Guides & How-To Articles
The questions that matter most on a project are rarely about the building. They are about who to hire, what a bid means, what to have ready and what to do when the schedule slips. These articles answer them the way we answer them on site.
Fourth-quarter planning: getting next year's build ready to start
Every December we get the same call from an owner whose board just approved a project for the coming year, and the question is always whether it can start in t…
Read the article →Planning a Texas construction schedule around winter freeze delays
The forecast said a low of twenty-six for two nights, and the pour scheduled for that Thursday moved to the following Monday. Nobody on the site was surprised…
Read the article →Five ways to pull a construction finish date forward
A hotel owner once told us the soft opening had moved up six weeks because the brand's marketing calendar had moved. The drawings had not changed. The building…
Read the article →Getting your business ready before construction starts
The day the dumpster arrives is a bad day to find out the point-of-sale system runs through a closet on the demolition plan. We have watched it happen. The bui…
Read the article →Six early warnings that a construction schedule is slipping
A missed opening date is never the first sign of a schedule problem. It is the last one. By the time the date moves on paper, the job has usually been drifting…
Read the article →How a tight labor market moves your construction schedule
The electrician who told us he could start on the fourth called on the second to say the seventh, and the seventh became the fourteenth. Nothing was wrong with…
Read the article →Parking garage lobbies and elevator lobbies: renovations that change first impressions
Stand in the elevator lobby of a parking garage that opened a decade ago and you can tell in about four seconds whether the building takes care of itself. Flic…
Read the article →Bank branch build-outs: vault, drive-up and the brand package
The vault door arrives on a flatbed and weighs more than the rest of the branch's millwork combined. Where it lands, and whether the floor under it was designe…
Read the article →Building a veterinary clinic: drains, noise, imaging and finishes
The hose bib in the kennel run tells you everything about a veterinary clinic. Somebody is going to wash that floor down every day, with a chemical strong enou…
Read the article →Childcare center build-outs that pass licensing the first time
A childcare center has two opening dates, and only one of them is on our schedule. The first is the day construction finishes. The second is the day the state…
Read the article →Self-storage offices and retail fronts: the part customers walk into
A customer renting a storage unit sees three things before they ever reach their unit: the leasing office, the retail wall of boxes and locks by the counter, a…
Read the article →Church interior renovations: sanctuary, classrooms and lobbies
A building committee met us in their sanctuary on a rainy Wednesday. The pastor did not start with the room itself. He pointed at the lobby carpet, worn thin s…
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