I'll huff and puff and...

As an industry, the construction field, many times can get a bad wrap. The local and network news seem to always find a story or three to do in the springtime when people are gearing up for a remodel or home construction. Something with some contractor that has run off with the homeowner's money and left them high and dry. Some contractor who has bid much lower than anyone else for the project but cannot seem to be able to complete it due to lack of funds. There are also those in the field that also really shouldn't be there as they don't know what they are doing.

There is never stories from contractors discussing issues about clients. I'm not here to badger the customer, I am simply trying to raise issues so that in the future, as customers, you readers will get into a project with a bit more of an open mind that there are two sides to the story. Well, I always say three sides as there is the customer side, the builder side, and the truth.

A customer should hire the builder because they trust their work ethic, seen their work, talked to other previous clients, etc. A customer should check out the builder, the work, and talk with previous clients to get a well rounded view of the project they are to undertake.

Many customers pick a builder based solely on price. There is ALWAYS a lower price. When the customer goes for the lowest bid we periodically receive calls from panic stricken people who don't understand why their home has so many problems or the builder left and hasn't come back. Let's see, did you check out all of the references? Were there any? Did you go and see some of the work they had previously completed? By the way, this can happen with the most expensive builders as well. But this isn't what I wanted to talk about.

I find it interesting to have come across clients that wish to have a project built, but seem to be quite lax when it comes time to act on their portion of the project. That would be the payment process for work completed.

You see, when an invoice is submitted to the client, either for the client to pay, or for the bank to distribute funds, there are times when the email or invoice seems to get set aside, lost, forgotten, or the client had other more pressing things to do. In the mean time, there are a handful if not ten or more people waiting for this money to pay their people and suppliers, their insurance companies, their power bills, mortgages, keep clothes on their children, and more.

Then there does come a day in which the project is scheduled to come to an end. If it is through a financial institution, this day is scheduled due to finance timelines dictated by the client, contractor, and the bank. There are numbers attached or financial obligations to this date. Yet, when this date approaches those times of forgetting to get to the bank, or forgetting to forward the invoice to be submitted is... forgotten.

We understand that there are things we can do on our end such Lien a project, or walk off the project due to a difference of management styles, and many other legal maneuvers. This is generally not something that we in the construction business like to do. All of this takes time and money. Neither the customer or the builder has that time and it is also something that neither the customer or the builder are in the business of. That being law and suing eachother.

There is only one main thing a client needs to do on a construction project and that is make sure that the money flows. By the hiring of a professional in the building business, they should know what to do and how to do a job in the most efficient manner. With more and more customers watching these remodel shows on TV and such now, it seems that they feel they know what to do to build a house. This creates problems on and off the jobsite which will ultimately also cause delays.

I have a few tidbits for future use if you are going to be building a home, a commercial space, an addition, or...

1. My advice is that when you hire a professional to do work for you, you are doing so for a reason. You have seen their work, talked to their clients and/or associates and found them to be of integrity and good at their job. So, let them do their job.

2. A customer should talk only with the boss. There are numbers of people on the job during the process and most of the time they only know about their process. If they act as if they know more...they don't. Discussing issues regarding the project should be done with the person with whom you hired to do the work, and not any of the people he/she has subcontracted.

3. Make sure the money is there after each portion of the work is done.

That is it. All of the rest generally falls into place when these three things are followed. If you hire a person in between the builder and yourself make sure you keep that same chain of command throughout the project.