Construction Management

Construction Management

• Remodeling Clients Reluctant to Start Projects in Slow Times

  Like many across the country, the once-booming Northern Virginia remodeling market has hit a rough patch. And though Bob Benedict, president of Northwood Construction, in Sterling, says he hasn't had any potential clients back out of their scheduled projects, he has noticed that they seem to be in...

   

• SOV as contractual and management tool

  Are you looking for a better billing method? Billing against a schedule of values (SOV) is standard procedure for large, commercial contractors, but is often misunderstood and infrequently used by residential remodelers. Many small businesses fail, often from a lack of cash flow. Implementing an...

   

• Hard deadlines complicate challenging projects

  Years in the planning, the nearly 6,000-square-foot, copper-clad, one-of-a-kind modern home had months to go before completion when architect and general contractor Travis Price learned that the clients planned to host their daughter's wedding reception there.

   

• Bottoms Up

  Monthly production meetings at Basnett Design-Build-Remodel had a tendency to wander and to produce too few action items. So Jim Basnett and his production team at the Littleton, Mass., company, set a day and time, and created an agenda and a required attendance list.

   
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  A simple bulletin-board system keeps all eyes on the ball

  Mission control at Mark IV Builders is the production board, a visual representation of all current projects, their supervisors, their schedules and status, and their current to-do items.

   

• Extensive pre-planning and ongoing documentation provide great assurance to clients

  Projects often last months at Acorn Design/Build, of Denver, but there's rarely confusion over who agreed to what when, or which products should go where, or when that trade contractor is on the schedule.

   

• Trade Day

  A pre-contract walk-through helps nail down the details.

   

• Winans makes meetings more fun

  To make weekly meetings more fun - and more memorable - Winans Construction has incorporated a series of rotating activities for each of their Monday company-wide meetings.

   

• Setting client expectations for schedule delays

  Big50 professionals answer a question about managing client expectations on project delays.

   

• Portable fax pays its way

  Ten years ago Medina Construction Co. started using fax machines that operate over cell phone lines to stay connected to the office from even the remotest of jobsites. For a company whose operation covers so much ground, the system has been invaluable.