Category: <span>Construction</span>

Category: Construction

How women are changing the roofing industry

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Women currently make up nine percent of the construction industry, which is a small percentage when compared with other industries. Construction has always been a male-dominated field. Even fewer women work in the roofing industry specifically; statistics from 2014 reveal that only 0.5 percent of U.S. roofers are female.

However, an increasing number of women are stepping up to the plate and female workers and leaders are making a difference in the industry.

Filling the Labor Void

The construction industry is facing a labor void for a variety of reasons. Prior to 2006, there was a surplus of workers, but the recession eliminated millions of construction jobs. Though our nation and industry have recovered, the general desire to work in construction seems to have diminished. This combined with the baby boomers’ retirement has created a labor void.

Women are an important part of filling this labor void, especially in roofing. Many women can withstand the physical demands of the job as well as men. Others are making waves in business or leadership positions.

The labor void is a serious issue facing the roofing industry. Maintaining an open mind when it comes to hiring more women will help us gain qualified workers and a fresh perspective.

Relating to Female Clients

Unfortunately, one of the stereotypes surrounding the construction industry (and other male-dominated industries such as auto mechanics) is that female customers can get scammed or overcharged because they have little knowledge of the traditionally male industry.

Having female representation in your company can help set prospective female clients at ease. According to Forbes, women now represent 70 to 80 percent of all consumer purchasing power. In some instances, women respond better to female representation when it comes to a new roof or roof repair. It can add a greater relatability factor and help alleviate the fear of being overcharged.

National Women in Roofing

Since it can be hard to get established in such a traditionally male field, National Women in Roofing (NWIR) was established to help support and advance the careers of female roofing professionals.

The nonprofit organization’s four main goals are:

  • Recruiting
  • Networking
  • Education
  • Mentoring

NWIR knows how much women can continue to benefit the roofing industry. It also recognizes how much intentionality and support is needed in this transition. NWIR welcomes both female roofing professionals and male roofing professionals who support the cause.

Note: This article first appeared on Cotney Construction Law’s blog and can be viewed here.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is for general educational information only. This information does not constitute legal advice, is not intended to constitute legal advice, nor should it be relied upon as legal advice for your specific factual pattern or situation.

Five Strategies for Making Construction Companies Better for Women

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BuiltWorlds recently facilitated a Future Workforce Forum meeting exploring the challenges faced by women in construction. The forum participants heard presentations about the personal experiences of women in the industry, while also engaging in a lively discussion about ways companies should respond to the hurdles that women face. The group came up with five concrete solutions for companies to make themselves welcoming to women:

  1. Qualify female colleagues

Numerous studies, such as this one from the American Association of University Women, have shown that women are often viewed as less competent than their male counterparts. One small way to address this issue is to highlight your female colleagues qualifications when you introduce them.

For example, Jamie Redmond, the Director of Operations at Redmond Construction, related that when she’s in a business meeting, one of her peers informs everyone, “this is Jamie, she leads our operations; she’s a great resource for you.”

  1. Amplify women’s ideas

Men often take women’s ideas and claim them as their own (see Dr. Arin Reeves’ study, “Mansplaining, Manterrupting & Bropropriating.”) In order to combat this issue, Redmond emphasized the importance of repeating a woman’s idea and crediting her for the idea ideas. It’s as simple as saying, “as Jamie pointed out, we should really pay more attention to this marketing campaign.”

  1. Ladies — make yourself a seat at the table.

According to the Harvard Business Review, the way women’s colleagues treat them is almost entirely due to bias and has no correlation with women’s actions. However, in hostile environments, women often have no recourse but to develop a thick skin and hold their ground.

Cathy Osborne, the VP of HR at Leopardo admitted that when she started at the company, the male leaders had a difficult time listening to her. “We had cultural issues because they were not used to having women in a leadership role,” Osborne said. “They’d say, ‘Cathy you don’t know construction.’ I’d say, ‘It’s not about construction. It’s about human capital…’ I have a seat at the table and I’m a business partner.”

