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It
takes an incredible amount of the contractor's communication
to the customer, the sub-contractors and workers to pull off
a smooth and successful remodel or addition on time.
The contractor needs to have an open line to the
customer. The customer must be kept up on the progress of a
job on a week to week basis. The customer must have
notification of any delay, problem or alteration.
The customer must be able to tell the contractor of any
changes, additions or concerns they may have before they
become a problem.
The contractor must also be able to communicate and
coordinate with his sub-contractors. He must be able to set
up the "critical path" (the sequence of work set up against
time) and schedule the sub-contractors to come in at the
correct point in coordination with the subs' other jobs.
I actually set up a "critical path" on a computer
program which plots each job action as a horizontal bar that
overlaps and ties into other bars so I can tell at a glance
where I am at on the overall job.
One of my early learning experiences when I first got
into the construction trade was in plumbing. I worked for a
plumbing sub-contracting company on an 80 unit condo
project. For that they had a Project Manager to oversee the
whole project and stay on the overall critical path, a Job
Supervisor to oversee the work being done on whatever units
were ready for the next step of plumbing, and they had an
assistant to help them run messages, check on things, do
filing and such. They always had about four 2 or 3 man crews
working on the job.
Because they had all of this communication and
organization they could move along no matter what sort of
crew changes occurred. After I had been there only 6 months
I was the longest seniority crewman, but because of the
Project Manager and the Job Supervisor, the job went on and
never missed a beat.
Then there is the opposite situation I have also seen.
When I was a sub-contractor on a job, the contractor was
only present one or two times per week for less than an hour
each time. However, the customer was there every day, all
day. It was very important to the customer to have the job
completed by a certain date. So I ended up being the direct
contact to the customer who would ask me questions about the
entire job, when I was working on just a portion of the job.
This not only prevented me from completing my portion of the
job in a timely manner, but it caused upsets with the
customer because I could not answer their questions most of
the time. I ended up being the unpaid and uninformed Job
Supervisor.
All in all, it is very important to have someone
running the job who is the person who coordinates ALL
aspects of the job with the city, designer, architect,
customer and sub-contractors.
This person can be the contractor or the duly assigned
Project Manager and/or Job Supervisor depending on the size
of the job and the format of the construction company.
All of this communication becomes even more important
when dealing with a customer who is a homeowner who is
living on the job site while you are doing the work. This
sort of customer wants you in and out as fast as possible,
getting a great product, never creating any mess of any
kind, anywhere. This sometimes has to be compromised because
you can't tear down a wall without a mess. Any messes
created have to appear never to have been created. This is
done with tarping and rapid clean up while the customer is
out to lunch or has his back turned. You tear down a wall,
he hears the noise stop, goes over and no mess.
The contractor should always be available to answer
questions in anything the customer needs to know, such as a
detailed answer like what type of anchors to use to hang a
picture, etc.
Sometimes debriefs to the customer take 2 or 3 hours in
a weekly meeting so that all the customer's question are
answered and the customer is fully aware of where things
stand. By doing this you can catch and correct problems
before they get buried and have to be unearthed to fix.
(Such as plans to put something there which requires a
different layout of the framing or plumbing which is already
in a concrete slab.) On a walk through the bare framing of a
new home, a contractor points out to the customer where the
plans say the tub and toilet will be and if the customer
says, "No, no, I wanted them over here" it is not a problem
to change it at that point.
Items as simple as changing the way a door swings left
or right means moving the light switch to the other side of
the door. This is easy to do early on by making sure it is
on the electrician's plans in their job.
Recently when we were doing a 500 square foot, second
story, redwood deck, we exposed something when doing the
demolition that made it impossible to do the framing the way
it was designed and engineered. I needed to quickly
coordinate with the architect who needed to coordinate with
the structural engineer and designer and the city to
redesign and reengineer a structural detail and get that
back in the hands of the sub-contractor via the contractor.
This all, usually, has to occur overnight so it doesn't stop
the production.
I not only gave my office and fax number to the
customer, I also gave my cell and home number.
I think you can't communicate enough. Communication is
like a solvent, it will solve anything.
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