"It's ok it's just an accident" is what I tell my 4 year old when she spills her milk or trips and falls. After a few post accident hysterics she recovers, gets distracted and moves on. I wish building mistakes and delays could be so easily and quickly overcome. You try your best to plan for and avoid them but they find a way into your project one way or another.
As a GC you have to be like an air traffic controller. You have to manage a multitude of vendors and subcontractors who may or may not be onsite but are actively working on your project. Unfortunately when you are building a custom home there is bound to be a miscommunication, miscalculation, misunderstanding somewhere along the way. How you deal with the turbulence is what can make or break your project and possibly your bank account.
A few examples of where our flight plan got a bit rocky:
The day we realized the wrong size garage doors were ordered and delivered onsite. Garage doors that took 3.5 weeks to ship from a factory in Ohio. Garage doors that needed to be installed ASAP so the electrician could complete his rough electrical work. You really aren't supposed to leave exposed wires near an open doorway. Finally, garage doors that were not a standard size that could not be returned. Could you sell a giant garage door on craigslist?
I got the call at work. My dad was fuming, sawing something and asked me to call and deal with it. I calmly left my cubicle and walked outside my office building. I paced as I dialed the lumberyard. When I couldn't get a hold of our sales rep I left him a voicemail. Then I dialed the sales reps manager. When he picked up the phone with a shaky voice I expressed my frustration ( I yelled... a lot). We went back and forth on whose fault it was that the doors were wrong. At some point I think I may have screamed that child birth was easier than building this house. That made us both laugh and the yelling stopped and we put our heads together and came up with a solution. Keeping the doors and re-framing the garage was the most effective solution. The manager even comped the re-framing materials and promised to give us an additional discount on a future order.
When that call ended I dialed my dad. I shared the recommended solution. My dad's reaction involved more yelling, a handful of swears in both Greek and English and a huge sigh before he agreed. Re-framing the garage took 2 guys, 2 days, new LVL's (laminated veneer lumber), a giant cement cutter, and a lot of back breaking work.
The day we realized the foundation had been poured without a hole for the septic drain. The plumber had come in to start his roughs. While my dad was giving him a lay of the land the plumber casually mentioned that we needed to drill a 6 inch wide hole through all of the concrete and rebar. No biggie it's just 1 foot thick! The foundation had been done for months now. The company wouldn't come back out to drill the hole. So my dad had to rent a giant core drill. It took him hours to drill that one little hole.
The day we realized that the lumberyard completely miscalculated the amount of siding materials we needed to order. We had reached out to a few siding company's to get bids on exterior siding. We wanted to know if the cost would be in the same ballpark as the cost for my dad and his crew to do the work. If we could free up my dad he could focus on interior finishes and we could get the project moving faster. As the estimates rolled in we started to see a common trend. The siding companies had calculated a big difference in materials. Thousands and thousands of dollars off from what our lumberyard had calculated for us. We called our sales rep and he come out to the house and re-measured the siding. He confirmed that he had make a costly mistake. One that we would have to pay for.
A small mistake can wreak havoc to a building project. Unfortunately there are so many unknowns and variables when you are building. You just have to deal with issues head on as they arise. The plane has to keep flying. It may need to stop for a layover or two but it has to keep flying on until it reaches it's final destination....occupancy!!
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