  1. Put women in positions of power

Women in power empower other women. For example, as a smart, driven woman, Osborne recognizes the importance of recruiting and retaining female employees. Since she started at Leopardo, the company has “been seeing more strong project engineers, project managers, on the female side.” Osborne also makes sure that male superintendents support her project engineers. In large part due to Osborne’s work, Leopardo is now 27 percent female, not including the trades.

Lauren Enders, a Project Manager at Vortex Flooring, observed that having women run the show benefits everyone. “We have our first female partner,” she said. “She’s really good at maintaining a positive environment for our team… the women in our office make shit happen.” This, of course, means that women in power also empower the men around them.

  1. Make work-life balance a company priority

Women with children often hesitate to take on leadership roles in the field because of the large time commitment demands associated with supervisory positions. Roseanna Bloxham, a senior geo-environmental engineer at environmental consultancy RSK, observed in this article, “it’s really difficult for working mothers to be on site by 8 am, because most childcare facilities are not open at 6am, when they would need to drop off their children. Therefore, after having children female engineers are still tending to go back into desk roles.”

The industry cannot afford to deprive talented women from field leadership opportunities. If you want to attract young parents of all genders into field leadership, you need to implement family friendly policies. Try developing generous paid maternity and paternity leave policies. Look into flexible working options — in the digital age, a lot of office work can be completed at home. Hire assistants for your supervisors who can take on their administrative tasks. You will attract and retain more skilled employees with these policies.

With a precipitous decline in skilled labor, the construction industry cannot afford to alienate 50 percent of the workforce. By implementing these five strategies, you will make your company more competitive and profitable.

Note: This article first appeared on BuiltWorlds’ website and can be viewed here.

What are contractors doing about the labor shortage?

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By Karen L. Edwards, RCS Editor.

Korellis Roofing and Reliant Roofing are two contractors leading the way in solving the labor shortage by taking matters into their own hands and training the next generation of workers.

Last fall, we wrote an article about Korellis Roofing after they opened a dedicated training center for continued development and supplementing their apprenticeship program. Nearly one year later, they have drawn the attention of Indiana state leaders and recently had a visit from Congressman Pete Visclosky and his Chief-of-Staff Mark Lopez.

The Korellis Training Center utilizes inclement weather days to deliver in-house training for continued development, in an effort to attract and retain tradesmen and women. The visiting officials were given a tour by Workforce Development Manager Dan Stella and watched some of the apprentice training.

Reliant Roofing of Jacksonville, Florida was invited to speak at the International Roofing Expo last month in New Orleans to teach other contractors how to build their own skilled labor force. After CEO Sean Shapiro and President Cameron Shouppe were having trouble finding enough skilled roofers to fill their workforce, they designed a program to train motivated people.

“We started to look for people with good soft skills and a strong work ethic, not necessarily experience in roofing,” Shapiro explains. This strategy has proven successful for them. They’ve even been showcased by the Mike Rowe Works Foundation, a public charity that rewards people who train for skilled labor jobs that are in demand.

The construction industry as a whole is struggling with labor and workforce development and some of the industry’s biggest players are stepping up to address the issue. The Home Depot Foundation recently committed $50 million to train 20,000 new tradespeople by 2028 to fill the labor gap.

Tradesmen International reports that there are 143,000 vacant construction positions available nationwide and says filling the gap is going to take a concentrated effort on all fronts.

With labor being the number one issue facing roofing contractors, as reported in both the RoofersCoffeeShop.com trends report and the Roofing Contractor State of the Industry Report, it’s time to start taking matters into our own hands and developing the next generation of roofing professionals.

Photo credit: Korellis Roofing

Note: This article first appeared on the RoofersCoffeeShop.com blog and can be viewed here.

Four Key Tech Trends Revolutionizing Architectural Design and Construction

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By Peter Diamantis

From self-healing materials to 4D printing to artificial intelligent-driven design to robots, the construction and building industry is being drastically changed by technology.

If you could design any structure, free of all constraints, what would you envision? Put aside today’s architectural limits. What home would you dream up? Exponential technologies are converging and revolutionizing the way we design, build and inhabit everything. The global construction industry is projected to surpass $10 trillion in 2020, and the total U.S. housing stock alone grew to $31.8 trillion last year.

