Newsletter April 2015
It’s been a while
I haven’t sent out a newsletter since April 18, 2018, and a lot has happened. In the last year or so Deb Mumper did retire and G.L. Perry did move its offices. Both were scary big moves but we have been able to replace Deb with Susie Bryant and we successfully moved to our new location at 829 Coleman in San Jose as of last December.
The reality is life has been so crazy and work has been so busy I haven’t taken the time to reach out. When work is slow businesses often reach out to former clients and contacts to increase business. When times are busy we have a tendency to get a little lazy.
Many people think I have already retired and in some ways this is true. The fact is I have been gifted by having so many people who I have worked with over the years. This has enabled me to step back and work 10-15 hrs. a week vs. 50 plus for so many years. So in a lot of ways for me it’s not really work anymore. I let others run the day to day business and worry at night about job details, employees, and the ever changing landscape of construction.
By continuing to work some, I feel like I’m making it possible for the people who have been so faithful to me and to each other to still work at the same place with the same people and for the same clients.
As for the future, we are trying to get younger, so down the road expect a new wave of management to take over as others approach retirement. In the meantime we are still able to offer great service and use proven systems to benefit our past, current, and future clients. Thanks to all of you I have had a great run and plan to continue to keep tabs on the business.
Building is painful
I want to share an experience I had earlier this year with the San Jose Building Dept. I am not trying to single them out but they are definitely the current example of a mess.
I sent a letter to the building department and our local council member. And surprisingly and almost embarrassingly they had a meeting with me and three top people in the dept. I not only sent a complaint I included a couple of possible solutions. They spent precious time, acted concerned and talked about trying to find a solution.
Here was my concern. When contractors schedule an inspection the city wants to know how long to allow because a permit only allots so much time to inspect a job or they charge more. I asked them how are we supposed to know how competent or quick your inspectors are going to be. And worse we have our office people schedule the appointments so how are they supposed to know how long the inspection will take?
We all couldn’t help but laugh because they said we are calling the department secretaries, who also have little or no clue how long an inspection could last. Also I explained that when I bid a project I often have to take the risk on price no matter which carpenter I have available and some are definitely faster and better. The second laugh came when they told me they also have the same problem with some inspectors who are less talented than others. It’s a problem and they are about 15 inspectors short of what they would like to have.
Lastly I pointed out how inefficient it is for them to send an inspector driving to and from a project twice because they didn’t have an extra 15 minutes scheduled to complete the job. It just doesn’t look good for anyone and then as a contractor we have to go to our owner and explain why their job is not progressing until we can get another inspection.
I suppose they weren’t lying about their manpower, because now the current lead time for an inspection has grown to 4 weeks. To exacerbate things even further, contractors are scheduling multiple inspections way ahead of time hoping to be ready, but in reality just blocking times. That’s insane! It should be 1-2 days at most to schedule an inspection and here’s why. For example let’s say we get a frame inspection and pass it, normally we do the insulation the next day, then get it inspected the next day so we can start the drywall. Or get the shower water proofing inspected so we can start the tile the next day. These delays mean projects can lose weeks and that’s counting on passing all the inspections. Now imagine you’re a homeowner renting a house in this area and your project will now take a month or two longer because the city can’t get there to inspect. Do you even get a permit? Or maybe even be willing to pay a little more for a permit. Nobody is a winner here so maybe it’s time to write them another letter.
On a roll
While I’m ripping the city of San Jose I might as well complete the job. An ADU is an Accessory Dwelling Unit that is now being allowed in many areas they were not previously. So in this valley, with our housing issues, the city has had public meetings and “tried” to encourage this type of housing.
Herein lays a couple of problems. Currently a permit will cost $15-$20,000 dollars. We have had homeowners still plow ahead even with this knowledge. The caveat is when the fire department gets involved because new buildings by code now need to be sprinkled. Most of the main houses don’t even have sprinklers but that doesn’t matter. The problem is many areas do not have the volume of water and or water pressure available and that means cutting into the streets for a larger service which probably tacks on another $15-$20,000. So people are out $30-$40,000 before we even break ground.
And here is one more area I wonder about but to be honest I don’t know the facts. New construction now requires power for car chargers. But, in several of the jobs we have bid and done there isn’t enough power and the power companies have to upgrade transformers etc. Sometimes costing the owner as much as $20,000. And I probably don’t need to tell you how long it takes PG&E to actually get the work done.
Where is the power going to come from when every house meets these new codes? Of course this is where my wife reminds me that solar panels are part of the answer.
It is probably too late unless you’re already in the process but there are rumblings that January 2020 is going to bring a new batch of code upgrades. We have had a couple clients trying to get their plans submitted before the end of the year. I’m not sure what these new changes will be but I know they mean construction costs will be going up.
Anyway, hopefully if I don’t put the next newsletter off too long, I will have less to rant about and provide more help and advice in the next newsletter.
