Five ways contractors and clients waste cash during the build process

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Kelvin Grines, Changing Places/hygiene rooms project manager at Clos-o-Mat highlights top 5 ways customers wasted money during recent projects.

There is an adage that you get what you pay for.

Contractors could save themselves, and their clients, significant amounts of money, time and stress, by paying for good workmen – with common sense, the ability to follow basic architectural drawings – and the care to do the job right!

I can only apply this to my experience as project manager installing washrooms, hygiene rooms, but it applies through all aspects of the build process.

For example – here are my top 5 ways customers wasted money during recent projects:

• getting to site to supervise installation of a washroom: no plumbing yet piped to the room
• as above but substitute electrics for plumbing
• plumbing pipework and/or electrics in the wrong place: millimetres matter when connecting services!
• a height adjustable basin with concealed plumbing andamp; wiring, where the cover to hide and protect those has not been fitted, leaving all exposed. When the facility is to be used by people in wheelchairs, what an opportunity for the pipework to get caught, ripped out!
• building a stud wall on which to mount an adult-sized changing bench capable of taking a 200kg load

How much does a job really cost if it has not been executed correctly? The numerous return trips to site for client meetings, remedial work and materials to correct wrong installation all comes out of any profit originally made. In fact this could add up to more than the little extra on wages to get decent workers in the first place!

Budgets are always under pressure, but contractors who fail to follow drawings, apply reason, or ask if in doubt, cost their clients time and money through project delays. How much does it cost to pick up the phone, or shout across the room to ask/verify? Doing it right in the first place will help repeat business. Happy customers are retained customers.

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