Used to hand-wave the schedule on small jobs until a drywall crew showed up two weeks early

Back maybe 3 years ago, I figured residential additions were small enough to keep the timeline in my head. Nothing formal, just a rough week-by-week plan. Then a client pushed to start framing early (they wanted to save money, you know how that goes) and I didn't adjust the sub schedule. Drywall guys pulled up to a house with no walls up yet. Two invoices for waiting time later, that was about $600 down the drain. Now I run every job through a free Gantt chart template I found online. Anyone else learn this the hard way with a specific trade?

2 comments

2 Comments

webb.stella4d ago

Nah, not quite right to say they showed up two weeks early i think. More like you just didn't tell them the actual date so they showed up when they thought was the plan. $600 for waiting time is rough though, that stings. I've seen subs just straight up ghost you if you mess with their schedule too much, so that's almost a win compared to that. A free Gantt chart is good but honestly just a shared google calendar works for small jobs too. Keeping it simple stops stuff like this from happening again.

diana554d ago

Did anyone catch if the subs even confirmed the date back to the homeowner before they showed up? That's the real issue here, nobody took five seconds to verify plans.