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What To Expect From Workers During Building Construction

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Building a new house is exciting, especially when you understand how the process works.  However, it is not as easy as most people think both in the aspect of development and management. This brings a lot of frustration to most people. If you are involved in managing every facet of the construction, then you should get yourself prepared for a lot of unexpected activities such as abandoning of work by some contractors, using of inferior materials or changing the finishing design completely. Also to be expected are stealing and damaging of materials at the worksite, communication breakdown, delays on the job and using inexperienced workers to do a substandard work.

Most sub-contractors have the habit of walking away from the job if they feel they have nothing to lose. This occurs very often when they have collected reasonable upfront payment. Some decide to walk away from the job for no absolute reason. While some walk away after realizing they under quoted for the job or if cost of materials have gone up due to delays in the ordering and execution of the job. This can be minimized by ensuring that you get a reliable sub-contractor base on recommendation. Your materials suppliers and vendors most times know very reliable sub-contractors who can deliver quality services. You can also ask other sub-contractors working with you for a recommendation. Never pay for their services upfront and make sure you purchase all the necessary materials yourself, that way if they are not forthcoming on the job the services of another sub-contractor can be employed.

Some sub-contractors result to using inferior materials or good quality but entirely different from what was agreed and quoted for. They do this to maximize profit or avoid loses that may result from quoting below market price. To avoid or eliminate the use of low quality materials; you will have to buy the materials yourself and then pay them for their workmanship.
Stealing, damaging or wastage of materials is very common at the site, most especially if the workers are not monitored or supervised properly. No accountability on the side of workers with regards to making sure your materials is well managed for the job as per requirement. Most of the time all they are only interested in is executing their job but does not show any responsibility towards safe keeping of the materials. This increases the building budget. To mitigate this make sure you have workers under supervision at all times and make them accountable for the materials they are using.

Poor communication is another problem which can result in delays and rework at the work site. You need to have regular visitations and updates on projects status and feedbacks. Workers need to be supervised to ensure work is being carried out as per plan. If you are managing workers yourself, make sure they understand their expectations and always check completed work thoroughly before paying them.

Some contractors or sub-contractors are very slow at executing their work. This may be as a result of inadequate personnel, lack of technical know-how or absence from work for some days. As a result they are not able to meet the deadline. The attitude of absconding from work most times has to do with sub-contractors managing or executing two or more different jobs at the same time. So you have to be very proactive at doing a background check on any contractor or sub-contractor before awarding them the job. Always give and agree on realistic deadline for the job.

Inexperience workers do a substandard job which results in wastage of materials and rework. On many occasions it is very difficult to tell for the first time if a worker is skilled or unskilled and experienced or inexperienced on a particular job except he carries out the job or get somebody to vouch for him. 

So to have a house built to a superior quality, within budgeted goals and time frame entails hard work, supervision, good communication and very importantly having the right skilled and experienced workers.


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