Both industries are ripe for massive disruption.

In this blog, I’ll be covering four key tech trends that are revolutionizing what is possible in architectural design and construction:

  1. Autonomous robot builders
  2. 3D and 4D printing
  3. New materials from unexpected sources
  4. Designs that adapt as you build

Let’s dive in.

New Materials Enter Construction

For thousands of years, we’ve been constrained by the construction materials of nature. We built bricks from naturally abundant clay and shale, used tree limbs as our rooftops and beams, and mastered incredible structures in ancient Rome with the use of cement. But construction materials are about to get a HUGE upgrade.

Here are the top three materials disrupting the future of construction:

  1. Upcycled Materials: Imagine if you could turn the world’s greatest waste products into their most essential building blocks.

Thanks to UCLA researchers at CO2NCRETE, we can already do this with carbon emissions.Today, concrete produces about 5% of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. But what if concrete could instead conserve greenhouse emissions? CO2NCRETE engineers capture carbon from smokestacks and combine it with lime to create a new type of cement. The lab’s 3D printers then shape the upcycled concrete to build entirely new structures. Once conquered at scale, upcycled concrete will turn a former polluter into a future conserver.

Want to print houses from dirt? No problem. The Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) can now turn any soil into a building material with three times the tensile strength of industrial clay. A massive breakthrough for developing regions, IAAC’s new 3D printed native soil can build houses on-site for as little as $1,000.

  1. Nanomaterials: Nano- and micro-materials are ushering in a new era of smart, super-strong and self-charging buildings.

While carbon nanotubes dramatically increase the strength-to-weight ratio of skyscrapers, revolutionizing their structural flexibility, nanomaterials don’t stop here. Several research teams are pioneering silicon nanoparticles to capture everyday light flowing through our windows. Little solar cells at the edges of windows then harvest this energy for ready use. (Thermochromic smart windows change color when exposed to sunlight.)

Researchers at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab have developed similar smart windows. Turning into solar panels when bathed in sunlight, these thermochromic windows will power our buildings, changing color as they do.

  1. Self-Healing Infrastructure: The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates a $542.6 billion backlog needed for U.S. infrastructure repairsalone. And as I’ve often said, the world’s most expensive problems are the world’s most profitable opportunities.

Enter self-healing concrete. Engineers at Delft University have developed bio-concrete that can repair its own cracks. As head researcher Henk Jonkers explains, “What makes these limestone-producing bacteria so special is that they are able to survive in concrete for more than 200 years and come into play when the concrete is damaged. […] If cracks appear as a result of pressure on the concrete, the concrete will heal these cracks itself.”

But bio-concrete is only the beginning of self-healing technologies. As futurist architecture firms start printing plastic and carbon-fiber houses like the stunner seen below (using Branch Technologies’ 3D printing technology), engineers are tackling self-healing plastic.

WATG Designs 3D-Printed Freeform House with Carbon-Fiber Reinforced Plastic

Plastic not only holds promise in real estate on Earth, it will also serve as a handy material in space. NASA engineers have pioneered a self-healing plastic that may prove vital in space missions, preventing habitat and ship ruptures in record speed.

The implications of self-healing materials are staggering, offering us resilient structures both on earth and in space.

Enhanced Design & Architecture

While incredible new materials transform what we build, AI and VR are revolutionizing how we design.

  1. AI-Driven Design: In the past, if you wanted to build a high-rise, you needed a static, precise blueprint. Moving parts were not an option.

Now, real-time, AI-aided Building Information Model (BIM) will enable blueprints to learn and adapt to changing ground conditions, weather, equipment and even new design ideas.

In the future, AI will help design our blueprints, optimizing construction methods, breakthrough materials, and design features. It may even recommend IoT components for our high-rises depending on their purpose and landscape.

  1. Virtual Reality Shaping Real Estate: In one of my previous blogs, I discussed how VR will reshape our real estate shopping experience. Forget real estate agents and physical house hunting. Why not visit a house in a different city from the comfort of your living room at 3 a.m. and see how it looks with blue walls and your own home furniture?

