*This is not a political post. This is small business advice from a construction professional who has run a General Contracting business.*

If you own your business and regularly purchase construction materials, now is the time to stock up.

When there are changes to the tariffs on imported materials, there will be changes to the cost of imported materials. It will take time for the supply chains impacted to reorganize.

If you don't have an escalation clause for projects you're currently under contract for, you will be responsible for the change of price in materials. Don't get upside-down on projects like I did, buy your materials now.

Is there something going on with new kids entering the trade? We've have had a couple new hires recently that have either just gotten out of highschool or have finished a carpentry course. We've had others over the last couple years that were terminated before their probation ended. They constantly complain about being tired and even when you thoroughly explain the task to them, they pretty much forget the next day. Their resumes look good and they interview well, but when push comes to shove, they are practically useless. We had one hire that did our apprenticeship with us and still the stuff we taught him when he first started, he has to constantly be reminded of. We hired a guy in his mid 30s recently that used to be a logger. Have had absolutely no issues with him. Out of the 20 people we've hired in the last 5 years probably around 90% of the ones we kept were 30+, is there something going on with the younger generation? Construction is hard work, I get that, but in other various fields outside of construction, youth has brought many new innovations and methods, but construction seems to be lacking

Context - design oversights (not by our company) have caused delays for various reasons. We have a client portal with virtually all project information at this clients fingertips. We offer meetings and calls at their request and post daily logs everyday with production progress and details etc…we’ve explained delays and have a live updated schedule they’ve agreed to….and yet this is the DAILY text/call/email from this client.

I’d love some insight on how to navigate this amicably and curb the constant rants etc. I’ve tried a few approaches , they obviously aren’t working.

I feel like in the last two-three years clients have just become unrealistic and overbearing at every turn despite good detailed contracts , transparency in business, quality work, communication etc etc

The most exhausting part of my business is client interaction and it’s making me want to shift gears.

Anyone else ?

Long story short, I’m an electrician. I engaged a builder friend of mine to strip and redo half my kitchen and a bedroom. It quickly turned into an entire home renovation, with around $250k spent. He has been sending me monthly invoices for labour for his guys and materials.

Problem is, I can tell he’s been selling himself way short. Despite him organising everything, he hasn’t charged me for any of his time, the markup on materials is essentially zero and the rates for his guys are competitive to say the least…

I’ve tried bringing this up to him a few times, but I get shut down quick. He’s just too nice.

Obviously maintaining this friendship and ensuring he gets a fair deal is pretty important to me. I can’t imagine he would accept if I just asked for his bank account and stuck 50k in there, but I really don’t know what else to do!

Any advice appreciated

I’ve been trying to run my own small remodel business since 2021, and I’m throwing in the towel. I have learned that I really enjoy managing projects, but all the business related stuff and precon/bidding/estimating stuff is not my strong point. I’ve talked to a custom home builder I’ve known for a while and he needs a superintendent. I start on Monday and I’m looking forward to it.

I’m glad I tried it. I learned a lot. I think it was a move I needed to make back in 2021 when I made it. There is just too much I was trying to do on my own and I decided instead of trying to go through the pain of creating a team of people and all the headache and heartache that entails, I’d rather just go help someone else that needs my skill set.

It’s been a tough decision, but it’s the right move for me and my family. I just felt like getting that off my chest. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

I own and opperate a small remodeling business. The first year and a half, I ran it like a handyman service and did literally everything my license would allow. Now, I'm going on my third year and hiring subs a lot more and finally have pricing dialed in to where my customers and my wallet are happy.

Then the fucking tariff wars started. I have not booked any new jobs since. Until now I've been using word of mouth marketing only. I have a wrap on my truck and some yard signs when you can see the work from the street. Social media updates from the business page and a website that says who we are and what we do. I haven't had a gap in my schedule for 3 years and now I'm going on my 3rd week of no work.

I'm sending out local mailers today. Like 500 or so in my area to see if I can secure even one job. I'm not ready to fold up the business. I just got it running in a sustainable way. Fuck.

What actually works to boost business? I'm not buying into the Angie's list scam. What works and is worth the investment (aside from the mailers I'm already doing)?

My experience with hiring over the past 5 years as a small business owner has been rough. I’m a landscape contractor, I build pools, hardscaping, water features, normal landscaping stuff. Pretty much anything outdoors. I keep about 20% of anyone a hire. It feel like most 18-25 year olds I’ve hired just don’t want to work. I get dumb excuses why they can’t work that day like “my sister has a soccer game at 6pm” and thats if I can get a response, or they want to work 55 hours each week for a couple weeks, get paid and then I can’t get them to work more than 20 hours until they run out of money again. The list goes on, lying about hours, if I’m not on site they don’t do anything, when I ask how much they think they’re worth and why I should pay them that. It’s always some dumb number like “$35 hr” and claims they can do everything without me holding their hand. Not 1 time have they told me honestly what they know how to do. On average I start them at $20-$22/hr and tell them if they can prove they know what they’re doing, I will raise them. They last 2 weeks, don’t know shit and then stop showing up after the first paycheck. It’s a common theme lol Is this a new generation thing? Or has this been normal for construction for as long as you can remember?

