WTF is wrong with project managers for construction companies?

[TimToad]

After doing this stuff throughout the entire ADA era, I am constantly amazed at how many project managers for even major construction companies don't even think about getting all the required signs until the day before their inspections.

Big or small, local or not, everywhere I've ever worked it is the same.

We have a regular customer who is the one of the biggest and oldest vineyards in the area and they are about to complete a new production facility. They have been working on the building for the last year but forgot all about the restroom signs.

So we get the frantic call on Thursday night about 4:30 that the are getting their final inspections and need one women's rest room sign but its white on dark brown and a standard white on blue of which I have a box of won't work. They were able to re-use a few they took down from the building being replaced.

Of course, by that time on the west coast, all the suppliers are gone for the day and I can only quote prices that are posted online. Client freaks out over cost and says to wait until the next day to speak with someone about availability.

I order the thing on Friday, expedited production and shipping. We put it up yesterday afternoon and the final bill for one 12" acrylic "custom" color ADA women's restroom sign with markup will be over $200.00 including installation which I guess nobody on site could handle centering and applying with the included VHB strips already attached to the sign.

Long and short of it, this sign if ordered in a timely fashion and self-installed should have cost less than half what it did.

 

[CanuckSigns]

We run into this all the time, signage is always the last thing they think about. However I've never had any complain about the cost, they need it or they don't get occupancy, missing that is worth a lot more to them than the cost of the sign!

and given the details you gave, I would have been about $100 more expensive than you!

 

[TimToad]

We run into this all the time, signage is always the last thing they think about. However I've never had any complain about the cost, they need it or they don't get occupancy, missing that is worth a lot more to them than the cost of the sign!

and given the details you gave, I would have been about $100 more expensive than you!

I get all that, it just seems to run contrary to the impression they try to project that they have their acts together.

The invoice from us should be $100 more for all the headaches but they are a good and loyal customer who has spent 10's of thousands over the years with our shop.

 

[J Hill Designs]

I find it odd that they couldn't use a blue/white standard one for inspection, and just swap it out for the correct color combo once manufactured.

but yeah, run into it all the time -- bread and butter - not much is better than a $1450 invoice for a stop sign

 

[CanuckSigns]

I get all that, it just seems to run contrary to the impression they try to project that they have their acts together.

The invoice from us should be $100 more for all the headaches but they are a good and loyal customer who has spent 10's of thousands over the years with our shop.

Construction site project managers are some of the most over stressed people I've ever dealt with, I wouldn't want their job! at any given moment they have 1000 things up in the air, and they all depend on the trades doing what they are supposed to, when they are supposed to, which never happens!

 

[ddarlak]

They wait for the last minute on signs because they will ALWAYS find some signguy to make it happen...

Until they get burned and they bump signs up the list of their 1000 things to do.....

 

[Billct2]

I also don't understand why they couldn't use the one you had in stock to get their CO.

 

[ddubia]

We get this all the time as well. Especially with military contracts. They are very particular regarding what they want without being in any way specific in their drawings or spec sheets. They wait until the last minute and then we have to alert them that there is not enough specifics to quote the job and then have to walk them through the considerations which then, on their end, must pass through various channels to get approval that doesn't come until after several changes. In the end, most of the time is taken up by their indecision which forces us into "hurry-up" mode in order to meet their deadline.

If they're so particular about, say, the colors, then why don't they note the colors in their specs? Why make us jump through hoops to find out what they're thinking?

 

[gabagoo]

For some reason we always get the very last minute requests for some frost on windows for hospitals, and as is said they forget and now it is an urgent rush... You ask for a measurement so you can not only quote it but pre cut and they always always always get the measurement wrong!!!

 

[Gino]

Did ya try spray painting your blue and white ones the correct color brown ?? Touch up the tops/faces with white and tell them to use that until the correct one came in ??

For an inspection, other than wrong color combinations not being strong enough, they general pay little, to no attention to the little inconsistencies. Heights and placements are their real concern.

