I wonder how Chinese compare, I bet they doubled.
The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector
71–80 of 426 posts
Re: The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector
#72Wonder how much of it is related to contractors underbidding to win a contract and then saying they need more money which slows everything down. Or just throwing a bid out without really doing the due diligence required to understand what needs to be done. For example the New York tunnel project that's billions over cost and years behind. I see this every time I hire a contractor to do work on my house, every experience is terrible and over cost and behind schedule.
Currently looking to raise a sunken living room due to flood risk. I have a room that is connected to the sunken living room that is raised currently via a wooded frame. The dry wall is open so its clearly visible. There is clearly open space under the floor lift. Guy gives me a quote, I was very clear when I met him that I needed under the side room filled as well and that the goal was to prevent water seeping in due to the floor being lower than ground level. I have him come out again because I am ready to hire him but want one more walk through. I ask what the risk or complication is pouring concrete under the raised side room and the existing floor lift system. He acts surprised and says it was not part of the quote. I ask the complexity of pouring the concrete behind the fireplace because there is a gap behind it and the wall. He acts surprised and says its not included. All of this was clearly visible when he came out the first time and the stated goal was to raise the floor to prevent water seepage due to height discrepancy inside and outside. He says he would have to demo the giant fireplace...
My prior experience I had a contractor that I was working with who kept telling me that the crew was at the house working and I had to call and tell him over and over that no one was there. For months...
They do this nonsense every single time, they submit a BS quote just to get the job figuring once they are in they can just charge whatever and figure it out. I have yet to meet an honest or competent contractor.
Re: The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector
#73Safety is our number one priority. Not efficiency.
Feel-good rallying cries like this make for cheap virtue points but are completely meaningless in a reality where pretty much nothing is a binary choice with a low number of variables.
For example, it's easy to sit in an air-conditioned office and say "thou shalt not overload the trucks" but when you actually drag your ass to somewhere you can observe the conditions in which the per-load work is being done it becomes clear that much analysis must be done to figure out if more trucks at 80k is in fact safer than fewer trucks at 120k.
Re: The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector
#74Earlier 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.
Yeah those lazy builders need to stop working from home and put on a damn tie!
Re: The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector
#75> number of houses or total square footage built per employee Average house size has probably doubled in the last 50 years. Nail guns can't make up for building code and higher finish work demands. It's not uncommon to see 6 or 7 layers in sheathing today.
Isn’t the real headline then that building construction technology hasn’t improved at the same rate as other manufacturing tech? For example, cars today are orders of magnitude more complicated than 50 years ago, but due to more efficient manufacturing technology, the auto industry has far higher productivity per employee than it did 50 years ago.
Building construction technology _has_ improved, but, particularly for residential stuff, people do not care for some of the improvements. You could build Soviet-style modular apartments, but, well, no-one really wants that.
Re: The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector
#76Earlier 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…
PEX is great. I highly recommend keeping some shark bites and spare pieces of PEX around, as it's easy to do repairs on your own if you have an issue.
From what I understand, while it is up to code, pro's don't put sharkbites in walls.
I've gone with ss crimps instead of copper rings too. Mostly cause I live near the ocean and the ss crimps just seem easier to use.
200' of blue/red sharkbite brand pex b tubing is only about $70 on amazon right now, amazing.
Re: The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector
#77I wonder, how injuries and death on construction sites have changed at this period.
Re: The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
However many modern homes use inferior material for the job comparing to the older homes in the same area. Probably to cut cost. I'm not sure if it was also the case for older homes built in the 50s/60s though.
Can you give an example of inferior material?
Once a contractor told me my apartment building, which was built in 1939, has very good load bearing walls that "they don't do nowadays". I do think that it could be more of "nowadays we can use lighter material to do the same job" angle.
I also vosited quite a few apartments where they used thinner material and sound proofing is not exactly great.
Re: The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you give an example of inferior material?
I can: - Vinyl windows compared to old growth wood windows from 100 years ago. - Vinyl siding compared to cedar shakes. - Extremely poor wood quality in the lower end 2x4 and 2x6 lumber. - Sheathing that's essentially cardboard in really cheap builds. - Flooring is sad today in cheap to moderate homes. Thing is there were really badly built homes 100 years ago and they just aren't standing any longer. We do get a but…
Note that there's some selection bias to those 100 year old windows. The houses built cheaply a century ago aren't around anymore.
Re: The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector
#80> number of houses or total square footage built per employee Average house size has probably doubled in the last 50 years. Nail guns can't make up for building code and higher finish work demands. It's not uncommon to see 6 or 7 layers in sheathing today.
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…
Those glue on walls seemed to be priced at “we know how much tiling costs”. £36m2 (cheapest I could find on a site similar to Home Depot) for some composite plastic seems crazy. They have some double that price too.