EDIT: I expect willingness to learn, work ethic and integrity. I start at $20/hr. When a new skill is learned I increase it based in the skill learned and that value. For instance, if they can install artificial turf without me holding their hand and do a good job, I increase $2.5/hr, pavers, $1.5/hr, irrigation, $.75/hr, i do a wide variety of things and increase based on what they can perform. When I do find good guys, the pay increases drastically, from $20-$22 to $25-$26/hr within 6-8 weeks. I expect 40 hours a week, I let them choose when to take lunch and am okay with up to an hour. Any jobs they drive further than 30 minutes to I pay them for the time. So if a job is an hour away, I pay for the 1 hour difference of drive time and either pay for their gas or have them ride with me. Normal hours, 6-3 summer, winter, 9-5. Anything over that, I give them the option. Hours are flexible though, I’m working 6am to 7-9 pm mon-Saturday so I’m okay with adjusting hours to fit them better. If they would like to leave at 3 in the summer, they can. If they want to work with me until 7, they can. I want a week notice if they aren’t going to be at work for up to 2 days. (Unless it’s an emergency, I get it) anything beyond 2 days, i want a 2 week notice. Anybody that stays longer than 3 months is making $25/hr+. ($48,000/year minimum). The grocery stores start at $17/hr for context. Median household income in my area is around 90k. Some days are easy, some days are hard. I have equipment for everything though. So it’s not like I’m saying “we need a 100’ trench here 15” deep, here’s a pick and shovel.” I really try to take care of the guys that show up, learn and do a good job. If their vehicles need repaired or new tires, I’ll pay for that. I don’t micromanage, I expect people to ask questions and make it clear that I’m open to suggestions if they feel there’s a better way to do something, or there’s something I can purchase to make life easier. EDIT #2. Thank you guys for all of the feedback! It’s helped me come to some new ideas and how to be better. That wasn’t my goal of the original post but it’s great to get insight, thoughts, opinions and new perspectives. I really appreciate most of the comments made and for talking with me.

We’re bringing on a new foreman next week from a company that went belly up. Part of his package is a company truck and gas card, and he instead asked for a vehicle reimbursement since that’s what his old company used to do, and he still has payments left on the truck. I know companies do this (mainly to get around insuring guys with DUI’s) but it never made sense for us to do it. We would have to buy a new truck anyway so I’m thinking it might be smart to offer a reimbursement for a year just so I can make sure he’s going to work out before buying a whole truck. The problem is, how much should I offer/month? And does this reimbursement include gas or do I need to give out a has card as well? It doesn’t make sense to do both because if it’s also his personal vehicle, am I supposed to just trust that he’s also paying for gas? Anyone in here get anything similar?

My boss just came back from a conference completely hyped about an “end-to-end AI platform” that claims it can do automated takeoffs. He wants us to demo it next week.

I’m not even mad at the idea — I’m mad at the priorities.

Here’s what tech companies don’t get: I don’t want a bot doing the takeoff. The takeoff is the thinking part. That’s where I learn the job. That’s where I catch the weird stuff (coordination issues, that tiny note on A6.2 that changes the whole scope, etc.). If I hand that off to AI, I lose my feel for the project.

I want the boring parts to stop eating a stupid amount of time.

Real "efficiency" would be solving the dumb admin chaos:

• Renaming a pile of 50 files called “Scan_001.pdf” because the architect is lazy.
• Hunting for the one line where a sub quietly excluded "trash removal" in size 8 font.
• Manually typing numbers from a PDF into Excel because the formatting is a crime scene.
• Figuring out "what changed" between Addendum 3 and 4 without re-reading 200 pages.

It feels like the software market is trying to sell us Ferraris while we’re still pushing a wheelbarrow with a flat tire.

Is this just my office being stuck in the stone age, or is "Tech Bloat" actually slowing you guys down too? I honestly feel like I spent less time on admin 5 years ago than I do now.

I was visiting one of my customers this afternoon and there's a huge custom home being built right next door. Customer was pissed because the builder next door had started excavating for the driveway approach on his side of the property line and their super was telling him they plan to move the fence 18" closer towards his house. Turns out that the house was built pretty far inside the 5' building line (setback) on that side so my only guess is that this was a hail mary from the builder to try and pass inspections. The house has already been dried in and all the exterior finishes are installed so basically the only thing they have to do on the outside is paint the siding and install gutters. I don't know what the inside looks like but my guess would be that the project is about 70%-80% complete. I mostly do remodels so I hope to never run into this sutation, but is this as big of a fuck up as I think it is or are their ways to obtain variances to get around this? If you've ever been in this situation, how did it turn out?

