Guides & How-To Articles
The questions that matter most on a project are rarely about the building. They are about who to hire, what a bid means, what to have ready and what to do when the schedule slips. These articles answer them the way we answer them on site.
Keeping change orders off a commercial project: an owner's playbook
The demolition crew opened a ceiling in a former restaurant and found a grease duct nobody had drawn, running the length of a space that was supposed to be a d…
Read the article →Production interiors: finishing units at scale for builders
Walk a production community the week the first block of units is ready for finishes and there is nothing dramatic to see: taped drywall, empty rooms, a stack o…
Read the article →Whole-house remodels: from your drawings to move-in day
The kitchen wall came down on a Tuesday, and by Wednesday afternoon the family was standing in what used to be two rooms deciding whether the island should mov…
Read the article →Certificate of occupancy: what stands between you and opening
The ribbon is ordered, the staff is hired, the furniture is in the lobby, and the doors stay locked. We have seen that week on other people's jobs. The buildin…
Read the article →The bid packet: what to gather before asking for a number
About half the bid requests that reach our desk are a single paragraph and an address. We price them anyway, but we price them with assumptions, and every assu…
Read the article →What to check in a commercial space before you sign the lease
We walked a second-generation restaurant space with a broker last spring, and the marketing flyer called the kitchen “ready to go.” The hood was there. It was…
Read the article →The pre-construction checklist to run before demolition day
We keep a habit before any job starts. We sit with the owner and ask one question first: what day does this building need to open? Everything else in pre-const…
Read the article →Open ceiling or drop ceiling: how to choose for a build-out
A tenant walked a raw shell space with us last spring and pointed straight up at the deck. The bar joists were still bare, and she wanted to know whether she c…
Read the article →Design-build or design-bid-build: picking the right path
The difference between the two delivery methods shows up on a Tuesday afternoon when the framer finds a duct that will not fit above the ceiling. Under one met…
Read the article →Picking a general contractor in Houston: what to ask first
The proposal in your inbox gives you a number and a start date. It does not tell you who will be standing in the parking lot at six in the morning when the con…
Read the article →Reading a commercial construction bid line by line
Lay three bids side by side and the eye goes straight to the totals. We have sat on the owner's side of that table, and the totals are the least useful thing o…
Read the article →Keeping a commercial build on the date: what actually works
The schedule that gets printed at kickoff and pinned to the trailer wall is not the schedule that opens the building. The one that opens the building is the th…
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