ConstructConnect Blog

Today, Ireland takes over North America, and everyone is a little Irish. So, we wanted to add to the celebration by making a list of our favorite buildings going green for the occasion. We think these structures look stunning in green. Here are our favorite North American buildings turning green for St. Patrick's Day:

“Change is inevitable,” as the old saying goes. On construction projects, a more appropriate statement might be that “change orders are inevitable.” If the mere thought of a change order makes you cringe, it may be time to take a look at tweaking your change order process.

Globally, the construction industry is home to maximum workplace injuries and fatalities. This is why promoting a safety culture in your construction business is of great significance. But introducing a safety culture can’t happen overnight. Hence, it’s not surprising that safety is at the disposal of everyone’s minds, regardless of your location. This is why companies are moving from paper-based safety approaches to digital platforms. Today, cloud-based mobile applications and various other platforms have transformed every aspect of humans, and the construction sector is not an exception.

Keeping your construction projects on schedule to meet your completion deadline is no easy task. Adverse weather, costly rework, unavailable resources, and subcontractor default are just a few of the things that can throw your timeline off course. Damages and penalties for not hitting your deadline can ruin your profit and hurt your construction company’s reputation.

This month we pause for celebration and recognition of Women’s History Month. One of the areas I’m most passionate about is the empowerment of women and women’s rights. I am not in this to passively watch; instead, I endeavor to lean in. I work to educate myself as often as I can. And, as many of you know, I am surrounded by three strong women at home who help me to continually understand the challenges women face every day—not just in the workplace.

2021 was a challenging but positive year for the construction industry. And the growing adoption of technology in this sector has been in the limelight. As the pandemic is pushing construction owners to invest in smart tools, several investors are recognizing the importance of this industry.

As a contractor, when was the last time you reviewed the substantial completion terms in one of your contracts? Sure, you probably know the date set in the contract for work to substantially complete, barring any authorized extensions from justified delays, because that means it’s time to get paid the remainder of the contract amount along with any retainage that was withheld along the way.

Lessons From the First to Summit Mt. Everest Edmund Hillary once remarked that he was unsure if summiting Mt. Everest was within the realm of "humanly possible." Nonetheless, he and his Nepalese climbing partner, Tenzing Norgay, left the first confirmed pair of human footprints on the summit of Mt. Everest in May of 1953. Hillary's doubt surely stemmed from the failed previous attempts to summit the highest peak on earth (last recorded in 2020 as 29,031.7 feet above sea level).

Is it time to grow your construction business? Are you looking to expand into new markets or territories? Growing your construction business, regardless of whether you're just starting out or have been in the industry for years, requires careful planning. In order to strategically scale up your operations, you must ensure you will have the resources (workers, equipment, etc.) to handle the additional work.

U.S. construction starts grew 5.9% in 2021 to $747 billion, with divergent outcomes across the three headline sectors. New residential construction grew 14.5%, with growth in both the single-family and multi-family segments. Nonresidential building, by contrast, declined 1.3% with significant pandemic-related scarring persisting in sectors related to travel and office working. Civil engineering construction was broadly flat, posting growth of just 0.9%.