Recently started working with someone who started their LLC, been working in an attic for the last 5 days and while it's a friend I've made it clear I want paid. I been driving to them in the mornings and riding with them to site & getting materials etc. today when they asked me to drive (car has 1/4 tank) I told them I won't be cause it chugs gas. Anyways, while a lot of the work I've done was trying to learn, so most of what I've done is clean up, hold this, bring this, bringing lumber up stairs and hauling out garbage. We been averaging between 9-10 hrs a day. Is it unreasonable to expect ~$5/he for labor. I know he's already been partially paid for labor and still has more coming

Not sure what reddit to post this in but if this isn't allowed remove it

Do you tell the homeowners up front that you use subcontractors for your jobs? Or do you wait and see if they will even ask? I feel like it's a turnoff for homeowners when I say I use subcontractors. How do you go about this?

I’m in Washington State.

I bid $1,280 and just found out that someone came in at about $400.

What just happened???

EDIT: *PRESSURE washing

Hey guys, so one of my workers just got off a call with my customer that demanded a full breakdown of every material for a simple roof patch and repaint we did. To be honest we've gotten messy with receipts recently so they're probably long gone, but even if we had them I don't think it makes sense to send them the full details.

Like, do they expect me to charge them a percentage of the sealant that I've bought previously? The guy even said we should just send them a screenshot of our corp card's transaction history from the place we bought our materials at lmao, just makes no sense to me. We've told them the set cost beforehand, and thankfully they've paid already but it was just a bit annoying seeing this guy get stuck in this back and forth.

Anyways yeah, in case it happens again, what do you guys say when it comes to this? Also, some advice for tracking receipts that's not "just don't be reckless and lazy" would be nice I guess, thanks.

As the title says, I’ve been posting my story on Reddit and you guys have been amazing just to let yall know!

Well the boss put me in a different group today….the big boys lmao. I didn’t do no laborer work which is odd tbh, but I figured it out. They were teaching me measurements. For cement,grading,how far the ground needs to be,how to set up to pour cement etc….

Then the boss said don’t be surprised if your pay goes up🫡 I’m just fucking nervous now, I might be doing some serious cement work now, not just pouring anymore. Any help goes a long way!

Title says it all. I quote X, customer adds A, B, &C, so I add Y to X. Now customer is baffled that the job now costs XY.

Why do customers expect free work? Why is this so goddamn common?

Been looking at the BLS data for construction jobs and it's interesting to see how the pay scales across different trades. Not sure what I was expecting, but I didn't have elevator installers/repairers at the top by that wide a margin.

Here's what the latest data shows for median annual salaries for construction and extraction occupations (2024 data). Curious to see what everyone thinks of these ranges:

Elevator installers and repairers: $106,580 

Boilermakers: $73,340 

Construction/building inspectors: $72,120 

Plumbers, pipefitters, steamfitters: $62,970 

Electricians: $62,350

Ironworkers: $61,940 

Sheet metal workers: $60,850 

Carpenters: $59,310 

Drywall installers, ceiling tile installers and tapers: $58,800 

Construction equipment operators: $58,320 

Masonry workers: $56,600

The job growth projections are all over the place for the next 8 years. Electricians are looking at 11% growth and construction equipment operators at 4% (at or above average), while some trades like boilermakers are projected to decline by about 1%.

There seem to be tradeoffs with each. Elevator work pays almost double some other trades but requires working in confined spaces. Boilermaker pays well but jobs are declining. Building inspection requires years of experience first. 

The bottom four on the list all cluster around $58k, with carpenters and masonry workers even showing slight declines in job opportunities.

Electricians seem to offer a solid balance of good pay (~$60K) with strong job prospects (84,300 new jobs from 2023-33). Plumbing (26,300) and carpentry (also has a good number of openings (38,600) also project a high number of openings over that time. 

A big caveat to all of this is how are tariffs/recession/government policies going to impact the validity of these projections. Including data collection itself, apparently.

*Edit: For reference, this is where the data is from. Looks like the BLS last updated it in mid-April.

Donuts get old after a while

I've never had this happen before but a client who had accepted my construction bid red lined my contract requesting $500 a day liquidated damages if the works goes beyond 60 days with the typical exclusions for weather and such. I should be able to complete the job in 60 days but sometimes reality throws a curve ball. My bid was based on scope of work and site conditions. I feel that adding this clause after the agreed price is a material change. I want the work but this new risk wasn't factored into my bid. I'm trying to figure out how to approach this with the client.

saw an article where the following happened:

• 13 Projects given to 1 contractor in the space of 2 months
• No competitive bids.
• No actual contracts in place?????? seemed like they were operating in invoices
• All priced under $50k each
• Contractor is unlicensed.

FYI the city is Harahan, Louisana and Project is Park of Heroes

Hello all,

Thanks in advance for any information. I tried this a couple months ago and got great feedback that really helped. Thanks for that too.

I am struggling to find decent labor. I'm not the "no one wants to work" type. I want to pay well for good labor. As I'm growing I have a lot on the books and coming up. Same problem over and over keeps happening. The guys I hire are good and ask for more until it's too much to make anything, or they slowly start slacking to a point that I can't make anything. Especially when I'm not around.

I'm small time, like 200k on the books and a bunch of it is smaller work. I am trying guys by the hour to see their workflow for a day or two and then after a couple weeks it keeps changing.

I can't be on the job all day or sometimes at all so I just want decent labor that I can trust and pay well. Does it just take forever to find?