how long to lockup?
a 41 day construction chronicle.
Production not rushin’. We’ve pushed the limit of that precarious balance, and come to a major milestone, the lockup (dry-in, or whatever it is called). This is puppet mastery of sequenced dominos, all poised and ready to collapse, but toppled over when and how I wish them to fall. A job site can be run at a pace of tremendous productivity and progress with high touch supervision and behind the scenes organization, and leaning heavily on subcontractor relationships. The following is a slideshow of construction logistical excellence, with some enlightening commentary.
day 1 - the marathon kicks off with a concrete miracle. Footing forms are set in the morning, concrete was pre-ordered for that afternoon by the cribber in advance of the crew showing up to work at 8 am. This is how they make up time.
day 2 - forms are set in the morning and by late afternoon the crane and 4 loaded concrete trucks arrive. Once again he’s ordered thousands of dollars of concrete for delivery before the crew has even arrived to set the first form. not many among us have what it takes to do this without creating a major fiasco. This crew has normalized a basement miracle. I have no relationship with a ready mix company that would allow this type of dispatch control over the crane and delivery team. I doubt this large international company would even take my call to guarantee delivery before the formwork is inspected.
day 3 - forms are stripped and back on the trailer. I have ordered multiple next stages of work, all orchestrated in a ‘just in time’ sequence, where some stages will conflict for access, or space, if any work is out of sequence or late. more good luck is to follow and I need it.
day 6 - weeping tile, foundation coat, gravel sling. this is all done in advance of a stage inspection, pre backfill. I have pre ordered the inspection and issued inspector photos such that he ‘may not’ need to visit the site. This cuts time, I have already booked the machine and crew to backfill. I need to pass inspection.
day 6 - first lumber delivery is on site, I have a couple crews ready to work and I need the slinger and lumber truck to cooperate, and not block each other. we need this package of material to send a photo to the framer so he knows he can start. Framer is suspicious of builders that don’t send him up to date site photos proving site is ready. He would be very unhappy if his hourly paid crew show up to an empty site.
day 7 - I have a new landscape construction crew, highly recommended from a builder friend. We need to get the window wells on before we backfill. they show up and deliver in a half day and we are one step closer to backfill.
day 8 - framers are on site to joist the main floor. This is super awkward as they are working on a 8 inch wide 9 foot wall surrounded by a gaping dry moat. The structure is needed to brace the top of wall as the concrete is only a few days old and cannot bear the weight of wet fill (has been raining constantly), with more rain to come.
day 9 - window wells and framing of main floor are complete and we desperately need dirt and equipment to fill in the walls. the old fence on the site is starting to collapse into my excavation. It is my fence now, over 20 years old, and built entirely a foot into the property from where it should have been. It is a huge hassle to deal with and likely I should have torn it down. backfill will be extremely difficult with this fence up as we have 36 inches of space instead of a full 48 inch side yard. The bucket on the smallest machine is 36 inches.
day 10 - with backfill underway we have a huge lumber order - it is a Friday and the framers need to see this material so they can commit to start Monday morning. the order shows up early and is in the way. it just rained heavily and the dirt is heavy and saturated. The wheeled machines are struggling and they have to get a larger tracked machine to get any dirt moved. The backfill takes over a day longer than planned.
day 14 - First walls are up, a huge relief to be out of the ground for the builder after all the planning, permitting, excavation, and demolition work. Rain is still coming and the yard is saturated and muddy, but at least we backfilled. Framing work is moving along well now that backfill is done.
day 16 - Plumber is in to set the basement drainage network and inspection is called. We meed to ensure a safe site for access to the basement for the plumber and inspector, we have temporary stairs and safety rails installed. The inspection passes, and we have booked more work. We need the slab poured before the framers move on, if they see the slab complete they will stick around and frame the frost walls.
day 17 - more rain, more material is delivered.
day 20 - stairs are delivered. A couple days earlier the stair company owner stopped by to measure and set production details. a quick stair delivery helps with safe access up and down for all the framing and work to come.
day 21 - framers install stairs, no more ladder needed to get up. the framers are inclined to only install the stairs when it suits their schedule - and it does today. They want to start the roof.
day 22 - trusses are delivered. The delivery truck barely makes it down the narrow lane. The framers machine is there to lift them off which is a huge factor in a successful delivery. They assemble trusses on the ground as the rest of the crew finishes the walls upstairs.
day 22 - a bunch of roof work is completed by the end of the day. We are into this project 3 weeks from an open excavation and the roof is being installed. It would take me more than 3 weeks to build a doghouse by myself. This is the power of these specialized crews that are so fast and good at their trade.
day 32 - less photos taken as I leave for a vacation. I have set up a bunch of work in motion, the basement slab is prepared with gravel, styrofoam and rebar, and the hydronic work is finished, inspected, and the slab is poured over a 4 day period. The framers are back and working on the roof and the basement development. They run out of material and we head to the yard with a small trailer and get another hundred studs. Typical. The screw pile crew shows up and installs all the deck piles, we ordered a deck structure package and it is installed with the porch roof.
day 38 - window company delivers earlier than expected. I had not ordered the package soon enough as it wasn’t predictable that we’d be ready in 5 weeks. They shrink the production schedule and the framers are coming back to install. We’ve been continuously feeding the framers the materials just in advance of them needing it and we have been rewarded with constant attention and few delays. They are obviously choosing to finish here for me rather than run off to another site.
day 41 - roofer has done much of the roof shingles, windows and doors going in. We declare lockup on day 41. This has been exhausting for the builder and feels like a couple months of constant issues and challenges compressed into 6 weeks.
The takeaway here is for these larger homes, built in cities with productive trades, modular construction isn’t needed. The modular companies advertise that clients can ‘work on their foundation while the factory prepares the modules for delivery’. Well, our basement took 48 hours to pour. It would have taken months to negotiate a build with a factory. Our homes don’t fit on trucks or down city streets, they are optimized for the land size we have, in this case 33 ft, of which 25 ft is our typical width. We don’t pay for the factory overhead, delivery, craning, or profit needed to run their factory. Time is not our largest cost when we can get to lockup in 41 days. If our holding cost is 200$ per day on average, we’ve spent $8200 on time, and $200k on the house. I am sure the $200k spent on the house would be more like $300k to get the same work done by a factory. We can check back on this project as it proceeds to its next milestone, hanging drywall. In the past my best ever timeline was 72 days footing to drywall. I don’t see us matching that pace, but it won’t be far off.