Hey guys, due to a partnership with a design center i have been experiencing a very big increase in work volume and am now realizing i don’t know as much about how to run say 3 to 6 remodeling projects at once some of which i may not even work on. How do you schedule work, communicate with subs, present expectations of those working on your projects….????? Any input would be great. Thanks.
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Just promise the world and hope for the best.
As an employee of a contractor who runs many projects at the same time, I can tell you errors I have noticed and hope not to repeat.
1. Communication. This is Key. Having men/women sitting around losing time due to lack of communcation is a big loss of time and money. This means that you are available 7am-7pm. If you are not going to be playing a GC type role, than put someone in charge of the job with the answers, who is on the jobsite.
3. Planning- You are going to have to get very good at planning ahead. I think if many contractors were to sit down on sunday and plan out the week ahead this allows for subs, employees to be on the job at 7am and know what to do for the day.
4. Company Investment. I work for a small company, owning all of my own tools except for table saw and chop saw, however we expereinced a month without a table saw as it was in the shop, eventually a portable table saw was bought for the company by my boss, however we lost countless hours using guides and circular saws. Usually you are going to see a very good return on your investment with tools.
I think the biggest investment you are going to be making is with your time, and hopefully you are prepared for this. I cannot emphasize the communication enough, as this combined with the planning with make or break you.
I wish you the best.
Inept,
I've been pm for about two years, often with the volume of projects you describe, but that would be peaked out. So given that, I am no expert although I have about 30 years of varied residential building and remodeling experience.
If you need to oversee that many projects at one time, you simply cannot be doing physical labor as any part of your job description. There just is not enough hours in a day. You could hardly make daily site visits to that many projects in one 8 hour day. Six projects on a regular basis is likely more than one PM can handle depending on the type of project and how your company is set up.
I use a three ring binder with a dayrunner, and a tab for each project that contains all the contract specs as well as a set of plans. Good mobile subs that don't need lots of advanced notice helps alot. If you are feeding your subs that kind of volume that comes with the volume of work you are describing, then they will, or should be willing to jump pretty quickly. I have had some good subs like that and it makes all the worl of difference. We pay for the convenience of course..........
Write, write and write some more. If you are giving instructions to the carpenters or foremen or whatever, you should have it in writing; your copy and theirs. Or at the very least make sure that they are writing down the instructions that you are giving them.
Clear plans and good lead carps or foremen helps tremendously.
I've run 4-6 six jobs and been responsible for supplying materials and spec'd products to said jobs. With that volume you had better be up earl in the morning to get a jump on your crews and be prepared to do some homework at nite as well. That is a good time to do scheduling for your subs.
Get a big desk sized calendar and start writing on it. It is great (for me) to have that visual.
There will be days that you will want to kill someone ar possibly yourself, and if you do real good, you might find a day or two that you will have time to park in the shade someplace and shut the phone off for 30 minutes and think that you have gone to heaven.
Now, fill out your profile and let us know where all this is happening. I want to know as well in your reply!
Eric
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1. Work a schedule first and foremost and communicate it.
Decide if you are going to use a day planner, a calendar, microsoft project or whatever tool you want to use to plan each step of each project.
Plan the whole project from start to finish and put it in writing. (PENCIL)
If you are doing the same type of project over and over, then you dont need to write down every nitty gritty at the onset, but if you fear forgetting a step, write it all out.
You will have to re-write a few times and erase a lot, but you will learn from it.
Make sure you can see all your projects at a glance. You have to know what is supposed to happen on each project Tomorrow and Friday. Once you have scheduled the appropriate person for that day and they have committed, somehow mark the scheduled event (a bullet point next to it, a highlighter dot next to it or something)
When you talk to whomever is doing the job, re-remind them of your expectations which you should already have in writing via a job scope for them.
Even contractors whom I have worked with for 10 years I still tell them the same thing every time they are on the job. REMEMBER to 1. Clean up at end of day. 2. Call me (or your boss) and have a list of what is not completed and why 3. Close all windows 4. Lock all doors
Then you gotta git in your truck and drive. Put away the traditional tools and pick up your note pad and pencil. Visit every job as much as possible and most definitely at critical stages, and inspect!!!!! Take your blinders off and really look at what is getting done and its quality. You only get what you inspect, not what you expect.
Whatever you do, dont pay anyone till you have thoroughly checked their work.