Pro tip: Switched to weekly site walks and saved $3,200

I was doing monthly walkthroughs on a 12-unit apartment build in Austin. Missed a framing error for 3 weeks. Cost me $4,700 to fix. Switched to weekly walks last month. Caught a plumbing offset on day 2. Fixed it for $1,500 instead of whatever it would have ballooned to. Has anyone else had smaller schedule gaps save them money?

2 comments

2 Comments

thea1438d ago

Well, that's a really good point. It's amazing how much of a difference just a few days can make, isn't it? I've seen the same thing happen in my own line of work, not construction, but still. A weekly check versus a monthly one is like the difference between a small spot fix and a full redo. The problem with monthly walks is you're basically hoping nothing goes wrong for a whole month, which is just asking for trouble. That framing error you had, it probably started small and then just kept getting worse every day until it was a mess. So yeah, I think you hit on something important, catching a mistake at day 2 instead of week 3 saves you a mountain of headache and money.

christopher_craig8d ago

@thea143 you mentioned catching mistakes at day 2 versus week 3, what's the biggest thing you've seen get totally out of hand just because nobody spotted it for a few extra days? I can think of foundation cracks or water damage that compound real fast, but there's probably some wild examples out there from people who do inspections for a living. That weekly versus monthly gap sounds small on paper but it's everything when materials or labor costs are involved.