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CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

March 29, 2012

Congratulations to Brent Darnell for Being Named One of ENR’s 25 Top Newsmakers
Filed under: People Skills — Tags: — nedpelger

Brent Darnell focuses on people skills in construction, making the case that our profits correlate directly with our ability to communicate and influence others. I like Brent and think he’s a man of integrity doing work he’s passionate about. So I was happy to see that Engineering News Record named him one of the top 25 newsmakers for 2011.

Brent has a construction management background, but now works as a speaker, author, personal coach and teacher. I encourage you to purchase his book The People-Profit Connection.

I know you’re busy. I know that Spring calls you to all sorts of activities in addition to a demanding work schedule. Yet I challenge you to remember the value of investment. Just as saving some money every year, due to the beauty of compounding interest, leaves you with lots of money after a few years (which pass so much quicker than you could imagine). So forcing yourself to learn new things each year, i.e. improving your skill set, compounds your value and your joy. Please consider putting a priority on your own training…intentionally learning new things every year.

If you haven’t read my book Joyful Living: Build Yourself a Great Life!, that’s another resource you may want to consider. You may download it for free. Or take a class online, or sit and write, or take some time to think deeply about where you are and where you want to be. But please learn to see yourself as worthy of the investment of regular training and self-improvement.  Don’t get to the end of your life and realize you focused on all the wrong stuff.

Right now, commit to doing something that will take you out of your comfort zone and improve your understanding. Put it in your to do list and get it done, just like your other important tasks.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

March 27, 2012

It’s Wetlands Because We Say It Is
Filed under: Sitework — Tags: — nedpelger

The US Supreme Court, in the news because of their evaluation of the health care law, just issued a less lauded decision that will impact contractors and developers. In a March 21, 2012 unanimous ruling (I didn’t think anything in America could be unanimous anymore), the Court ruled that an Idaho couple could legally challenge the EPA’s wetlands ruling.

Mike and Chantell Sackett purchased a property and wanted to build a home. While attempting to get the permits, the EPA review instructed them to restore the wetlands on the property or face up to $37,500/day fines. The Saketts didn’t believe the property was wetlands, but the EPA and the 9th Circuit Court dictated that the Saketts didn’t have the right to get a court hearing on the question of the wetlands.

The essence of the Supreme Court decision is that land owners, developers and contractors have the right to question the EPA on their interpretation of wetlands rather than simply having to comply without option. While going to court rarely seems an attractive option for a project, it does seem that this decision will make the process more fair.

It’s nice to see commonsense flowing out of our nation’s capitol. Maybe it will start a trend.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

March 24, 2012

Choose Your Customers Wisely
Filed under: People Skills — Tags: — nedpelger

If you want to prosper in the construction business, select your customers carefully. I know most folks in small (and large) construction firms believe they need the next job so badly that getting work trumps all other concerns. That type of thinking leads to lots of hard work for little reward and often to bankruptcy.

I propose that getting what appears to be a good job with a horrible customer is worse than having no job. The horrible customer will be satisfied only by screwing you at every opportunity. I know some contractors go into those contracts planning to screw their customer in every conceivable way as well. Those type customers and contractors should work together in their no-holds-barred Texas Deathmatch. Let chislers work with chislers.

When I ran a $20M/year full service general contracting firm, I remember that pressure of keeping the project pipe full. I’d meet with a customer and get that feeling that he was a creep that was going to screw us. We’d get the job (or  waste lots of time and not get the job), spend way too much time and effort fighting to get it done, then fight over final payments. We’d lose money on the project. I’d remember my initial guy feeling and wonder why I ignored it again.

I don’t do that anymore. I pick my customers carefully and life goes better in every way. So let’s consider the best and worst customers. Let’s use an academic grading system.

A 4.0 customer appreciates your efforts and operates with absolute integrity. He treats other people the way he wants to be treated. You know that when the feces hits the fan, this guy will be standing with you dealing with the problems, not running and ducking for cover. A 4.0 customer strives to resolve problems fairly, even if he has to dip into his own pocket to pay the difference.

On the other hand, a 0.0 customer acts in active evil. He won’t be satisfied with any of your efforts. In fact, hurting you will be the only thing that will satisfy the 0.0 customer. Lying and cheating will be the norm. You can often feel the creepiness like a fog around the 0.0 customer.

