaviors/infractions. Sometimes there’s a parking issue on site and trades are parking where they shouldn’t, sometimes there are noise complaints, garbage/waste disposal issues, building official issues. The origin of the issue doesn’t really matter to the client, because when they get a phone call as the registered owner of the property that something isn’t up to the city standards, it’s simply one more thing clients are forced to deal with, and it drives them crazy. Sometimes it’s just a courtesy call, other times there are more serious bylaw infractions that need immediate attention, but it’s always unexpected, and a layer of unwanted stress for clients.

5. Starting Too Early

I fully understand some workers want to get a jump on the day and are early risers, especially if it’s summer and hot out. Many try to get their work day done before the heat really sets in. But locally, we have a 7am start time as set out by the city,, and most abide by that. Sometimes, workers will begin to blur those lines a little, starting at 6:45am, sometimes 6:30am, and generally, as long as the PM or client don’t get noise complaints from the neighbours, it’s ok. Things very much change if there’s a renovation and clients are living in the house. Clients are already tired of having strangers in their house all day, so when there’s a worker cruising by their bedroom window while they’re asleep or just waking up, it can really ramp up the feeling of having no privacy. I’ve heard of workers showing up on weekends early without telling the clients, and that almost never goes well. The worker thinks “they’ll be happy that I want to get the job done,” and the client is feeling like a fish in a fishbowl already, and now the weekends aren’t even sacred. This one seems small, but can fray nerves very quickly.

4. Ciggies On The Ground

This one fully inspired this whole blog post. I was walking on one of my job sites recently, a renovation, and came across a place where clearly one or some of the trades had a habit of smoking at. There was a 3 foot circle of probably 50 cigarette butts stamped into the dirt. The client came up and saw me looking down at the ciggies in the grass and was seething, he found it so disrespectful that they couldn’t dispose of the butts in some container and throw them away. For some reason, it seems so much worse than a normal piece of trash, which could conceivably be absent mindedly dropped and blow into the bushes. Cigarettes are held in one’s hand, and in this case deliberately dropped onto the ground and stamped out 20 feet away from a kids playhouse. This will send clients through the roof.

3. Complaints From Neighbours

Dust, noise, parking, trash, noise, bad language, sawdust, noise, water, sun, shade, noise, road traffic…you get the idea. No neighbour likes disruption to their regular lives, and no one like construction next door. Some neighbours understand, some really don’t like any construction or disruption at all, and are looking for their pound of flesh to recoup if they get the chance. If there’s a noise bylaw to start at 7am, and someone starts at 6:55am, the City is getting a phone call. If a piece of roofing blows off the roof and into their yard, the City gets a call. If there’s an open excavation, and dust blows into the driveway and dirties the cars, the City gets a call. When I managed jobs, we’ve sometimes preemptively bought car wash vouchers for the neighbours whether they’ve needed them or not, and that seems to start jobs on the right foot. The best thing you can do as a contractor is to introduce yourself, be friendly, up front, and open to any concerns the neighbours have BEFORE the job starts. Now you may be opening yourself to diffuse a few extra agitated phone calls, but those people will likely have called anyway, and it’s better they call you than the City, who will call the client right away. Remember, in many cases, these are going to be the clients’ new neighbours, so they really don’t want to start these relationships off on the wrong foot.

2. Taking Long Breaks

This one could have a few titles, but taking long breaks is one that drives clients up the wall. Starting late/leaving early could be another. Clients may come from jobs/professions where they are required to put in long hours at high stress jobs, and they drive by their jobsite on their lunch break at 1:30pm, and the crew is gone for the day. Not a good look. Now, there is a huge caveat here, in that workers on a jobsite HATE a nosy client that they feel is watching them very closely, or timing their lunch breaks. I once had a site supervisor quit a jobsite because the client was at stay at home mom and basically monitored them all day. We had to have a chat with her and explain that she could trust us and we’re only billing her for the hours worked, etc. Often clients don’t understand which mandated breaks workers have to take, or how a worker’s day is structured, but when they see a pattern of workers lounging around too often at different times of the day during weeks on end, the trust relationship starts to break down, and they get very annoyed.

