Tips and Tricks

• Anytime I walk into the job site, I make sure that I have: phone for pictures, note pad, a pen (I use a pen with four color ink to highlight notes), a good tape measure and a laser pointer.
  • Carry a pocket sized note pad and pen and take notes when on the site.  I date each page as I go. If I want to remember to call the drywall contractor and tell them to clean up the scrap board on site, I would write: drywall, clean up or maybe even DW CU.  I’ll see this note later and remember what I have to do. There’s no need to write out a paragraph.  This note pad becomes a log of job notes.  If someone gives you a measurement or a phone number, you can look back a few months and find it.
  • Take lots of pictures!  Your job site will change and having pictures will be a log of what happened and when.  Also, pictures taken before drywall become x-ray vision later on when looing for pipes or wires inside a finished wall.
  • Always be ready with your tape measure for door openings, window sizes and many other things.
  • When talking to tradesmen or tradeswomen, a laser pointer comes in very handy. You can point at a specific beam or duct in the ceiling.
  • Walk every room every time you go to the job site. Even if you know that no work has been done since you last got there. You may fond a surprise.
• If I need to call a subcontractor or supplier, I make a list of everything I need to know or say so I don’t have to call back in 10 minutes with another item. I don’t want to waste their time.

Random construction thoughts

• Before you start the job, you need a plan, a budget and a schedule.
• Before you start the job, plan your mobilization: where you’re going to put the trash, the portable toilet, unload and store materials, lock tools, park the cars, how the workers will come and go, temporary lighting, security gates, cameras, internet.
• When cutting a concrete slab to add footings, make sure it’s not a post tension slab. A post tension slab has wires going edge to edge, each way that have been pulled tight. When cut, they can shoot out of the side of the slab like a bullet and it ruins the strength of the foundation. You may find a stamp in a corner of the slab saying it’s post tensioned. (and you may not, be careful.)
• The roof needs to be supported by the foundation. A simple statement but surprisingly,  sometimes one support gets missed. Look at each end of each beam and joist.  They all needs supporting. Look at each header.  Follow the supporting post down to the floor. Is each post supported below the plywood, down to the concrete, with blocking?
• Get a bunch of shims and drive them into the space between posts and beams. This limits drywall cracks later on.
• Add backing where towel bars, railings and curtain rods will go. Maybe add backing where heavy pictures would go and where a door knob might hit the drywall.
• Wall straightening after the mechanicals go in helps make for better walls. They shim some studs and plane down others. Wood warps and these minor corrections work wonders.   Try to get this in the framers scope of work or hire someone to do it as a separate contract.
• After the heating and cooling vents go in, and before the drywall goes up, I like to paint the inside of the vents black so they wont show up when a grill goes on.  I also like to cover the vents with plastic and tape so dust doesn’t get into the vents during the rest of construction.