We all like to think we can do things better. “Why don’t they fix the roads, they should put that quarterback on the bench, that tax should be lower, that airline should X, Y, Z, etc, etc, etc.” We have “solutions” for things we really know very little about. This is a repeating situation that builders and architects have to deal with: clients who know it all.
Even though people may have never done a construction project, they seem to know best how to manage one. If I could only count the hours I’ve spent in evenings giving therapy calls to downtrodden builders who call me for a bit of empathy and therapy after clients treat them like shit.
These guys stress their minds out, charge for the material their clients request, charge for the time they said it would take, and still get clients complaining about how long it takes and how much money it costs. They seem to think they could do it quicker and cheaper despite never having done it before.
You know what, 99% of the time, the work is done perfectly, and when it’s not perfect, it’s still done really really well. Clients have no clue how hard these builders work and how different construction is from their tech jobs. I’ve seen entrepreneurial industry “disruptors” try and start revolutionary construction companies where they use technology to modernize the construction process to make it go smoother. You know what happens to them? Nothing! They go out of business! It doesn’t work. At the root of construction, you have a human and their muscle following directions (of someone who isn’t willing to do the work themselves - and the instructions are unclear, incomplete, and not valid). The guys doing the work know how to do it, but the people telling them to do it don’t - and the clients authorizing it also don’t do it in the proper sequence. This is the root of the issue: laborers’ bosses don’t know how to do the work that the laborers do, so the expectation never gets properly set with the client.
For example, every single client changes their mind during construction, and this causes the builder to alter the sequence of construction. This wastes time and material. Time + material = money. Therefor, clients waste their own money, but they blame the builder for it because they have too much pride and too little understanding to take responsibility for their own contribution to the problem. When you change your mind, things need unbuilt, a new schedule needs created, a new budget needs approved, more materials need ordered, and new labor needs to happen (which could have more easily happened with some previous step in the process). It’s pretty easy to paint a wall. Imagine stopping painting several times during that process… you would need to clean brushes, remove the tape, remove the throw-cloth, put things away, and do it all over again. These things take time. Once all the other new dust is in the area, that dust needs cleaned, and that wall need completely repainted to avoid the imperfections that clients will not tolerate. There’s many many more examples just like this one.
Clients would do best by themselves by simply accepting the work they originally approved - or even something close to it. If they don’t, this is where the problems arise. Commonly, a client sees the partway built project, they change their mind, they ask for certain things to be redesigned, and they expect the project to continue like nothing happened. This is a big deal. This is like going on a road trip where someone vomits in the back seat, so you pull off for a wellness break, and then the engine explodes when you try to get on your way again.
The architect needs to rework the drawings, and the builder needs to review them, estimate the new labor, get new material orders from their suppliers, and ask their subcontractors for new bids for the revised scope of work. This takes TIME. This all happens while the work is still underway, and while this is happening, the work underway is not happening optimally since much of that work hinges on the way the newly changed work will integrate with the big picture. The changes really slow the process and ramp up the cost.
When this happens, clients just don’t understand it. Builders do. The builders explain it, but the clients don’t understand it - partially because they don’t want to and partially because they can’t. Similar to how a builder cannot understand an advertising logarithm for online advertisements or coding language for software development, a client just can’t understand the nuances to construction sequences. Clients assume that the low salary of a builder means that the work is simple. Wrong.
The work of a builder is underpaid for two reasons: 1. Builders are not as savvy with selling their service as others. 2. Builders are less greedy. Some of the most honest and down-to-earth people I’ve ever met are in the construction trades.
Let’s honor our builders and give them the respect they deserve by either paying their bills with a smile or by not changing the scope of work when they are in the middle of it (unless you are ok paying for the outcome of your decision).
If you’d like to learn more about our design process, visit www.josharch.com/process, and if you’d like to get us started on your project with a feasibility report, please visit www.josharch.com/help
