Construction Cost 2021-A

California Market - Construction Estimates

Blog Series
CONSTRUCTION COSTS
​​Article 01

INFLATION &
​SUPPLY LINES

Construction Inflation 2021 Briefing
In this series we will talk about what you can do to have a successful project within budget.

TRUPLANS INC
Orange, California
 
Chris Doering - CEO Briefing
  As the founder of Truplans Inc I have worked in and around the residential construction market for eighteen years. During all of these years I have worked in three main areas;

1. Construction design & planning (both architectural and structural)
2. Construction estimating (small remodels to million dollar rebuilds)
3. Construction management systems

 
Being engaged in these three areas has given me a pretty good bird’s eye view of our industry mainly in the Southern, California market.

  As an expert estimator for several brands I could provide a fairly long list of tips, do’s and don’ts when securing construction estimates. This is NOT my focus in this blog series. Today, the real looming challenges facing every general contractor are the following;

1. Inflation
2. Supply Line Issues

 
This blog series will address both inflation and supply line issues.
 
The Big Question
How much is my project going to cost when the plans are ready?
  The second half of 2021 is proving to be a real challenge for contractors and homeowners alike. Prices keep going up for every category of construction. We will attempt to tackle this question over the next few days in this series of articles in this blog. 

Some Recent Issues Industry Wide

Insulation
Some projects are stalled waiting for insulation materials to arrive. On top of this the prices for materials have been increasing every two weeks.

Windows
Windows used to take 1-3 weeks to deliver. That changed in 2021. Some manufacturers like Milgard started taking 3 months from the date of order. The current delivery time for windows today has increased to approximately 4 months. This is a supply line issue that affects construction efficiency and profitability.

Warning: General contractors strive to give you a good price because they want to be competitive. As the economy changes rapidly contactors might be giving construction quotes based on old pricing information. This could easily put dozens of contractors out of business as they unknowingly misquote your project.

This is NOT good! You might think you are getting a good price, but if the contractor cannot finish your project for the price quoted both the homeowner and the contractor lose. See example in upcoming blog this week.

Upcoming Blog Series Articles:

• Under Priced - Pay For it Twice
• Solutions: Scaling Back To Essential Space
• Force Majeure Clauses
• Contingency Amounts
• Hitting The Moving Target (How to estimate with erratic price changes and inflation)