Disorganized and untidy job sites are covered with destroyed or damaged materials, reflect chaos between trades, reduce productivity and send the message to those homeowners beside and near your homes under construction just how their homes were built, not to mention are safety violation and injuries just waiting to happen. From another perspective, how much do you spend on marketing? Well after all of that annual cost from billboards to radio, TV, newspapers, model homes etc those...
Blogs
1 year 41 weeks ago
By: Todd Hallett
Headers, headers everywhere! Nearly every builder I have ever worked with (regardless of geography) initially had far too many headers and/or headers that were way oversized in their homes.
Code requirements are typically 250 percent over failure, so designing above code is typically a waste. An exception is that there are pocket markets where customers require joist design a bit above code to avoid perceived floor deflection or bounce.
It’s easy to do a quick check.
...
1 year 41 weeks ago
By: Denis Leonard
We spend a lot of time and effort training our teams and developing them in our culture and so the retention and ongoing development of our talent is critical. But to retain and continue to develop our teams does not just mean spending more money, which in this economy we don’t have. Treating people with respect and listening to them has a huge impact.
So often it can be a zero cost issue to recognize and reward our team for their outstanding efforts. Simple efforts such as...
1 year 42 weeks ago
By: Denis Leonard
The construction industry dramatically impacts the environment, with buildings consuming 17 percent of the world’s fresh water, 25 percent of its wood harvest, and 40 percent of its material and energy flows.
For years, the construction industry has practiced social responsibility by focusing on sustainable buildings in the commercial and residential sectors that incorporate renewable energy sources, energy-saving methods, water efficiency, improved indoor air quality and the...
1 year 42 weeks ago
By: Todd Hallett
Lots of matrimony talk lately. From the saccharin sweet royal wedding to the much publicized split between J’Lo and Marc Anthony - some marriages are meant to last while others fade away. The marriage that I am most excited about (save for my own naturally) is the one between Lean design and curb appeal. These two young lovebirds are guaranteed to make it for the long haul.
Lean Design is often misunderstood. Often people imagine a Lean plan to be stripped of all the dramatic...
1 year 42 weeks ago
By: Scott Sedam
A discussion erupted this month on the LeanBuilding Group on Linked In about how do you define value to the customer? One of our members was assailing builders who go cheap, installing ubiquitous “builder grade” products. I replied that there are fine lines sometimes. One person's better value can be another's substandard. Not so long ago, vinyl siding was considered almost universally a cheap product. That is rarely the case now though. If a builder is using...
1 year 42 weeks ago
By: David Barista
We just caught wind of some big news on the customer satisfaction front: J.D. Power and Associates has canceled its 2011 U.S. New-Home Builder Customer Satisfaction Study.
Citing difficult market conditions in residential construction and a smaller pool of builders to evaluate, J.D. Power senior director Dale Haines said in a statement to customers that the organization has “decided not to move forward with the 2011 U.S. New-Home Builder Customer Satisfaction Study.” Haines...
1 year 42 weeks ago
By: Denis Leonard
It might not be exciting, it might be work, but a key to a successful builder and home is a strong set of Scopes of Work. Scopes ensure clear communication of what is needed by each trade. In the best cases Scopes use diagrams, photos, links to websites, and clear step by step instructions on what material to use, the stages of construction and installation. This can become the company Bible, every discussion leads back to the Scope. There are no arguments on site, rather it’s, what does the...
1 year 43 weeks ago
By: Denis Leonard
I am not a car nor am I a piece of meat, so please don’t service or process me, I am a customer! But those terms and attitudes still exist.
I recently walked into a business and was greeted with, ‘name?’ To which I replied, ‘yes, it is a lovely day!’ Well that wouldn’t happen with your company I hear you say. Ok.
Think of this situation. You have heard great things about the builder from friends and contacts, you felt comfortable with them when you visited the model home, you...
1 year 43 weeks ago
By: Scott Sedam
Twenty years ago, there was a project in Denver where the foundations began moving, to the point that several new homes had to be taken completely down. In the milder cases, the builder had to sink caissons next to the foundation as deep as 40 feet to stabilize them. The problem was expansive soils.
The local team for the national builder had decided that their previous soils testing outfit was too expensive so they went with a new, untested firm, who in retrospect was clearly "...