Here’s how I’d fill in between the extremes.

4.0 Fantastic customer: collaborative and working towards win-win solutions.

3.0 Decent customer that tries to be fair, as long as it doesn’t pinch too much. Fair weather integrity.

2.0 Hard nosed customer that fights through every issue, but at least tries to be fair. Tends toward compromise.

1.0 Hard nosed customer that fights though every issue and tries not to be fair (tries to win so you lose)

0.0 Worst customer: only satisfied by bloodying you.

As you look to future projects, start paying attention to what kind of customers you work for. Improve your customers and you’ll improve your life. You simply have to learn to say no to the bad ones, even if you think that you just have to say yes. Get creative and make more opportunities open.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

March 22, 2012

Funniest College Application Essay
Filed under: Ned Weirdness — Tags: — nedpelger

While I generally post about construction concepts, I like to showcase creative solutions from diverse sources. Lex sent me this college application essay that makes me laugh out loud. The kid who wrote it now attends NYU.

3A. ESSAY:
IN ORDER FOR THE ADMISSIONS STAFF TO GET TO KNOW YOU, THE APPLICANT, BETTER, WE ASK THAT YOU ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION: ARE THERE ANY SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE HAD, OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS YOU HAVE REALIZED, THAT HAVE HELPED TO DEFINE YOU AS A PERSON?

I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.

I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.

Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I’m bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.

I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don’t perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a traveling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat .400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.

I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me.

I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving
competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.

But i have never been to college.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

March 21, 2012

Great Green Design: With a Touch of Grey and Brown
Filed under: Cool Projects,HVAC — Tags: — nedpelger

Green (or sustainable) design too often comes from checklists instead of logic. Some of the Green design makes no economic sense and little technical sense, raising costs and offering scant benefits. I hate that kind of “Bragging Rights” Green design.

So when I encounter some great Green design, I like to make the contrast. Google has a 990,000 sf data center near Atlanta, GA that needs a huge amount of cooling. Rather than relying on all chillers (with their high electrical energy use), Google went with more evaporative cooling (think cooling towers). While this design saves substantial electricity, the water use is huge.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJnlgM1yEU0&feature=player_embedded

Rather than continuing to use millions of gallons of potable water, Google partnered with the nearby wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The outflow from the treatment plant (which was treated, but you wouldn’t really want to drink a glass) now goes to a Google treatment plant that further sterilizes, filters and chlorinates. The non-potable water then flows into the evaporative cooling system and most turns into mist, carrying huge amounts of heat off into the atmosphere at a low cost. The bit of excess water that does now go into the Chattahoochee River has been cleaned to a level much higher than regulatory standards.

To summarize, electricity gets saved, potable water use goes way down and the non-potable water that enters the river is substantially cleaner. Now that’s great sustainable design. The fact that 30% of the WWTP outflow goes into the Google Data Center cooling water system shows the scale of the operation.

Watch at least a short bit of this video, just to see what a Google mechanical room looks like. All those painted pipes make me happy.

Hat tip to Kneal for shooting me this news. I can always count on you for the straight poop on grey water and brown technology. I suppose having kids in diapers makes you an expert.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

March 17, 2012

Live Your Passion: Be Inspired and Inspiring
Filed under: People Skills — Tags: — nedpelger

As I walked in the woods this morning, watching the dog chase squirrels with pure delight, I thought about passion. As several deer ran ahead of me with their white tails like flags in the the air, I just had to smile. I’m stressed these days, with lots of work and that same amount of time in each day. Yet I enjoy my work, my writing and thinking and my exercising. I know the stress makes me more productive as long as I don’t go into the nutty range.

So here’s to long balanced and productive days, just short of nuttiness. The Google video below inspires us all to find our passion, to be inspired and inspiring to others. This is your one shot on Earth, man, make the most of it!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIc_VEQ7Vo0&feature=pyv

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

March 16, 2012

Friday Fun in Construction
Filed under: Ned Weirdness — Tags: — nedpelger

A bit of levity to end the work week. Here’s a use for all those old VCR tapes we have gathering dust on our shelves: VCR Blocking.

On this next photo, I love the normalcy of the folks just standing waiting for a bus. The likelihood of the bus stop canopy crashing down on them doesn’t appear to be a concern.

