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Cement
shortage threatens construction projects, jobs...
Diane Dennis Enterprises © June 2004
A
cement shortage is affecting construction projects and jobs, and is
now spreading westward across the United States. Florida
imports about 40 percent of its cement needs and has been
particularly hit in the southern part of the state.
I
had actually planned on getting this story out two weeks
ago but due to computer issues (groan AND ugh!)
I didn't get it out as soon as I wanted to.
When
I originally planned on including this info in our newsletter
it pertained to Florida, with the shortage "advancing
across the nation to the western United States".
Now
however, just two weeks later, the shortage is actually
here and it is affecting
some big projects. We have several freeway
improvement projects here in Victorville that are being delayed due to the cement shortage! I
would think that this means that other projects in California
are being delayed or will be delayed soon. This could put
behind almost every single trade on any given job.
Stay
in touch with your customers (Subs to GC's; material
suppliers to contractors) to make sure the projects you're
due to work
on (or supply material to) are on schedule.
What
can be worse than having work on the books but no work available
for your workers? Worse would be that those same workers
find work elsewhere and then aren't available when your jobs
are finally ready to go.
GC's,
keep your Subcontractors posted. If your job is
behind due a cement shortage (or for any reason really)
your Subs really do need to know this.
An
unplanned delay on your project can cost your Subcontractor(s)
dearly. If he's on another project when your project is finally
ready to go, he's going to have to skip out on someone, you
or his other customer.
If
he delays his other customer then he's at risk of 24/48/72
hour telegram notices; threats of non-payment; possible
legal suit; loss of future work for that customer; etc.
If
he delays you (which let's face it if he has to delay one
of his projects then it should be the
job that caused the delay to begin with) then you're back
off-track before you even had a chance to be back on-track!
In
addition, if he suddenly doesn't have work for his installers
then they might leave and head over to a shop that does have
work available and then when you're ready for him he won't
have anyone to man your job.
At
least if he knows what's going on with your
job (and presumably with his other projects since of course
those other GC's will be keeping him posted on the progress
of their jobs ;) then everyone will have a fighting
chance to get through this with as little pain
as possible.
If
your Sub knows that you won't be ready for him in two weeks
(or however long) like originally planned then he can see
if he can slip into one of his other jobs early (to clear
up some time later on for when you'll be ready for him) or
he can let his guys know that they're going to have some
time off in a couple weeks so they can prepare for it (line
up some temporary work or a side-job, etc.).
Maybe
we can't control material shortages but we can control
how we handle the situation and to an extent how
smooth (or not smooth) it goes...
Contractors
needed to provide service to ready-to-buy customers |
