What We learned This Year
Another year is over! For us it’s a good time to reflect and make improvements for the upcoming new year. Here are the top 5 lessons we learned this year to better prepare our homeowners for the future.
StayHealthy! No doubt the pandemic has stressed the significance of safety and health for workers and homeowners. We jumped on implementing jobsitehealth and safety policies in 2020 and continue our vigilance. Clear guidelines for virus outbreaks and response plans have also been implemented to help keep everyone on the jobsite safe and healthy.
Keep Your Distance! Demand for social distancing has also altered the ways in which contractors work with project teams and communicate with customers. Implementing technology such as video conferencing has allowed project members to participate in meetings remotely. We find it easier to schedule virtual meetings and there is the bonus of the number of travel hours we save! Good for all of us and the environment.
Where’s My Stuff? Building materials normally sourced from overseasare now more than ever prone to delays and higher costs. To overcome these hurdles, many contractors are looking closer to home, in places such as to find new suppliers from which to purchase their materials.
Because these supply chain issues remain a concern, contractors will continue looking toward permanent regional suppliers for their material needs. We are also striving toward maintaining larger inventories of essential materials and ordering items with extended lead times much earlier to protect against future supply chain disruptions and associated delays.
Where are the Workers? There’s a realshortage of qualified workers and it seems this will continue. In an effort to employ skilled construction workers (who remain in high demand) and to keep projects moving along, generalcontractors are paying premium subcontractor rates, which unfortunately, has added cost to projects.
And the biggest question….When Will My Job Be Done?Construction site safety changes in addition to the increased worker and supply chain demands will undoubtedly add to the amount of time it will take to finish projects. Procedures like staggering work shiftsand reducing the number of trades on a site at a time will significantly reduce the speed at which jobs are completed. We have been much better at keeping these time constraints in mind when bidding out new jobs to ensure a realistic schedule is implemented.
In conclusion, even with the greater efficiencies offered by new technologies, the fast tracking of jobs seems impossible in the foreseeable future. Simply put, contractors will need to establish longer project timeframes, and all members of the project team, including architects, homeowners, subcontractors, and other consultants, must embrace the reality that projects will simply take more time than they did in the past. The good thing is projects do eventually come to an end- with a little more patience than needed before!