I’m imagining a workman’s comp case and the construction company owner decides that if the employee has to be on crutches, he can still come to the job site and shovel. Hence the invention of the crutch-shovel.

Hope you have a wonderful good week-end.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

March 15, 2012

Lunch atop a Skyscraper
Filed under: Construction — Tags: — nedpelger

I love the 1932 photo of New York construction workers lunching on a beam. Due to the collaborative nature of Wikipedia, we now know much more about the photo. It was taken by Charles C. Ebbets during construction of the RCA Building (renamed as the GE Building in 1986) at Rockefeller Center. Ebbets took the photo on the 69th floor of the RCA Building during the last months of construction. It appeared in the Sunday photo supplement of the New York Herald Tribune.

Most of the men in the photo have been identified by relatives or descendants in the last few years. Though the identities of a few of the men are disputed (i.e. several folks claim him to be the person they know), most of the men are now known. As I read through the list, I’m fascinated by the number of immigrants. Ireland, Newfoundland, Sweeden and Slovokia are all represented. One of the men is a Native American from the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation.

So when you hear someone complaining about the number of immigrants working in construction, remember that the tradition goes way back. Our industry rewards skill, creativity and hard work. The employers who discriminate find themselves with less options (meaning less work) than those who embrace merit, whatever it looks like.

I challenge you (and me) to examine ourselves and think about our latent (or not so latent) prejudices. Can you afford them and do you really want them? You get to choose the kind of person you want to be.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

March 13, 2012

Helpful tools for your Android Smartphone
Filed under: Phone Apps for Construction — Tags: — nedpelger

Guest post by the ConstructionKnowledge monkey: Lex Pelger

There are many helpful tools for life and construction available to those who use Android smartphones (also known as the Enlightened). Here’s a short list of some of my favorites. If you have any of your own, I’d love to hear about them in the comments

SmartTools
A handy toolbox for anybody in the field. It can measure length, angle, distance, height. It can be a range finder, a stud finder and a decibel meter. It’s not a replacement for your tape measure but it’s helpful because the phone is always in your pocket for making quick and dirty measurements.

Tiny Flashlight
There’s lots of free flashlight apps but I found this one to be the simplest and easiest. I’m currently hitchhiking through Mexico and I can unequivocally say that the flashlight is the most helpful tool I keep in my pocket.

PDANet
Internet for your laptop anywhere you go. This app is incredibly helpful. Just install the software on your laptop and you can plug in your phone to use it’s 3G connection. It’s not super fast but it’s good enough for sending emails and working in the field. Just make sure that you don’t go over your data limit. Those crooked mobile phone companies sock you for that. It’s usually just a couple of extra bucks for an unlimited data plan. Or you could use this 3G Watchdog Pro app to keep you from going over.

DropBox
If you’re using DropBox to backup your important files (as everyone should be doing), the phone app allows you to look at those files. Quite helpful when you need to check an estimate number from the field or an item on the bullet list that you left at the office.

What are your most used apps? Care to share with others what works for you?

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

March 12, 2012

Construction Employment Improves for 17th Month in a Row
Filed under: Industry outlook — Tags: — nedpelger

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Feb 2012 construction unemployment rate was 17.1%, an improvement from the 17.8% Jan 2012 rate. It’s a substantial improvement from the Feb 2011 rate of 21.8%. In fact, the report shows notable gains in construction employment in the last year across all categories. The seasonably adjusted rates are shown below (in thousands).

Type                                   Feb 2011     Feb 2012

1. Constr of bldgs              1,141.11      1,236.3
1.1 Resid  bldgs                      528.0          573.1
1.2Nonresid  bldgs               613.1           663.2
2. Heavy and civil                 714.7         836.5
3. Specialty trades              3,192.8     3,480.8
3.1 Resid spec trades         1,328.3     1,457.6
3.2 Nonresid spec trades 1,864.5     2,023.2
Total Construction       5,049              5,554

The employment rate grew for the 17th consecutive month, which is welcome news. From the chart above, you can see that a half million construction jobs were added in the last year. An ENR article puts that news in perspective, though, noting that 2.2M construction jobs have been lost since the 2006 peak.

I don’t know what you’re seeing, but 2012 projects are coming in fast and furious for me. Seems like owners want to build while prices are still low, but demand is rising. Lots of owners seem to think the end of the Great Recession is now.

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