It takes an incredible amount of contractors 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 to run messages, check on things, do filing and such. They always had 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 vey 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 a 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 tarps 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.
I'm here to answer all questions . . .
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 questions 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 he 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 plan says 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 electrical 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 re-engineer 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 give my office and fax number to the customer, I also give my cell number.
I think you cannot communicate enough. Communication is like a solvent, it will solve anything. Ready to remodel? Call me at (818) 548-8760 for that free estimate. - Randy Mate