1. Untidy Jobsite

Often clients see their projects as what they’re going to be, and not what they are right now. In a word, they see their home as sacred ground, and when a jobsite isn’t kept clean and tidy, they can sometimes take it personally. I’ve seen this many many times. Site cleanliness is a topic that tradespeople hate. They are generally geared towards production, and many see cleaning as a waste of their time. Explaining that they are paid by the hour (most often) and it doesn’t matter what they’re doing, is futile. When clients walk around their home and are tripping over trash, and electrical wire insulation, walking through sawdust and spilled coffee cups and energy drinks, they get the impression no one cares about their project. This is a real opportunity for contractors to separate the wheat from the chaff and distinguish themselves as a quality builder. A clean jobsite is a safe jobsite, and shows the client that their project is being treated with respect. It may seem like minor annoyance to some builders, but to many clients, it’s a major deal.

So that’s a little summary of some of the seemingly little issues that clients get riled up over. Having been on all sides of these, I can say with certainty that avoiding these will make everyone’s life a lot easier. A happy client is the best client.

Thanks for reading…

Aaron

Ch 4.The Dirtiest Word In Construction...(it's not dirt)

The Dirtiest Word in Construction…

It is said that experience is the best teacher, and that very much applies to me, and very much to this post, but I might also tend to disagree. Admitting my bias, I think my Dad is the best teacher (he was a schoolteacher also), and as I’ve mentioned here in this blog at least once, he told me as a young man in a heated debate about trying/failing/learning “son, you don’t have to make all the mistakes to learn from them, you can learn from other people’s mistakes too!” The amount of times I’ve used this dirty word, I am not proud of, so hopefully a reader or two somewhere can follow my Dad’s advice to me and will learn from my mistakes.

Now, if my juicy title has sucked you in and you’re hoping for some profanity, I will let you down easy. The dirtiest word in construction isn’t profane. If you’ve spent any time on jobsites, or around construction workers, you’ve likely learned all kinds of foul descriptors for the portable toilets on site, a unit of measurement that is infinitely small, or heard all kinds of weekend exploits on Monday morning that could make your hair curl. This isn’t that.

In fact, I would argue that this word is worse than any other foul verbiage you could hear on site, because those words don’t cost money, and this one does.

The dirtiest word in construction is…should. Should? That’s it? That’s why I clicked on this damn blog title and read this far into it??? Hold on, hear me out, give me one paragraph to explain why, and then you can leave if you want.

(True) “Hey, did your coworker get a utilities locate so we don’t dig and hit any buried water/sewer/electrical lines?” “Uhhhh yeah he should have.”

(True) “Hey is that gas meter disconnected?” “Yeah should be.”

(True)“Hey, do the drywallers know they’re scheduled to be onsite on Monday?” “Ya, they should be there.”

So What To Do…

You get the idea? The amount of times I said that word early in my construction admin career was not great. All it takes is one time for the should to bite you and hopefully you learn. It took me a few more times than one. I am happy to report that now, if that word ever creeps up and into my mouth, I swallow it faster than a late night shwarma in my 20s. After eating that horrible word, I pick up the phone and I make a phone call to confirm that what I think should be happening, is indeed happening. As I tell my students, phones are for more than texting, and phone calls are free. In fact, in this context, phone calls can save you thousands.

So if you’ve made it this far, I’m hoping the next time that word enters your brain about almost anything, you get rid of it faster than sour milk and pick up the phone. Should has cost people money, time, and unfortunately life and limb. If, like me, you don’t learn this lesson right away, you may find yourself using some of those other construction site words, but they don’t fix the gas meter once the pipe’s been cut, or get the drywallers to your job site. Hopefully you can learn from others’ mistakes, or at least, you should.

Albatross Design & Draft

Albatross Design & Draft Youtube

Ch 3. 3 Things To Look For In A Quality Builder/Contractor

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For some strange reason, it seems to be the holy grail in the construction industry, like finding a unicorn in the forest, or that band that you found before any of your friends. If someone has found a good quality contractor that has exceeded their expectations, they may positively GUSH about it. They will feel so lucky and cared for, they will seemingly tell the world. But why is that the case? Shouldn’t that feeling be the rule and not the exception?

In an industry where entire TV shows have been built on fixing other contractor’s mistakes and “making it right,” it may seem like an uphill battle. So this post can be looked at from two different angles. Maybe you’re a client, trying to find a builder, or maybe you’re a builder, trying to get insight on what clients are actually looking for. Either way, these are

3 things to look for in a quality builder/contractor:

3. Worker Loyalty

Let me give you a little insight into the labour side of the construction industry. Workers, particularly in carpentry, are historically fickle when it comes to loyalty. Often workers will move companies for a $1/hour raise. If word gets out a certain company is paying more, let the exodus begin. So the flip side of that is that when clients are interviewing builders, one of the key hallmarks of a quality builder and business owner, is that they can maintain a workforce of loyal workers. In a labour market with a skilled worker deficit, workers can get a job almost whenever/wherever they want, so when workers stay with the same company for years, we can assume:

  • They pay their workers a competitive wage

  • They aren’t antagonistic or overbearing (workers nowadays don’t put up with that)

  • They have consistent work that is interesting/challenging enough

  • The workers feel invested in and feel some responsibility for the reputation of the company.

