We have certainly seen and felt the effects of the economic downturn. Our Company has taken many steps to adapt and thrive in the new marketplace. We have made a huge commitment to enhance the promotion of our geographical reach and we now find ourselves “on the road” everyday. We are therefore blessed with having a substantial amount of work throughout the Sunshine State.
Getting the message out about our expertise has been a priority. Our website is a key ingredient to informing the public. We have produced content that is educational and informative and have gone through a number of extensive search engine optimization exercises which allow people to more easily find us on the web.
Other steps we’ve taken to increase our sales and efficiencies include the following:
· Infrastructure changes to our operations which include fleet and crew mobilization improvements;
· Upgrades to our time keeping software and the utilization of our proprietary custom built “Command Center” web-based software system to keep track of all of our commitments and jobsite statuses;
· Developing greater relationships with regional suppliers;
· Revamping our banking relationships to improve financial performance;
· Providing the option to receive payments through electronic funds transfer helps get the bills paid quicker.
All of the above has become essential to our Company's survival. Pick one - try focusing on one of the above at a time and see the positive results.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
The Economic Waste Rule - Weekly Meetings could help
'Waste Not - What Not' certainly should apply in todays construction market what with all of the focus on 'Green Buildings'. Why then are we seeing so many Estate Homes and Commercial Buildings with so many major problems which cause multi-millions of dollars of damage? What is often at the core of the problem projects is lack of intelligence, field testing and construction coordination meetings! Yes, I said meetings!
When you build your construction team, hire competent construction professionals from the various trades who are critical thinkers. Talk about the design challenges together as a team. Do field mock-up tests to ensure system compatibility and test the systems to design parameters where possible. Invite the materials manufacturers into the process as they have an enormous amount of experience and add to the intelligence on a project.
I had a very wise friend and construction expert make the following comment to me this week; "Craig, isn't it interesting how this natural stone has been perfectly fine for about 4 million years until man digs it up and cuts it out of the earth and deploys it into his own creation and now we have to chip it up and throw it away". This economic waste was essentially created by the lack of proper setting material and drainage plane design consideration...this failure cost around 3.3 million dollars.
Intelligence would have known what it didn't know and hired an expert who did know what we needed to know...for a cost of about $5,000. Field testing would have cost about $3,000 and if the manufacturer of the setting materials would have been brought into the equation as a result of testing, they never would have allowed the application.
Meetings with your construction team, well... these days they are free!
When you build your construction team, hire competent construction professionals from the various trades who are critical thinkers. Talk about the design challenges together as a team. Do field mock-up tests to ensure system compatibility and test the systems to design parameters where possible. Invite the materials manufacturers into the process as they have an enormous amount of experience and add to the intelligence on a project.
I had a very wise friend and construction expert make the following comment to me this week; "Craig, isn't it interesting how this natural stone has been perfectly fine for about 4 million years until man digs it up and cuts it out of the earth and deploys it into his own creation and now we have to chip it up and throw it away". This economic waste was essentially created by the lack of proper setting material and drainage plane design consideration...this failure cost around 3.3 million dollars.
Intelligence would have known what it didn't know and hired an expert who did know what we needed to know...for a cost of about $5,000. Field testing would have cost about $3,000 and if the manufacturer of the setting materials would have been brought into the equation as a result of testing, they never would have allowed the application.
Meetings with your construction team, well... these days they are free!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Building Envelope Failures - “Under Scoping of Projects”
Building Envelope is a term reserved for the foundation, roof, walls, doors and windows of a building. The HVAC and insulation systems must be considered in most building envelope evaluations as well.
Our company has been involved in a number of unique building envelope failures over the last few years. These projects have been very exciting and challenging to work on.
As building restoration specialists, one of the biggest challenges we face is to help the customer understand the complexity of their problem. The transference of this vital information is usually done in the backdrop of the owners consideration of other contractors or consultants minimizing or under scoping the project either due to lack of experience or out of ignorance or from a perspective of trying to gain a strategic advantage to get the project.
I have found that the best way to properly scope a complex job is to bring together a group of subject matter experts who can evaluate the various building components, develop and test failure theories, then scope the repair project accordingly.
This approach creates a very objective enviornment which the Owners can come to rely on during their budgeting and decision making process. In my experience, this approach usually renders the best results.
It can be very expensive and time consuming to redo a project where the real cause of a problem was not correctly diagnosed, so if your goal is to permanently fix your building, be careful not to allow others to “under scope” the project!
Our company has been involved in a number of unique building envelope failures over the last few years. These projects have been very exciting and challenging to work on.
