No-Shows and Late Shows
Workers and materials that don’t show up when promised or are chronically late can wreak havoc with your construction scheduling. To avoid this situation you must set ground rules for communication including the fact that you must know ahead of time if there is a problem so you can plan around it. If they don’t call ahead or explain prior to the time of performance you can either fire them or tell them that they’ll be off the job the next time they don’t show without calling. If they are chronically late without explanation you will need to sit down with your general contractor and get to the root of the problem.
No Materials, No Progress
Materials that don’t show up may mean finding another resource, a good argument for having a back-up plan. Having your contractor take responsibility for materials means that he or she must deal with supply problems. This is often a better choice because they keep back-up resources in mind on a regular basis because they do this over and over. Finding another source at the last minute may cost you more but that additional cost must be weighed against the expense of idling workers or stopping progress. Its important to remember that one major advantage of using an experienced contractor is their ability to pick up the phone and get what you need in a few minutes. Working on your own might mean spending hours tracking down the same resources.