VR is about to transform the real estate design process too. Imagine the possibilities: you design your company’s dream office using a Building Information Model and allow your managers to walk around the (virtually) finished product before it’s ever built.

Build with Robots and 3D Printing

Designs and machinery won’t build us finished products on their own… or will they? Welcome to the new frontier of autonomous robot builders and skyscraper printers.

  1. Autonomous Robotics and Robot Swarm Construction: While robots have already started permeating the construction industry, what if they could construct buildings entirely autonomously?

Many are already tackling this challenge, using everything from flying robots to termite-like swarm constructors.

RoboticsX aims to send autonomous robot builders to Mars that can adapt to shifting ground conditions. CEO Peter Boras spoke of plans to scale up 3,000 collaborating robots in the hopes of building structures almost entirely unaided. The company’s X-1 Smart Industrial Robot can already collaborate with its colleagues, adapt tasks in real time, share its capabilities with other machines and perform predictive maintenance.

A team at Switzerland’s NCCR Digital Fabrication has also built a fabricator robot. Pre-programmed with design model data, the robot can build any steel-reinforced framework autonomously on-site.

Inspired by autonomously collaborative termites, Harvard robotics researchers developed swarm construction robots that can collaboratively build a programmed design, block-by-block, without centralized control.

Imagine the implications. Eliminating human safety concerns and unlocking any environment, autonomous builder robots could collaboratively build massive structures in space, or deep underwater habitats.

  1. 3D and 4D Printing: In one of the developments I’m most excited about, we will soon be printing tomorrow’s structures. 3D and 4D printing are redefining the way our buildings look, feel and even move.

You may have heard of the Chinese company WinSun Design Engineering Co., which printed 10 houses from recycled materials in 24 hours at a cost of about $4,800 each.

Or Dutch studio DUS Architects, who used sustainable bioplastic to 3D print a full-sized canal house in Amsterdam.

But architectural printing is only getting started.

While companies like INNOprint can print an emergency shelter in only half an hour, others are finding ways to print unprecedented designs, like this never-ending looped house, buildable with one massive robotic 3D printer.

Janjaap Ruijssenaars 3D prints prototype of house with no beginning or end

And now for the real kicker: Remember those magical moving staircases in the Harry Potter films? Turns out these may no longer be exclusive to the wizarding world.

4D printing will one day make such structures a reality. Born out of MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab, 4D printing involves 3D printed objects that can reshape and even self-assemble over time.

These structures involve 3D printing rigid and expandable materials alongside one another. When the expandable materials encounter certain conditions, like water or heat, they reshape and reposition other rigid parts of the structure.

As a result, 4D printed structures have moving joints that can reshape the entire component, whether into different shapes or stairwell directions.

Final Thoughts

With the convergence of autonomous builder robots, 3D and 4D printing, AI-guided design and unprecedented smart materials, we are about to witness the mass disruption of construction and real estate.

What new architectural frontiers will you unlock? How will your company design and print the future? What homes and space colonies will we inhabit?

Join Me

  1. A360 Executive Mastermind: This is the sort of conversation I explore at my Executive Mastermind group called Abundance 360. The program is highly selective, for 360 abundance and exponentially minded CEOs (running $10M to $10B companies). If you’d like to be considered, apply here.

Share this with your friends, especially if they are interested in any of the areas outlined above.

  1. Abundance-Digital Online Community: I’ve also created a Digital/Online community of bold, abundance-minded entrepreneurs called Abundance-Digital.

Abundance-Digital is my ‘on-ramp’ for exponential entrepreneurs – those who want to get involved and play at a higher level. Click here to learn more.

Note: This article was first received via email from Peter Diamantis.

Advantages of Cloud-Based CRM Software for Contractors

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By FollowUp CRM.

Being cloud-based means contractors can readily access customer information from anywhere at any time.

Working in sales can often be spontaneous, as you never know what your client may want next. To be a part of a good sales team, you must be ready at a moment’s notice for whatever your customer wants. Cloud-based CRM software for contractors allows sales team members the ability to access their sales data from anywhere and at any time.