Well, ya got paid very well and hopefully your good customer learned a valuable lesson. Order signs before tasting the wine for it's floral or woody bouquet and get the job done on time.

 

[TimToad]

I also don't understand why they couldn't use the one you had in stock to get their CO.

All the other ones are the white on dark brown and he didn't want to risk prying a white on blue one off the freshly painted black door. So, the gist of the story is that he can afford rush charges more than he can trust his crews or us for that matter to do something carefully.

 

[GVP]

Ha - funny you should post this. Just before 5pm this afternoon, we had a phone call from a contractors asking if we wanted to bid on signage for a large-ish project. Sure, send the details. Dozens of pdf files, many with 50 or 60 pages to wade through. Oh, and by the way, bids close tomorrow at 2pm ! Yikes!

 

[DougWestwood]

This is a relative problem

This is a relative problem, in that many times,
a RELATIVE is hired to do something which they have never done before.

Someone's brother-in-law, an uncle, a cousin ...... happens all the time.

 

[TimToad]

Did ya try spray painting your blue and white ones the correct color brown ?? Touch up the tops/faces with white and tell them to use that until the correct one came in ??

For an inspection, other than wrong color combinations not being strong enough, they general pay little, to no attention to the little inconsistencies. Heights and placements are their real concern.

Well, ya got paid very well and hopefully your good customer learned a valuable lesson. Order signs before tasting the wine for it's floral or woody bouquet and get the job done on time.

The first thing I did was offer to paint one of the white on blue with the dark brown that night and have it up the next morning by 9am. He turned it down.

Here is the real kicker. My wife handles all the relatively easy installs and brought back the damaged one they were trying to use to pass, and its freakin' white on black. It isn't even dark brown at all. I could have had one of those here the next day for 1/10th of the cost of what he paid.

So now I'm wondering if any of them are white on dark brown and he's just color blind.

 

[Rick]

Most of the projects we deal with have this issue. We try to have
core signage ready for install. One of my clients does work across
the country so it can sometimes be an expensive trip.

What happens usually when my clients get the call is, the installers
are fumbling over carpet, tile, paint and finish crews usually having
to leave signs they couldn't install for the G.C. to do.

Occasionally our clients are installing a single Accessible parking
sign after concrete has been poured. I have a client who stopped
supplying custom parking signs so he wouldn't have to deal with
charging 400 buck installs for one sign. I finally talked him into
supplying them again by having the parking lot contractor install
them.

200 bucks seems a lil low for a fast turnaround door sign if you had
to install. I've been bitten once by a dark door before... I now always
look at the paint schedule and then have the client, contractor or architect
verify. I hate being the guy who holds up a sign-off by missing that minor
detail.

 

[Rick]

I also don't understand why they couldn't use the one you had in stock to get their CO.

The door sign on the restroom is a California only code sign.
For Women, it's a 12" circle, 1/4" thick, and must have some
contrast with the door.

9 times out 10, it's usually a light door, most off the shelf signs
are compliant. Then someone either decides a dark door was in
order, or someone forgets to look at the paint schedule in the
plans and gets busted for a non-contrasting door sign during final
inspection.

 

[GAC05]

They need to update the code.
Now that bathrooms are non gender specific all the doors should be removed and left off for easy access.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[Rick]

They need to update the code.
Now that bathrooms are non gender specific all the doors should be removed and left off for easy access.

wayne k
guam usa

Would be easier than hacking off the goods, I'm not letting
them go without a fight... geez, they're hardly, used!!!
Now they don't mean anything? I want my friggin' door and door sign!!!!

 

[heyskull]

I have worked in the sign trade for 31 years now and always, always the signs (internal or external) are one of the very last things that a business organises.

It never shocks me any more when a customer storms into my shop on a Friday afternoon wanting their shop signed for the grand opening on Monday or even Saturday!!!
Strange how maybe the one item that either promotes they are there and what they are selling or is a compulsory sign gets left to the last second!
The even stranger issue is how they expect a rush job involving either late nights or weekend (my free time) input is going to come at a reduced rate!

This must just be a human thing!

SC