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August 23, 2007
Dodging Delays
In home building, agility counts--particularly if the house is the 2008 HGTV Dream Home in Islamorada, Fla.
When situations beyond HGTV Dream Home builder Juan Dellanos' control have popped up threatening to idle parts of his crew, he has taken quick, evasive action.
First off, the floor joists didn't arrive on time. Usually you wait on each floor to go in, then raise the exterior walls up to the next floor level. Juan decided not to wait, going ahead with scaffolding the whole house and building the walls three stories up while waiting for the floor joists to arrive.
Then the roof trusses needed to be re-engineered on site (it took 3 to 4 trusses to make one truss with the span and height needed), which was going to take about a week and a half. They faced losing a week of work while that was being done.
"That's when I got nervous," says Juan. "I said, let's split the crew up and put some of them on siding to get started on the outside of the house. You normally don't do that, but I'm glad I did. It helped keep us on schedule."
Quick thinking, often outside the box of how you always do things, can help builders and contractors dodge delays. How do you handle these snafus? Tell us how you've sidestepped delays with fast thinking.
Posted by Richard Wall, HGTVPro.com Staff at 5:01 PM | Comments (0)
August 9, 2007
Certified Stellar
What's the best way to keep building inspections from slowing down your process? Build a Great House!
That's the plan -- and the reality -- at the HGTV Dream Home construction site in Islamorada, Fla., where they've got a building inspector on site about every other day.
The local builder of the HGTV Dream Home, Juan Dellanos from Key Largo, knows the codes, he has seasoned crews who know how to build to them, and he has his dad, Juan Dellanos Sr., on site scheduling and running quality control on all building inspections. Juan Sr. verifies that all jobs are ready before calling in the inspectors.
The result has been a smooth process through many inspections. Developer/builder Mike Uhre tells me that the house has had no failures yet. "And that's pretty darn good," he says. "This is a stellar structure."
Inspectors examine every steel and concrete pour beforehand. They check tech specs and ratings on windows and exterior doors, and then they verify all aspects of their installation. They look at all framing before sheeting begins, including tie downs, spacing and fasteners. The roof has its own inspection regimen. They inspected the 16-inch concrete reinforced piles augured 3 feet into rock and integrated with the concrete footer, and all the steel-reinforced concrete beams and columns of the house.
"It's different from building in any other part of the country," says HGTV Dream Home House Planner Jack Thomasson. "The inspectors know what they're looking for, and they know that when they've got a good contractor like Juan, they don't have a problem educating him about something that has to be done."
Have you found an efficient way to streamline inspections? Do you have any horror stories about inspectors who caused unnecessary delays or changes? Let me know.
Posted by Richard Wall, HGTVPro.com Staff at 4:07 PM | Comments (26) | TrackBack
August 1, 2007
Transplanting the Dream
How do you approach the environmental decisions faced by builders and contractors every day? Does it only come down to a money/time calculation, or does conscientiousness factor in?
Maybe it's determining whether you make the effort to protect on-site tree roots from damaging construction traffic. Maybe it's deciding how to protect fragile coral from a new dock, which is what the developers/builders of the HGTV Dream Home recently faced.
Permitting for the dock required approval of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary authority. The developers' marine biologist did a benthic survey, laying out the footprint of the proposed dock underwater. They found that fan corals, purple corals, and others might -- and might not -- be affected by the dock or its pilings.
They could have argued about it, fought it, and worked toward a compromise. But they didn't. Led by the property owner and one of the developers, who is a lifelong Keys fisherman and passionate about all things environmental, they decided to take no chances and just relocate the protected coral.
The regulatory agencies were thrilled with their plans and environmental spirit. A NOAA representative in scuba gear and our own Jack Thomasson, HGTV Dream Home House Planner, participated in the relocation work. The coral was transplanted in an exacting process that the NOAA rep says is virtually 100% successful.
It takes a really good marine engineering team to get that job right. And it did take a good deal of time and money. It was worth it for the developers' conscience. And it'll be worth it to the HGTV Dream Home winner, who can walk down his or her 175-foot shared dock and know that no coral were harmed in its construction.
Posted by Richard Wall, HGTVPro.com Staff at 5:06 PM | Comments (26) | TrackBack