Cloud-based computing is beginning to take over all aspects of the Internet industry as downloadable proprietary software falls out-of-date. Liberating sales team members from the confines of the office allows them to become more mobile and better suited to fulfill customer needs. Concurrently, this allows for sales representatives to make more in-person sale pitches to prospective clients. Despite all advances in technology, nothing can beat the human touch of a personalized sales pitch.

Business and technology are constantly changing, but, unfortunately, many construction contractors still remain in the past with their customer relations and sales techniques. Be sure to choose a software that has been specifically tailored to bring construction contractors into the modern age of cloud-based computing and has been designed by construction workers for the construction industry.

Note: This article first appeared on FollowUp CRM’s blog and can be viewed here.

How To Get Workers To Embrace Construction Technology – Part 2

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From project management software to cloud technology, innovation is allowing contractors to do more each day.

The emergence of new technology figures prominently in all industries, construction is no different. The construction industry is booming with more work than contractors can handle and not as many resources as needed. This puts a greater onus on efficiency and accuracy. That’s where new technology has been critical.

However, new technology is only as effective as the people charged with the task of using it. Buy-in can be a challenge at times. People have achieved success performing their tasks in certain ways through the years. New technology is daunting and can feel like they are starting over. No one wants to feel that way. That’s why it’s critical to put as much emphasis on getting employees to embrace new technology as it is to implement the technology itself.

Cotney Construction Law’s Jacksonville construction attorneys touched on this by providing a few tips for getting workers to embrace new technology in the first part of this series. Here are more tips for transforming your organization.

Take a poll

The technology will be used by your employees. It’s important to understand their needs. Take a poll to find out what aspects of their job would be enhanced by technology solutions. Let those answers guide your tech investments. This will clear the path to buy-in because your employees will be getting what they want.

Show employees how new technology will affect their jobs

For employees to embrace new technology, it has to be real for them. They have to see it not as a new way to do things or one more thing to learn, but as a way to make their jobs easier. When introducing and training employees on new technology, use examples of how their jobs will be enhanced. Demonstrate benefits. This will greatly enhance buy-in for new tech.

Focus on a few functions

Most of today’s new technology, especially software solutions, have a myriad of functions. However, to someone being introduced to new software, this can be overwhelming. Focus on a few critical functions. Get workers up to speed on those and, when they are ready, introduce more capabilities.

This blog first appeared on Cotney Construction Law’s website and can be viewed here.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is for general educational information only. This information does not constitute legal advice, is not intended to constitute legal advice, nor should it be relied upon as legal advice for your specific factual pattern or situation.

How To Get Workers To Embrace Construction Technology – Part 1

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The construction industry has been slow to catch up with technology but that is starting to change as solutions become even easier to use and implement.

Technology is ever-present in our society and in business. We not only accept the benefits of technology, we expect it. One area of business that has been slow to catch-up with technology is the construction industry. However, even that’s changing with the emergence of project management software and tools and innovations such as drones and augmented reality that are making construction work safer and more efficient.

However, technology in construction has one major barrier. Many of its workers have an aversion to change. Some of it is generational. Some of it is because workers have achieved success through other means. However, to move forward as an industry, we must realize the potential that lies in new technology.

Cotney Construction Law’s Jacksonville lawyers have worked with numerous contractors and construction industry leaders and have seen the benefits of new technology. They also understand the importance of buy-in. That’s why they have put together this two-part guide with tips for getting your team to embrace new technology.

Find champions among employees

There are individuals that people look up to among your workers. Empower them by allowing them to test out new technology first. They will set an example for others that will make buy-in much easier. This will also give you a chance to roll out technology among a smaller group. If there are any issues, they can be resolved with minimal impact.

Training and support

It’s essential that you have a training plan prior to purchasing and implementing new software. This plan should have hands-on and online components. People learn in different ways so you have to accommodate for that. Time must be given for the training as well. This means software must be implemented at a time when your staff isn’t being pulled in a number of directions. In addition to the training, continuous support must be given to ensure that your staff has the ability to ask questions and gain a greater understanding of the software.