These are all signs of a builder/contractor that is established and has at the very least a good/average reputation (builders with a poor reputation usually don’t hang around for years in one place).

The tradeoff for the company, is that maintaining continuity of workers will:

  • maximize their efficiency (workers get used to one another and work well together)

  • allow workers to gain experience (more experience/expertise means higher level/more complex work can be acquired)

  • carry your company culture (high level of quality/professionalism is expected)

2. Organization/Professionalism

There was once a new roofing company in my city that was created by two formers members of a well established roofing company. They knew the general reputation of roofers in our town (less than clean, less than upstanding citizens), and when their workers showed up on job sites in clean collared, company logo’d shirts, that sure made a splash in our community. Did it mean that the workers were any better/more skilled than their competition? No, but it sure gave the impression that they were, and that they cared how they were perceived.

It’s no secret that in almost any industry, professionalism and organization are markers of well run businesses, and the construction industry is no exception. Professionalism in communication, organizational processes, detailed financial documentation, thorough scheduling documents, all of these are indications of a well run construction company.

Now it bears mentioning that many builders gain the vast majority of their experience on the tools, and are business owners by default, or they want the autonomy, they want the paycheques etc. Many despise the office work and administrative side of running a contracting business, and thus, their organization and professionalism are terrible. These builders can still somehow be great at what they do. The inverse can also be true, the most organized and professional, customer oriented contracting company can have poor workers that produce a poor product. But both of these are exceptions to the rule. The poorly organized builder will suffer because they will not reach the echelon and clientele they are hoping for, because that level of clientele understands the pitfalls of getting into business with someone disorganized and with poor professionalism. The professional seeming operation may last a little longer, but the proof is always in the pudding, and poor work results in a poor reputation. This scenario is really quite rare. Overall, a company with high levels of detail in all areas mentioned above will out perform the rest, simply because of the foresight and processes required to prepare detailed preconstruction documents will rescue their projects from common administrative pitfalls at the very least.

1. Good Past Client Relationships

If you’re evaluating builders, this is one I would pay very close attention to. Try to get the addresses of some their previous projects so you can go and look at their work. If they won’t take you to see any of their previous work, it’s time to get out of there. If they will, but seem hesitant to only show you some of the projects in their portfolio, there’s likely a reason. There is no shame in digging a little deeper and asking why you can’t see a certain project. It may be an innocuous reason, or it may be something more serious.

Building a house or doing a major renovation is a major investment, and getting the right builder is worth doing a LOT of due diligence on.

If the builder takes you to see some past clients, this is your chance to get a sense of what working with the builder is actually like. These are 5 questions I would not leave without asking, no matter what kind of awkward silence follows:

  1. Were there any conflicts on the project that you can tell me about? How did they get resolved? (you can tell by their eyes if there’s something they don’t want to mention)

  2. How did the builder’s estimate hold up to the final budget?

  3. How did the builder’s schedule hold up to the as built schedule?

  4. How would you describe the level of communication from the builder and their team?

  5. Would you work with the builder again?

If the builder is present (which I don’t recommend), you’ll be able to see the dynamic between client and builder. Is it tense at all or is it pleasant? In the best circumstances, it will be a friendly exchange, but it doesn’t have to be, it is a business relationship after all. I advise clients to look for patterns. If you visit 3 projects and all 3 were 20% over budget, I’d be asking some pointed questions. If all 3 were 3 months late, I’d be asking more questions.

Doing a major renovation or new build is a highly complicated process, which requires a huge investment and a trustworthy contractor to execute the project properly. There are many many great builders/contractors in every city in the world, hopefully some of these ideas will help folks discover them. If you’re a client looking for a builder, best of luck, you can always send me an email if you get stuck or have questions. If you’re a builder, I hope this small post on this corner of the internet can help you be a better version of your best self.

