The Site Book Cindy Mencavage, partner, Castle Creek Construction, Seattle
The beauty of Cindy Mencavage’s packaging system is that it’s exhaustive while still allowing for additions with little disruption. It’s also easily put together (in five hours or less), although the job schedule, in calendar format, takes time to prepare.
It’s flexibility she sells to clients, and she warns carpenters that changes are something they need to get used to.
Mencavage developed her “site book” during six years in business. She started compiling the book with a small project. It was so effective she now does it for all projects, which, for her, range up to $250,000, for a total of $1 million in volume each year.
“It’s a constant everyday thing with our leads,” she says. “We always ask, ‘Have you looked at the site book today?’”
She and another salesperson sell. Husband Wally runs larger jobs and manages two lead carpenters, whose responsibilities are limited (for instance, they do not include scheduling or calling subcontractors).
Only salespeople have client contact. To avoid “transfer of information” issues, Mencavage is strict about leads not talking with clients about upgrades or “cost-saving” changes.
Her site book, constantly updated, overrides anything in the plans. Site book details are listed in a 15-item roster (see “Castle Creek Construction Site Book Contents,” page 88).
“We try to make sure we don’t put too much selection detail in there, because customers are always changing their minds,” Mencavage says. “And if we put information in there that we think is final and we change it again, it might not register with the field.”
Anytime a site book update takes place, the lead carpenter and salesperson get a copy of the change. This could happen at a weekly client meeting or a client meeting prompted by the change.
“It depends on the client,” Mencavage says. “Some clients need more meetings than others.”
Offering clients selections flexibility actually takes pressure off the schedule, Mencavage says. It makes the client aware that if changes are made, the schedule changes and the client is to blame.
You can’t avoid changes, Mencavage says. “So you embrace it and know it’s going to happen every time. We say fine, change your minds, we don’t care, but you’ll pay for the change. We encourage them to change their minds — after all it’s their house and we want them to be happy.”
But because Mencavage puts variances and allowances into the contract, she doesn’t have many change orders. She notes dollar amounts in a spreadsheet that tracks deductions or additions, which are either refunded or billed at job’s end.
Mencavage says that when she hires carpenters, she tells them about the flexibility clients have and that the job book is somewhat of a moving target.
“If they can’t be flexible, they can’t work for us,” she says.
Castle Creek Construction Site Book Contents
- A map and written directions to site
- Contract scope, with no financials detailed
- Calendars, with construction and homeowner target dates for selections
- Salvage report listing what to keep and where to put it
- Subcontractor list, with contact information and job scope details
- Cut sheet of materials specs; install sheets; product warranties
- Salesperson’s and homeowner’s contact information, with e-mail addresses; 24-hour emergency contact info
- Blank time sheets for workers; completed time sheets
- Plans and elevations
- Client’s homework, including undecided items and decision due dates
- Permit and inspection reports
- Miscellaneous, such as receipts for homeowners
- Change order request forms
- Place for draw checks from homeowner
- Envelope for petty cash for small items needed by lead; receipts for items
The Production File Katie Post, production manager, Sylvestre Construction, Minneapolis
Her 11 years as production manager have served Katie Post well. Her coming on board at Sylvestre was prompted by a realization that when salespeople visited jobs and met with clients, information often was lost before it made it to the field. As a result, at Sylvestre Construction, production is a separate division from sales, which includes design and estimating. Only when a project passes from sales and gets assigned to production does a package get made.
Sylvestre projects run up to $1.2 million, but most jobs fit in the $300,000 range.
Post says the kind of flexibility Mencavage offers clients would never work at her company.
“We don’t sell flexibility,” she says. “Then the guys wouldn’t know what they are doing day to day. And clients who think they can change their minds continually make headaches for everyone.”
Carpenters like to know what they’re doing one to two weeks out, Post says. Her production file includes allowances. Basic specifications are known. Finishes, wood species, and colors are not.
She says her company’s goal is to streamline the estimating and sales process by 50%, because projects take three months to a year to work through that process, due primarily to their client-driven nature.
Post starts developing her package from the 50-page contract and from prints that sales and design hand her. Sylvestre’s sales and design department includes salespeople who design, as well as a draftswoman who handles complicated and structural details. So the prints could come from the salesperson or the draftswoman.
It takes Post and her field supervisor up to two weeks to develop a package for field carpenters and schedule the job.
She opens a six-section file that includes subcontractor agreements, a list of subs who bid the project, materials orders, job cost breakdowns and labor bids, the contract, special notes, blueprints, and permit (if obtained). If details are missing, she checks with sales and design personnel.
A pre-job meeting that includes the salesperson, Post, and the clients resolves initial questions and sets a timeline for product selections from a worksheet.
Another meeting that includes employees only follows the client meeting. Post, her field supervisor, and sales, estimating, and design staff all attend.
The file gets duplicated for the lead carpenter, and Post and her field supervisor keep a copy. The contract supercedes the plans if any question arises.
“We work as a team but have a sales and design division and a production division,” Post says. “We meet regularly, but when a project is assigned to the field, sales and estimating is not involved at all.
“We’ve been fortunate in that we don’t muck up the packaging process.”