Planning, Visualization Key to Pardee Homes' 50-Hour Build

Blitz Building

Patrick L. O'Toole, Senior Editor
November 1, 2002
Professional Builder

	(Top) Quick-curing concrete allowed the foundation to be poured and framing to progress to this advanced point at the end of the first 10-hour day. (Bottom) On day five, the finished product was ready for visitors. The home later sold for $168,000 to a woman who won a lottery drawing among a long list of interested buyers.

Building a 2,000-square-foot home in five 10-hour days is a feat most builders can't comprehend. But that's what Pardee Homes did in October in one of its Las Vegas neighborhoods.

One key was a six-month planning process. In the course of 79 meetings with Pardee employees and trade partners, a process map was built, printed and hung on the walls of a war room. Trades could see when and where they were needed. More important, says Randy Myers, senior vice president of construction, they could visualize how their work would affect others.

"The big thing was that no trade contractor wanted to be the one to let the ball drop," says Myers. "The real lesson here is teamwork."

© 2009, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.