Articles
Materials, selection & how we build
Notes from the field on how we build: project guidance, material comparisons, and the occasional how-to for the trade.
How commercial construction scheduling actually works
Every construction schedule looks reasonable on the day it is issued. What separates a schedule that holds from one that slips is not the software it was built…
Read the article →Gas station and convenience store construction cost per square foot
A gas station and convenience store project spends a disproportionate share of its budget on things a customer never sees: what is underground, what regulates…
Read the article →Office build-out costs in Texas
An office build-out can look like one of the simpler commercial project types on paper, four walls and some finishes inside an existing shell, but the range in…
Read the article →Senior living and assisted living construction
A senior living or assisted living property sits between two building types owners often assume it resembles more closely than it actually does: it is not simp…
Read the article →What to have ready before you request a construction bid
A bid is only as accurate as the information the contractor is bidding from. Send a vague request and you will get a vague number back, one that is likely to c…
Read the article →Site selection checklist for a commercial build
Choosing the wrong site is the one mistake a construction schedule and budget cannot fix later, because everything downstream, permitting, site work, even the…
Read the article →The pre-construction checklist every owner should run
Pre-construction is where a project either gets set up to succeed or quietly picks up the problems that show up later as change orders and schedule slips. Here…
Read the article →Tilt-wall vs steel frame construction: how to choose
Owners planning a warehouse, distribution, or light-industrial building usually land on the same fork in the road early: build the walls as tilt-wall concrete…
Read the article →General contractor vs construction manager: what is the difference
"General contractor" and "construction manager" get used almost interchangeably in casual conversation, and that is a problem, because the two roles carry a di…
Read the article →Design-build vs design-bid-build: which delivery method fits your project
Two owners can build the same size building on the same budget and go through completely different processes to get there, because the delivery method they cho…
Read the article →Retail construction and shopping center build-outs
Retail construction covers a wider range of project types than most people picture, from a single storefront buildout to a full shopping center shell, and shop…
Read the article →Multifamily and apartment construction: what to expect
Multifamily construction covers two different kinds of work that ask different things of a contractor: building the property itself, and keeping it running onc…
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