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The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector

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Re: The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector

#111

Post by Spooky23 »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #37
_Adam wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My pipes are all copper, and the hot water contains a non trivial amount of lead (from the solder used to join the pipes). I had it tested - around 20 ppb. We don't drink or cook with the hot water, but in theory if the plumbing was PEX we could.

What year was your house built? I really hope this is not a risk on things built after 2000 (or 1980?)

Lead flux went away like 45 years ago. But sometimes galvanized pipe has some amount of lead in the zinc coating, and a mixed cooper/galvanized installation can accelerate corrosion.

Post-Flint, lead is the new asbestos. Because the standard is zero tolerance, there’s alot of noise on the topic.

PEX is great, but I’d personally always go for cooper if I could afford it. We tend to learn new things about plastic and risks over time.

Re: The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector

#112

Post by sharemywin »

pirate787 wrote: post #39

In this time-period there has been a large-scale introduction of undocumented workers into the construction labor force. They are a quarter of some construction labor categories. Perhaps using undocumented subcontractors may play a role in lower productivity growth (cheap, unstable, and relatively unskilled labor) or maybe just distorting the statistics. https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/...

Are undocumented workers factored into the number of employees? I would assume the are excluded from the # of workers in the calculation.

Re: The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector

#113

Post by swagasaurus-rex »

kodah wrote: post #41
belval wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure this is the right answer and calling this "worker productivity" seems a bit harsh. A "Pretty Good House" (book that was on the front page last week) includes insulation above and below the foundation slab, vapour barriers, double studs to break thermal bridges, complex window installation (again thermal bridges), air exchangers and heat pumps with ducts (or mini-splits). New constructions (for cold zone),…

I have no data to back this observation up, but everyone (especially in the media, but also in corporate life) is attacking "worker productivity" lately. Everyone's got a reason, but when you dig into them they all stink.

From the mouth of CEOs it's clear they're trying to wrestle back low wages and unpaid overtime using shame. Especially out of touch when they bad mouth their own subordinates and think it doesn't reflect poorly on themselves.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/16/marc-benioff-says-newer-sale...

Re: The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector

#114

Post by dumpsterlid »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #7
latchkey wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm remodeling my place right now. You're totally right, the building codes are a lot more complex and there is more 'work' to do as a result. No more just hiding electrical boxes in the walls. Heh. That said, the products being used have improved a lot. Things like PEX tubing for plumbing (instead of copper) and glue on walls for showers (over doing tile work), make some aspects go a lot faster. Edit: Oh, I forgot t…

The big builders like DR Horton and Lennar target build times of 100 days per home that meets minimum code requirements, which is pretty good productivity. A community of 100 homes can be up and running in 2 years.

[dead]

Re: The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector

#115

Post by eagleinparadise »

CRE guy here. A lot of this "productivity loss" is also due to government related staffing issues and bureaucracy. Most people are describing more complex building codes, so I'll add something new.

I had a project that was delayed by over a year during Covid because the city approved incorrect plans, came back and requested revisions, and then lost the physical plans (without us knowing until we checked in asking what the status was). This was almost a year delay and added cost overruns, etc. It also made the required rent higher to recoup those costs and try to be profitable (that deal will lose money). Remember, there's someone at the city working 9-5pm clocking in and out.. they are not impacted if the project is denied, delayed, etc... while the developer is incurring cost of capital of 7-10%.

Another example of bureaucracy: you have to go through a particular order of inspections when developing property. One of them includes elevator inspections. You have to have power before that, so that's another set of inspections.

IIRC, during Covid there were only something like half a dozen elevator inspections for the entire state of CA. The source below says there was 15 in 2019. If your elevator inspection is 2 months late... guess what, your project is going to be late.

https://laist.com/news/elevator-inspections-los-angeles

Remember the modular startup Katerra that gobbled money from Softbank? I knew a developer who did one of their projects. He said Katerra would deliver the units on time, but the city's permitting process was so broken that they couldn't actually install or inspect these units. So they would have to find lots to store the material (+costs & +issues). Katerra's "value-add" was the speed of delivery would cut costs down, but in reality this was hard to achieve "on-site".

Re: The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector

#116

Post by samstave »

sokoloff wrote: post #58
alexfromapex wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also the real wages have not increased much but all the expenses have, it's just demoralizing

It cannot be the case that “all expenses” have grown faster than inflation (which is what real wages takes into account).

Do "real wages" include exec bonuses in the maths?

What about waste on MBAs?

-

I have MILLIONS of square feet of FAANG builds under my belt (including healthcare, which is never included in FAANG (but now that one of the hospitals I was designer of was purchased under the Zuck's name...)) should be included.

I've made so many people more rich.

Re: The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector

#118

Post by Dig1t »

Speaking specifically about the construction industry in California, because I am very familiar with that topic:

Labor is less skilled, because of huge supply of undocumented workers.

Also building codes and requirements for building safety have increased tremendously. Building a house in CA is WAY more complex than it used to be, since there have been so many requirements added to building codes over the years. Arguably CA houses are better built than they used to be, but the flip side is that it takes more time and experience to build one correctly.

Re: The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector

#119

Post by eklitzke »

jedberg wrote: post #56

They're measuring square feet completed per employee. Houses are twice as big now as they were 50 years ago. Anyone who's every done a remodel or new construction knows that 80% of the time is spent on the last 20% of finishing work, and with twice the square feet, that's twice as much finishing work. Also, does this paper take into account increased regulations? Both the time spent complying with new building codes…

If it's twice as much finishing work it's also twice as much "fast" work (the first 80%). The ratio of time spent between the easy stuff and the hard stuff shouldn't change, at least not just based on a square footage change.

Re: The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector

#120

Post by SideQuark »

thereddaikon wrote: post #98
nxm wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But people still want and yell for “affordable housing”. Can’t have your cake and eat it too

Affordable housing has little to do with the cost of building the house.

So the cost of a house doesn't factor into affordable housing? Care to explain?
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