As building restoration specialists, one of the biggest challenges we face is to help the customer understand the complexity of their problem. The transference of this vital information is usually done in the backdrop of the owners consideration of other contractors or consultants minimizing or under scoping the project either due to lack of experience or out of ignorance or from a perspective of trying to gain a strategic advantage to get the project.
I have found that the best way to properly scope a complex job is to bring together a group of subject matter experts who can evaluate the various building components, develop and test failure theories, then scope the repair project accordingly.
This approach creates a very objective enviornment which the Owners can come to rely on during their budgeting and decision making process. In my experience, this approach usually renders the best results.
It can be very expensive and time consuming to redo a project where the real cause of a problem was not correctly diagnosed, so if your goal is to permanently fix your building, be careful not to allow others to “under scope” the project!
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Stucco Curing – It’s not about the paint, or is it?
Stucco veneers are often in failure shortly after their initial stage of application.
Stucco is a masonry product designed to create some level of protection to the exterior façade of a building or home. Additionally, stucco veneers sport various textures to enhance the architectural appearance of the building facade.
A failure condition that we often see in Florida is the premature failure of the exterior stucco cladding system. Often times this can be due to the improper curing of the stucco material as applied.
Frequently, builders who are pressed for time on new construction projects will push the painter to paint the stucco prior to the stucco reaching it's proper cure.
Many paint manufacturers will also promote “hot stucco primers’ which can be applied to the stucco surface, ostensibly to speed up the construction process by allowing the painter to coat the stucco walls prior to a full cure of the stucco – and – while the chemistry of the veneer is at an elevated PH of 9 or higher.
The thinking is that this coating application can stand a higher PH level at the stucco substrate level and that in coating the walls sooner you can speed up the construction schedule.
That may be true as it relates to the chemistry of the coatings, however another more serious problem is actually created.
With this scenario everyone is forgetting about the ultimate hardness of the stucco. PH is a very important factor to the longevity of the coatings system, but resolving for the coatings chemistry in this case, totally overlooks the importance of the overall stucco application curing and hardening process.
It takes approximately 20 days for stucco to cure properly. It also takes an equivalent amount of time for stucco to harden which is of the utmost importance for the long term durability of your exterior building envelope.
So my recommendation is that you; Skip the hot stucco primer, and give your stucco it's proper time to cure.
What do you think...
Stucco is a masonry product designed to create some level of protection to the exterior façade of a building or home. Additionally, stucco veneers sport various textures to enhance the architectural appearance of the building facade.
A failure condition that we often see in Florida is the premature failure of the exterior stucco cladding system. Often times this can be due to the improper curing of the stucco material as applied.
Frequently, builders who are pressed for time on new construction projects will push the painter to paint the stucco prior to the stucco reaching it's proper cure.
Many paint manufacturers will also promote “hot stucco primers’ which can be applied to the stucco surface, ostensibly to speed up the construction process by allowing the painter to coat the stucco walls prior to a full cure of the stucco – and – while the chemistry of the veneer is at an elevated PH of 9 or higher.
The thinking is that this coating application can stand a higher PH level at the stucco substrate level and that in coating the walls sooner you can speed up the construction schedule.
That may be true as it relates to the chemistry of the coatings, however another more serious problem is actually created.
With this scenario everyone is forgetting about the ultimate hardness of the stucco. PH is a very important factor to the longevity of the coatings system, but resolving for the coatings chemistry in this case, totally overlooks the importance of the overall stucco application curing and hardening process.
It takes approximately 20 days for stucco to cure properly. It also takes an equivalent amount of time for stucco to harden which is of the utmost importance for the long term durability of your exterior building envelope.
So my recommendation is that you; Skip the hot stucco primer, and give your stucco it's proper time to cure.
What do you think...
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Welcome
Hello, and welcome to my new blog! Thank you for visiting and I hope you’ve had a chance to browse through our new website. This is just the first phase of the site and we will be continuously adding content. We intend for our site to be a real resource of information on multiple subjects revolving around the construction industry.
So, this is my first experience “blogging” and I plan to post topics every other week or so to discuss issues appropriate to our industry. We will create a forum to solve building and maintenance problems for Estate Home Owners, Commercial Building Owners and Condominium Owners and Managers, as well as other professionals from this sector of the building industry. I also urge you to submit suggestions for topics you feel require a ‘SOLUTION’.
Thanks again for visiting.
Craig
So, this is my first experience “blogging” and I plan to post topics every other week or so to discuss issues appropriate to our industry. We will create a forum to solve building and maintenance problems for Estate Home Owners, Commercial Building Owners and Condominium Owners and Managers, as well as other professionals from this sector of the building industry. I also urge you to submit suggestions for topics you feel require a ‘SOLUTION’.
Thanks again for visiting.
Craig
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