Alfa Builders
Four Ways to Get the Most out of Your Builder in Tough Situations
On a typical construction project, all of the key players (owner, architect, engineers, and general contractor) start out talking the talk about “teamwork” and “cooperation”.
Unfortunately, as the project moves deeper into the construction phase, some difficulties creep in and the “team” concept can quickly deteriorate into finger pointing and distrust. Here are a few suggestions to keep your builder motivated even through tough situations.
1. Highlight the Positives
It is easy to get focused on the negative when dealing with your contractor. There might be 100 things going well, but when you see an item done incorrectly, it gets highlighted, inserted into several emails, and becomes the focus of various meetings.
It is definitely a responsible action to point out the problems and get them corrected. However, a better approach is to take advantage of the opportunities to highlight the good work that your contractor is doing to help balance out the errors.
2. Convey Trust when Offering Constructive Criticism
Choose your words and phrases carefully when correcting your builder.
Instead of saying “Why did you try to cut corners and use a thinner trim board than what was shown on the construction documents?”, you could convey trust in your contractor by saying “I am sure your carpenter just overlooked this, but the contract documents show a thicker trim board that what he is using.”
One comment insinuates that you are suspicious of your builder, and the other comment assumes that your builder had good intentions in what he was doing.
3. Admit Fault when You Make a Mistake
Your contractor is the one putting the pieces together on your project, so it stands to reason he might be prone to making the most errors of any of the key players. However, owners, architects, and engineers can also be subject to the occasional error.
When this does happen, go ahead and confess the mistake. If your habit is to scream your contractor’s mistake from the mountaintop while whispering your own mistakes behind closed doors, change your way of thinking.
It helps maintain the spirit of “teamwork” if we are all willing to share our shortcomings equally.
4. Compromise When Possible
When a tough situation does come up and your contractor has clearly made a mistake, consider ways to compromise if possible. Sure, you could stick it to your contractor and make him tear something down and start over at his own expense. But think about the flip side.
If you are always hitting the contractor in the pocketbook for every mistake, he will be tempted to charge as much as is humanly possible when the roles are reversed!
It might be better to give a little grace when possible to build up some “equity” in the relationship. Your builder will be much more inclined to be generous and overlook some change order opportunities if he has gotten some help along the way.
In Conclusion
There are several different paths you can take in your role as owner, architect, or engineer on a project. Choosing to push the team concept with a few simple steps like those listed in this article can serve to make the project better for everyone involved.
Do you have any other suggestions that would enhance the owner/architect/contractor relationship? If so, please leave a comment or feel free to contact me.