Thanks,
Jerry
I haven’t sent out a newsletter since April 18, 2018, and a lot has happened. In the last year or so Deb Mumper did retire and G.L. Perry did move its offices. Both were scary big moves but we have been able to replace Deb with Susie Bryant and we successfully moved to our new location at 829 Coleman in San Jose as of last December.
The reality is life has been so crazy and work has been so busy I haven’t taken the time to reach out. When work is slow businesses often reach out to former clients and contacts to increase business. When times are busy we have a tendency to get a little lazy.
Many people think I have already retired and in some ways this is true. The fact is I have been gifted by having so many people who I have worked with over the years. This has enabled me to step back and work 10-15 hrs. a week vs. 50 plus for so many years. So in a lot of ways for me it’s not really work anymore. I let others run the day to day business and worry at night about job details, employees, and the ever changing landscape of construction.
By continuing to work some, I feel like I’m making it possible for the people who have been so faithful to me and to each other to still work at the same place with the same people and for the same clients.
As for the future, we are trying to get younger, so down the road expect a new wave of management to take over as others approach retirement. In the meantime we are still able to offer great service and use proven systems to benefit our past, current, and future clients. Thanks to all of you I have had a great run and plan to continue to keep tabs on the business.
Building is painful
I want to share an experience I had earlier this year with the San Jose Building Dept. I am not trying to single them out but they are definitely the current example of a mess.
I sent a letter to the building department and our local council member. And surprisingly and almost embarrassingly they had a meeting with me and three top people in the dept. I not only sent a complaint I included a couple of possible solutions. They spent precious time, acted concerned and talked about trying to find a solution.
Here was my concern. When contractors schedule an inspection the city wants to know how long to allow because a permit only allots so much time to inspect a job or they charge more. I asked them how are we supposed to know how competent or quick your inspectors are going to be. And worse we have our office people schedule the appointments so how are they supposed to know how long the inspection will take?
We all couldn’t help but laugh because they said we are calling the department secretaries, who also have little or no clue how long an inspection could last. Also I explained that when I bid a project I often have to take the risk on price no matter which carpenter I have available and some are definitely faster and better. The second laugh came when they told me they also have the same problem with some inspectors who are less talented than others. It’s a problem and they are about 15 inspectors short of what they would like to have.
Lastly I pointed out how inefficient it is for them to send an inspector driving to and from a project twice because they didn’t have an extra 15 minutes scheduled to complete the job. It just doesn’t look good for anyone and then as a contractor we have to go to our owner and explain why their job is not progressing until we can get another inspection.
I suppose they weren’t lying about their manpower, because now the current lead time for an inspection has grown to 4 weeks. To exacerbate things even further, contractors are scheduling multiple inspections way ahead of time hoping to be ready, but in reality just blocking times. That’s insane! It should be 1-2 days at most to schedule an inspection and here’s why. For example let’s say we get a frame inspection and pass it, normally we do the insulation the next day, then get it inspected the next day so we can start the drywall. Or get the shower water proofing inspected so we can start the tile the next day. These delays mean projects can lose weeks and that’s counting on passing all the inspections. Now imagine you’re a homeowner renting a house in this area and your project will now take a month or two longer because the city can’t get there to inspect. Do you even get a permit? Or maybe even be willing to pay a little more for a permit. Nobody is a winner here so maybe it’s time to write them another letter.
On a roll
While I’m ripping the city of San Jose I might as well complete the job. An ADU is an Accessory Dwelling Unit that is now being allowed in many areas they were not previously. So in this valley, with our housing issues, the city has had public meetings and “tried” to encourage this type of housing.
Herein lays a couple of problems. Currently a permit will cost $15-$20,000 dollars. We have had homeowners still plow ahead even with this knowledge. The caveat is when the fire department gets involved because new buildings by code now need to be sprinkled. Most of the main houses don’t even have sprinklers but that doesn’t matter. The problem is many areas do not have the volume of water and or water pressure available and that means cutting into the streets for a larger service which probably tacks on another $15-$20,000. So people are out $30-$40,000 before we even break ground.
And here is one more area I wonder about but to be honest I don’t know the facts. New construction now requires power for car chargers. But, in several of the jobs we have bid and done there isn’t enough power and the power companies have to upgrade transformers etc. Sometimes costing the owner as much as $20,000. And I probably don’t need to tell you how long it takes PG&E to actually get the work done.
Where is the power going to come from when every house meets these new codes? Of course this is where my wife reminds me that solar panels are part of the answer.
It is probably too late unless you’re already in the process but there are rumblings that January 2020 is going to bring a new batch of code upgrades. We have had a couple clients trying to get their plans submitted before the end of the year. I’m not sure what these new changes will be but I know they mean construction costs will be going up.
Anyway, hopefully if I don’t put the next newsletter off too long, I will have less to rant about and provide more help and advice in the next newsletter.
Thanks,
Jerry