Economic slowdowns can present opportunities in our industry that are symbiotic in nature to builders, developers, and sub contractors. I believe this is one of those times where we can do more with less while keeping the integrity and quality of our workmanship the top in the nation.
I am providing a service that may very well promote industry growth through cutting cost and overhead to builders, contractors, developers, architects, and even to property owners who need their projects delivered on time, within budget, and with the complete oversight necessary to insure quality.
On most construction sites in Southern California a temporary field office is secured in the form of a trailer or a relatively unaffected portion of the structure under construction or being remodeled. These field offices usually house a desk, plan table, file cabinet, fax machine, telephone, computer, and a printer / copier; all necessary tools utilized by the presiding Superintendent and or Project Manager.
Most every jobsite needs a project overseer to orchestrate traffic in and out of the job, to keep records of the daily activities, to constantly check and control the quality of the work performed by each trade, also to order materials as needed, meet with architects, designers, contractors, city inspectors, engineers, laborers, salesmen, and city works providers, and sanitation companies as a liaison and representative of and for the best interest of the owners and or builders of each project.
That’s a lot of responsibility and yet there are times where the superintendant sits idle because he or she has done their job so well. I know, because I have worked myself out of a job on occasion.
If one can keep tight and realistic schedules, maintain open and direct channels of communication there may not be a need for renting a trailer or using vital space that maybe used for staging; there may not be a need for extra phone lines, data lines, computers and other similar electronic hardware, not to mention the cost of one salary employee that can run between $50,000,00 to $125,000,00 in a years time.