Thanks,

Aaron

Chapter 2: 3 Huge Mistakes Contractors Make

3 Huge Mistakes Contractors Make

3. Becoming a “YES” Man (without telling the whole story)

As clients and contractors (and yes even sometimes designers) move through the preconstruction phase of a project, most often the mood is light, relatively little money has been spent, spirits are high, most of us are guilty of answering “sure!” when the client has another idea to add to the project. Maybe it’s as simple as adding an extra sink to the bathroom vanity, or maybe it’s adding a suite above the garage. Usually it’s the somewhere in between ones that get contractors into trouble. Especially if the project is underway, and the client wants to change something. The most common response from contractors is “sure!” because at the root of this industry is a chain of command, and that’s partially where our brokenness lies.

At it’s core, there is a mentality of “well I work for you, so whatever you say I will do, you sign the cheques (checks).” And while all of those statements are true, that does not honor what clients are hoping contractors will do, and that is shepherd them through the building process. As in, watch out for the client’s best interest, even when it sometimes rubs up against your own. Contractors often forget that they are the experts, not the clients. Most often, clients don’t have any idea of the cost/schedule implications of the changes they are proposing.

It’s a weird thing, it’s not like a mechanic would allow a client in under the hoist to take a look at the car and say “well I’d like to add this and that, and uhhh plate that part in gold,” without expecting some cost adjustments. But that’s kind of what happens when we build things for people. The amount of times I’ve had clients tell me post build “well if I’d known how much that change would have cost me, I wouldn’t have done it.” The common response from contractors in this situation is: ‘well they should have known, changes ain’t free.’ Whether that’s true or not, that mentality creates an adversarial relationship and breaks trust. Clients want to know that they’re being considered and shepherded through this process. The correct procedure for a contractor to do when small/medium/large changes are requested, is to:

  1. Fully gather the scope of the change from all affected trades

  2. Identify the TOTAL cost to the client in time and money

  3. Bring these costs to the client itemized and IN WRITING and ask if they’d still like to proceed.

    Sometimes the client will proceed, sometimes they won’t, but either way they’re entering the agreement with their eyes wide open. Of course, this process is typical in larger projects where Change Orders are common, but in residential construction, it’s often a missed opportunity for some clarity and guidance.

    2. Disorganization

    A very common misconception that contractors carry around is that clients can tell by the workmanship that they are good at their job. Let’s be real, the vast majority of clients aren’t checking stud packs for gaps or ensuring all walls are plumb and the corners are square. Don’t forget, for higher end projects, the clients are likely working professionals that are smart, and good at what they do. In the professional world, trust is garnered by appearing and acting professionally, and the organization and clarity of your work. How most clients evaluate their contractors are:

    1. How personable are they?

    2. Am I treated like a valued member of this team or just the source of a paycheque (paycheck)?

    3. How confident am I that this person can deliver their product on time and on budget?

      Much of this comes down to the contractor’s level of organization, especially in the early stages of preconstruction. How detailed is the contractor’s estimate? Have they taken the time to explore most/all of the soft costs of a project, or do they just impy ‘it costs what it costs?’ How comprehensive is the schedule? Have they taken the time to detail each activity or just given the end date as a ballpark date that they’ll hopefully make? I have seen very good contractors miss out on contracts simply because they were not organized enough to compete with larger, more well established companies whose documentation appeared more organized and professional. The more organized a contractor appears, the more trust they garner with clients.

      Choosing a builder can be downright terrifying for clients, they are wading into foreign water and often feel way out of their depth before they begin. Now imagine climbing into a racecar with a professional driver. You are nervous, never having done this before, so you ask: ‘how are we going to get around this racetrack without crashing?’ and their answer is ‘I don’t know, I just do this all the time.’ Not very inspiring. Now imagine their answer is ‘Don’t worry, I’ll show you our race plan. This is how fast we go into turn 1, we brake 50m before the start of the wall, and our exit speed should be around…’ I’m guessing that would feel a lot better. Clients feel no different, they want to know that their contractor has everything under control, and being organized shows the contractor has a plan, and everything is considered and accounted for.

      1.Not Managing/Under Managing Client Expectations

      This is the number one mistake I see contractors make, and it’s not really even close. I may have been guilty of this a time or two also. If you care about your role as a contractor or project manager, you probably care about the client and their opinion of you and your company. If you put off problems or kick them down the road, they rarely go away, and more often get worse.

