Instead of a finished home, many owners are left staring at a skeleton of builder’s plastic and exposed brick when they visit the site on the scheduled completion date.
This, of course, is due to unexpected delays, or the builder consciously choosing not to communicate the true timeline of a construction project.
The latter happens more than you might think.
Delays add more than just time to a project — they can easily increase the cost and certainly increase your stress.
At Pepper Constructions, we understand the importance of timeliness and transparency and have committed ourselves to overcoming the common hurdles that delay building projects.
In this post, we’ll explore the main causes of construction delays and how we address them.
Why Builders Don’t Deliver on Time: 3 Key Causes of Delays
Three key factors contribute to builders missing their deadlines.
Understanding them can help you choose a trustworthy builder who plans efficiently and finishes your home on time.
- Unreliable Trade Base
A common snag in the building industry is not having a reliable network of tradespeople. Builders who lack long-standing relationships with skilled trades may struggle to get the right people on the job at the right time. This can severely delay a project’s progress. (One reason a builder might have a flimsy network is that they fail to pay tradespeople on time. If you learn that a prospective builder does this, run for the hills.)
- Unreliable Supplier Base
Just as crucial as the tradespeople are the suppliers. If your builder doesn’t have a solid rapport with building material suppliers, or if your builder doesn’t have a system that guarantees timely deliveries, the entire construction project could come to a grinding halt.
- Poor Project Management
Often, the root cause of project delays is poor planning. A good builder will respect your budget, provide detailed quotes, and divide the project into clear steps. They’ll actively plan to avoid delays and spot any issues long before they lay the foundation of your home. They’ll also actually be there during construction, ensuring everything’s on track.
The Domino Effect of Delays: It’s More Than Lost Days
Does all that sound a bit dramatic?
Well, a one-day delay might not seem like much, but even the tiniest setback can snowball and cripple your entire construction project.
Other tradie work may need to be rescheduled because that “tiny setback” was actually a bottleneck, and construction can’t continue until it’s resolved.
Then you’re at the mercy of those tradies’ upended schedules. A day becomes a week, and a week turns into a month.
It’s a domino effect that forms a bleak image after the last domino falls:
Less money in your bank and less time to enjoy your finished home.
3 Key Ways We Avoid Delays
At Pepper Constructions, we’ve built our entire process around avoiding delays and creating the best-quality homes possible.
We achieve this partly by sticking to these 3 delay-eliminating principles:
- Proactive Planning: Everything we do is planned meticulously in advance. We provide detailed quotes that fit your budget, divide the project into clear steps, and issue purchase orders well before the work commences. That way, our skilled and trusted tradies know exactly when to arrive and have all the materials they need ready to go.
- Total Accountability: With us, the person responsible for building your home is also involved in the planning stages. In other words, someone who knows all the ins and outs of the project will be there to oversee it in person. Our co-founder, Matt, for example, is not just a registered builder; he’s also a project manager. This dual role ensures he is fully accountable and deeply invested in your project’s timely and successful delivery.
- Reliable Relations: We know that building solid relationships with trades and suppliers is just as important as building a solid foundation for a house. We work with the best of the best — people we’d trust with our own homes — and we ensure they’re compensated quickly and well.
You Want a Finished Home Not a Construction Site
Paired with our commitment to exceptional service in general, our 3 delay-eliminating principles nip the domino effect in the bud, allowing our team to deliver on time, every time.
This means you’ll be looking at a finished home on the scheduled completion date, not a skeleton of builder’s plastic and exposed brick.
Of course, these delay-preventing strategies are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ensuring a smooth build. That’s why I’ve created this comprehensive guide for you to download.
Build With Confidence – Discover our 10 Tips for Choosing the Right Builder
It’s completely free and will help you avoid steering into the many other pitfalls that can emerge when building a custom home.
