My apology to my old framing crew after 8 years

I used to think speed was everything on a job site. I pushed my guys to get walls up as fast as possible and would get annoyed when we had to redo stuff. Then we had a rain delay on a $12,000 townhouse build in Charlotte. The next day I saw my best framer taking extra time to square every corner. I finally asked him why and he said 'slow is smooth, smooth is fast.' That clicked for me. Has anyone else had that moment where you realized your whole approach was backward?

3 comments

3 Comments

piper_kim17d ago

That $12,000 townhouse build in Charlotte must have been a tight budget to begin with. Did you actually end up losing time or money from letting them take those extra seconds per nail? Because I always thought the pressure to be fast came from the customer wanting lower bids, not from the crew being lazy.

lilya7617d ago

I feel you on that. "Pressure to be fast came from the customer wanting lower bids" - that's exactly it. Nobody's giving out bonus money for speed these days, they just want the cheapest price and then expect it done yesterday.

seth_singh2017d ago

Right, you hit on the real issue with that budget. That $12,000 number was tight before a single nail got shot. But the extra seconds per nail weren't the problem. The problem was the overall pace. If you're on a tight bid like that, you make your money on how fast you can get the whole house framed up, not by rushing each nail. I've done it both ways, and I found I actually saved time by letting guys take an extra beat to make sure a nail is flush. Because if you rush a nail, you get a pop or a split board later, and then you're spending ten minutes fixing a five-second mistake. The customer wanting low bids is a fact of life, but a lazy crew is a choice. You just gotta find guys who can work fast without being sloppy.