This blog first appeared on Cotney Construction Law’s website and can be viewed here.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is for general educational information only. This information does not constitute legal advice, is not intended to constitute legal advice, nor should it be relied upon as legal advice for your specific factual pattern or situation.

Payment Problems in the Construction Industry

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The construction industry has a love/hate relationship with payment. We love to get paid – we need it to survive. But the disconnects at every corner of the job give the industry a bad reputation.

That reputation comes into play at every level. Owners are warned that contractors are all just a bunch of con artists looking to build a shoddy product (or nothing at all) and take off with the cash. GC’s are made to look like they’re holding all their subs in cuffs, withholding their payment like a ransom. Material providers risk everything to keep their customers, and then get burned when they lose out to a non-paying job, a slow-paying job, or somebody that’s just trying to stay alive.

The problem has compounded itself over years and produced some pretty poor and worsening statistics:

  • 70% of the work is done by companies with less than 4 workers (source)
  • Contractors have the lowest 5-year survival rate (source)
  • The industry writes more than 1 billion checks every year
  • And uses 1.2 million BIC Pens
  • Construction has losses of $1.6 billion/yr because of inoperability (source)
  • The same 2-4 unit job in 1971, takes 85% longer to complete now (source)
  • Construction ranks last for accounts receivable & working capital (source)

The reality is that, while the rest of the world has been updating their tech and streamlining their processes, the construction industry is still using paper checks for payment and post-its for invoices. You might be thinking “Not me! I use such-and-such-project-management-tool!” or “No way! I pay all my guys on time!” – and you’d be right about those things. At BuildPay, we call those “first degree fixes.” What BuildPay’s technology is doing is allowing for second, third, fourth, fifth….degree fixes.

Payment should be the hub of every construction job and so that’s where this technology is positioned. Funders and owners can see project progress online and can watch as materials are purchased for their build. Contractors can see that their payment is locked, and can never be held in someone else’s bank account, as long as they do the work. Material providers are assured payment directly from project funds – removing the need for extending trade credit. It’s about time that getting paid in construction was this easy. #GotPaid.

Note: This article first appeared on BuildPay’s blog and can be viewed here.

Benefits of Digital Documents – Part 2

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On jobsites across this country, construction professionals are drowning in paperwork.

This industry requires a great deal of documentation from contracts to site plans to change orders and for many years, this documentation was put in print. Needless to say, print documentation comes with a myriad of issues. Documentation gets misplaced or is not available when you need it. Also, for many years, construction professionals dealt with the time and money lost by using paper documents.

One best practice that is emerging to alleviate time lost is the use of digital documentation. Digital documentation is allowing teams to collaborate better and is making documents available at any time and in any place.

In the first part of this series, we discussed a number of benefits digital documents are bringing to construction companies. The cost and time savings can’t be ignored. That’s why we have created a second part to discuss additional benefits.

The benefits of digital documentation include:

Preventing lost documents

The construction industry is a fast-moving one. Most contractors have to move frequently from jobsite to office. It’s only natural that items may get lost along the way. When they do, the outcome is costly. Rather than carrying important files everywhere, use the digital documents in the cloud to access your files from any location. Not having to search through paper files for important information can save you a great deal of time.

Continuous updates and collaboration

A document that’s printed out can only be changed if the file is adjusted and the document is printed out again. Digital documents can change as information or data is gathered. It can also be changed by multiple parties. Documents can exist among contractors, subcontractors, and architects to ensure that there’s always a clear picture of what’s happening on a jobsite. It also helps avoid the disputes that require the help of a Lakeland construction lawyer.

It’s good for the environment

It’s important to remember the impact printing has on our environment. Using digital documentation allows your company to consume less paper, toner, and ink, which can also save you money.

This blog first appeared on Cotney Construction Law’s website and can be viewed here.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is for general educational information only. This information does not constitute legal advice, is not intended to constitute legal advice, nor should it be relied upon as legal advice for your specific factual pattern or situation.