      Managing client expectations, around budget and schedule especially, are critical to retaining client goodwill and satisfaction. Clients often come into projects with unrealistic expectations, and if these expectations aren’t dashed on the rocks early and with kindness, they will not go away quietly. It is always better to underperform and over deliver. I can remember telling a client for almost no reason that we’d be at drywall stage in “around” two weeks’ time when he casually asked me. He wasn’t pressuring me, I didn’t even have to say it. But two weeks later, he mentioned “well you said we’d be at drywall in two weeks," which we were about a day away from. As clients often do, he forgotton the “around” part of my answer, so with a ‘please the client at any cost’ mentality, I found myself backframing duct drops at midnight (unpaid) as the project manager because I wouldn’t be ready for drywall otherwise. The client didn’t know I was burning the midnight oil for him, no one knew. I wasn’t getting high fives the next morning, I had simply just carried on with the planned schedule. If I had taken a breath and said when he asked “yeah drywall in maybe 2 weeks, more likely 3,” he would have said “ok,” and moved on. All I had to do was manage his expectations.

      Often times, contractors will optimize their budget and schedule in the best case scenario, because they either a) believe they can do it, or b) want to appear better than their competition. The reality of the situation is that nobody wins when those expectations aren’t met.

      I can recall casually very hesitantly mentioning a high level budget number when in early design stages to a client who was pressing me. Months and months later after adding in many, many extras and the project going over budget, he said “well the project was originally supposed to cost _____.” The moral of the story here, generally speaking is once you give a client a number or a date, almost no matter what happens afterward, they will never forget it. So manage those expectations even when you think you don’t have to. The clients are better for it, and the builder carries that incredibly valuable client goodwill after the project.

    So those are three huge mistakes I see contractors making and have made myself, and they will all carry a cost once they occur. It may not be a financial cost initially, but if client goodwill is damaged, it can lead to lost opportunities and future work. So whether you’re a contractor, subtrade or client, let’s educate ourselves, lead with empathy, and put our best foot forward everytime. Like my father said to me once: “son, you don’t only have to learn from YOUR mistakes, you can learn from other people’s, too.” Be well.

Chapter 1: Why am I doing this? A Construction Professional's Dilemma

Question: Why am I doing this? A Construction Professional’s Dilemma re: blogging.

We likely don’t know each other, but this is quite a phenomenon for me. As I reach the point in life where I am almost exactly middle aged, (43) should I live to typical male life expectancy, I have found myself asking this question about many, many things in my life. For me, this question can sound like it has a negative connotation as in ‘why am I still watching this show?’ or ‘why do I keep stubbing my toe on the same chair?’ or ‘why am I….?’ but I honestly don’t mean it that way. I mean it in an exploratory ‘why am I actually doing this?’ kind of way. When it was suggested to me that in this next chapter of my professional life (online business) I start a blog, I recoiled faster than realizing that yes, in fact the sour cream has expired and doesn’t pass the smell or taste test (like it could pass one but not the other).

Now, it’s not that I don’t like introspection or creative expression, I dearly love them both. But if I’m brutally honest, half of me wonders if I have any expertise worth sharing (I’ve been convinced I may), the other half has a very visceral distaste for the navel gazing of social media and general “oversharing,” as many have suggested it may be the single worst thing humans have ever created. While that may be a touch hyberbolic, I really don’t care for the inward centric nature of sharing the minutae of one’s day or opinions about dogs with dyed hair. I guess it’s fur. But I’ve been wrong before, like lots.

So ultimately, I return to our question: Why the hell am I doing this?

Answer: I don’t know, but I may have some ideas.

The real answer is, like most things, probably an accumulation of a whole bunch of little reasons. As a professor, designer and former project manager and estimator, I have seen the construction industry from all sides. I have seen the best sides of people and the worst. I have seen people get extraordinarily wealthy, and I’ve seen people go broke. I have seen people give others the shirt off their back, and I’ve seen people steal the livelihood away from their partner. So somewhere in there, in all that experience, I’m hoping there’s an answer. Maybe I want to help others avoid some grim fate, or take the next step in their business. Maybe I want to get really wealthy from Youtube and Blog posts, if that’s even possible. Maybe I just want to hear contractor horror stories like some form of schadenfreude, or maybe I just want to type out my own thoughts to make sense of them myself. As I’m learning that life definitely doesn’t move in straight lines, the truth is probably mixed up in there somewhere.

Either way, if you’re in or around the Design/Construction industry, take a walk with me and we’ll share some stories, maybe we’ll both learn a little along the way. Hey, maybe that’s it…