Design & Build During a Pandemic—Over a Year Later

I’ve always said “Clients love the designer and hate the builder.” However, now we are both Design & Build, and as always our goal is to maintain the love through the course of a project, as difficult as it can be when living amidst construction. We’re hoping to give you insights that can help set expectations and understanding given the reality of how COVID-19 has impacted the design & build industry.

It is important to be prepared and set realistic expectations when approaching a design-build project.

The pandemic is still having a major impact on all industries, including Design & Build. It is important to be prepared and set realistic expectations when approaching a design-build project. This article hopes to give you insight that can help you be more aware of the climate in which our particular industry is operating in.

We are all fighting for normalcy in our lives and convincing ourselves that there is a way to bring things back to “normal,” even after over a year and a half since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, we are still losing loved ones and we are still seeing the pain and added stress of this pandemic in our day-to-day lives and having to adjust to the fluctuating new normal.

“During this pandemic we’ve seen a massive revitalization of care and interest put towards our living spaces. After all, it’s where many of us work, live, and entertain day-in-and-out.” Rachel Waldron

Some industries are barely able to operate, struggling to make ends meet, while other industries are so flooded with work and struggling to keep up. For Design & Build it seems we are a bit of it all… struggling to operate while staying incredibly busy. In many ways it seems as though this industry is benefitting tremendously from this tragedy, and in other ways we are not.

Staff Shortages

At Waldron Designs, we have come to expect, at a minimum, a new project lead every week. Most of our projects are 9-12 month engagements. Basic math tells us that we cannot possibly handle all the incoming work while facilitating current work given this timeline and staff on hand. We know that we should count our blessings (and we do.) This influx of work has given us the opportunity to be highly selective with the projects we chose to take on. We are not the only company on the island, or in the state or country for that matter, with this sudden influx of business.

This means other Design & Build firms are also hiring to fill the increased project and staffing demand. We’ve seen firsthand this drive to fill staffing needs leading to ruthless “poaching” of staff and extreme shortages. This has particularly effected younger firms and smaller businesses, like ours.

Resource Shortages

This major staffing demand has also impacted the availability of product reps. This means a longer delay while we wait for our reps to respond to requests on product information, drawing out designs, and completing the ordering process.

Our subcontractors are often booked out several months in advance. While it would be great to choose a “sub” when the design starts, this is not always feasible because the design needs to be fully developed before we are able to accurately present the scope and get a commitment from the sub.

Remember this? These shortages haven’t ended in the construction industry!

Product Shortages

This is the one we’ve all heard about. At this time, we’re more likely to find products available through retailers that stock up for bulk purchasing. This said, we’ve seen less availability of high-quality designer items, tied with longer wait times for those items. We prefer to make purchases through our product reps because warranties and support accompany those purchases. However, products are so delayed that often times we’ve recommended our clients purchase direct to keep their project moving.

Purchasing direct can work well, but this also means confusion in liability, warranty coverage, tracking, and coordination of shipments. This is something to consider with evaluating wait times versus purchasing direct.

Patience and Understanding

Unfortunately, what this all means is that we need to take on these projects with patience and the ability to be prepared for delays, delays, and more delays. We have had subcontractors back out of projects due to sudden material shortage and the inability to provide materials needed for the job. We have had products back-ordered by several months, with no warning after expecting arrival in plenty of time. This can be both frustrating for us and our clients, but we remind ourselves are our clients we are adjusting to a new normal.

The pandemic has taught us to be fluid in our expectations of shifting timelines, product delays, and staff availabilities.

Rush projects are simply not an option at this time. We know you’re eager to have this done yesterday, but it is unrealistic to expect firms to have the time to start your project immediately and to have access to all the products needed immediately. See the above paragraph, practice patience.

Our goal with each project is to get everything on order, THEN start the project. However, that does not account for sudden childcare closures, staff illness, subcontractor illness, material shortages from subcontractors, and unexpected discontinuations or backorders of products. The pandemic has taught us to be fluid in our expectations of shifting timelines, product delays, and staff availabilities.

Have a backup plan when starting your project. If remodeling a kitchen, set up a temporary kitchen and be prepared to use it longer than anticipated. We’ve seen clients have a much better go at taking on their projects when they’ve prepared in this way. We all love our creature comforts, even in the midst of construction chaos.

Our hope is that things will get back to a more timely and efficient “normal” soon. But for the time being, our hope is that we can all take the “new normal” in stride.