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.