Big Picture: Where are we?
Victors: Framing in progress, significantly behind schedule
Shop: Framing is underway!!
Corp Update
Weather is getting colder here. It hit 87 on Monday, but by the weekend we had an overnight low of 33 degrees. It’ll be up-and-down for a while, so exterior work has to factor that in.
The Shop
Framing continues at the shop. We started the week waiting on the structural steel. That actually didn’t arrive until Wednesday. There were some discrepancies with the way the baseplates for the support poles were made vs the plan, so we are modifying those on site. The main beam weighs right at 986 lbs, so we spent Thursday building the scaffolding and support structure we’ll need to raise that beam 11 feet into the air.
Friday it rained, but the team was back on Saturday to work on the posts that will support the main beam. The day was spent cutting the baseplates to size, drilling new holes through the baseplates, and embedding the 3/4” anchor bolts into the wall. On Sunday we were planning to set the posts, but it was 33 deg outside- too cold to put down the non-shrink grout that goes under the posts, so we pushed that off to Monday. By Tuesday, we should be ready to raise the main beam.
My report last week said I was hoping we would get the first floor framing finished this week. that didn’t happen, but it was reasonable under the circumstances. We are waiting on a couple of shear wall panels for the front wall. (Specialty item from Simpson Strong Ties) and we need to get the beam up before we can finish the mezzanine floor. Given those constraints, there really wasn’t enough other work to do to justify bringing a crew out before the beam arrived.
Big picture, though, I continue to be pleased with this crew. In every construction job, there are a million little decisions. Some of them have time and/or cost implications. Consistently, the guys on the crew look to me and say “how do you want it done?” – and then they execute on that. There’s no pushback, no “we could get it done faster / cheaper if we cut this corner. Every night they put their tools away and tidy the site. Before the big rain on Friday, they came out and neatly covered every stack of wood with brand new tarps to keep them dry. It’s a far cry from my other framing crew.
Upcoming Tasks:
- Install main support beam for second floor
- Frame mezzanine. Continue framing remainder of first floor.
- Begin coordination with mechanical trades
Victor’s House
In some ways, we’re starting to break out and make some progress here. The plumbers started on Tuesday. The first that we decided was that we were going to have to replace the main sewer line in the house. This was not part of the original bid, so that’s an $11K change order. That puts our plumbing at about 150% over budget. Ouch. But plumbing is also one of those things you never really get another bite at (without serious rework to the house) so it’s better to get it all done now. I’m expecting one more change order bc I want to move the gas meter so I can add a front porch, but otherwise we should be dialed in.
I did have a bit of a tense situation with the plumbers this week. There was some discussion of what’s in scope, what’s not, etc. Some of this is natural, but one particular guy on the crew seemed to be spoiling for a dispute. I contacted the business owner and expressed my concerns, both about the scope disparity and the particular employee. To his credit, he stepped up on all counts. The employee is gone from my job site, and we resolved the scope issue in a way that I am pleased with. Issues always come up in construction, but how we approach them makes a huge difference in the relationship.
On the framing side, we’re pushing forward. The partition walls (non-load-bearing walls) on the second floor are 85% complete. We made a few minor adjustments, but nothing big. The siding crew also started this week. We have the West wall of the addition completed and they’ve been prepping the rest of the building. Unfortunately, I’ve already flagged some of the work as not being completed to standard, so I’ll need to have that conversation tomorrow. As part of the siding work, we have installed the first 4 windows, which feels like a milestone. I’m really looking forward to this building being weather-tight.
Last week I talked about some of the challenges with the framing crew. The business owner has let go of several less-productive employees, and he’s personally on site each day now, which seems to help. Pace of progress has definitely picked up. I can’t help but compare the two crews, (Victor’s vs the Shop) though. I’d categorize it as atmosphere, hygiene, and professionalism.
Overall, this was not a particularly productive week. The crew missed several days due to illness. We only had 2 days of actual progress, which definitely doesn’t help. The team also disclosed that they’re down to just the three core employees. They let the other guys go. At this point, there’s not much I can do. Their contract with me doesn’t have a specified completion date – only a “work can’t be delayed for other work” clause. I’m covered as best I can be, and this is definitely why they won’t be working on the shop. I just need to get them across the finish line at Victor’s.
There are some distinct differences between the two crews, and it’s impossible not to make direct comparisons when they are working in parallel like this. I see a few things that really stand out:
- The Shop crew work well together. There’s a clear order to who is in charge, and I don’t hear anything that indicates discord amongst the team. The House crew are often snippy with one another, in a way that exceeds “playful banter”. It’s clear that nerves are getting frayed, which is never a good sign.
- In terms of the job site, the Shop crew cleans up daily. Tools get packed away (partly because the site is exposed), scrap gets cleaned up, etc. They brought their own dumpster on site so that scrap material is quickly moved off the construction zone. The House crew rarely cleans up. I’m putting in a bit more than half of the total cleaning effort on that site, which is crazy. My expectation is that every crew cleans up after themselves. There are tools left strewn about every day. Material isn’t neatly stacked. This leads to a lot of frustrated back-and-forth “hey, who the heck took my impact gun?” “I dunno, it’s probably down on the first floor where you screwed up that other thing…”. A lot of time gets lost looking for materials or tools. Personally, I find it much harder to do good work while standing in a mess.
- The Shop crew is highly professional, despite them not having the same number of years of experience. They ask good questions, and it is 100% clear to me that I’m going to end up with exactly the building I specified. There are no shortcuts and no compromises. Once I say how I want something done, they do exactly what I’ve asked. At the House, I can already see a long list of things I’m going to either have to fight over before the last payment, or I’m going to have to fix myself. As a simple example, the team trashed the stairs from the 2nd floor to the 3rd floor. When they were hauling materials up to the third floor, they dragged things across the stairs, dropped them, etc. I mentioned this to the business owner, and his response was to send me a change order to build new stairs. The correct response would have been “Sorry about that- we will replace them.”
I don’t share this to complain- I’m an adult and I’ll definitely manage my subs accordingly. But it is definitely worth highlighting the contrasts. The irony, to those who follow my politics, is the ethnicities of the two groups, as a contrast to the stereotypes we hear in the news. My “shop crew” is 100% Hispanic- most of them in the US for <6 years. Some of the don’t speak English at all, and we communicate using Google Translate. There’s no air of entitlement- they want to know what I want, and they set about building the best way they can. My “House crew” makes comments about Hispanic crews, saying that they must not know what they’re doing, or they’re underbidding jobs because they’re using “illegals”. My Hispanic crew is 100% legal, and the bids from both teams were with <5% of one another. It isn’t cost that will cause me to pick one crew over the other for my next project.
Next steps:
- Build steps (basement to 1st floor, 1st to second floor)
- Roofing starts Tuesday
- Continue siding work. (I don’t have an ETA on that – will work on that this week)
- Finish window installations
- Finish interior non-structural framing
- Turn on utilities once the siding is up
- Finalize and submit plan for front porch
