Speaker 1 (00:00):
<Silence>
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hey, welcome back to the K-Cup. Glad you’re here. Here we are part five of the five part series, the Business of Being a Contractor. Glad that you’re here with us for this final part. We’re wrapping up this series. It’s been a great series. Hopefully y’all have gotten some value out of it. We’ll talk a little bit about that at the end of the video, how you can source this material in a couple different ways, and use it to actually, you know, as a checklist for your own business if you’re an aspiring contractor. So, John, here we are, episode 20, and rolling right along, part five, we’re finally getting to the completion of this project, of this series. Thank
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Goodness, Now this episode is something every business owner should pay attention to, but especially general contractors Baton Rouge.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
<Laugh>. It’s been a slog, huh? <Laugh>, but we got there. So let’s go ahead and get into this, the, the project completion and beyond. We’re gonna talk about, you know, final documentation, inspections, things like that, all the necessary stuff it takes to get this wrapped up, warranty overview, things like that. So let’s get into the, the project completion and delivery of the project to the project owner. Tell us a little bit about these final inspections and walkthroughs and, and what goes on.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yeah, so typically at the end of a project, you know, you have what, what they call a final inspection or, or a punchless walk. And, you know, you meet with the owner, you meet with the architect, you’re walking this, you know, the near complete space, you know, for the first time. Yeah. And just given an opportunity for the honor to look at it, to see if there’s anything that, you know, they may wanna change. Anything that that sticks out to ’em that, that they would like to see maybe a little different. Yeah. you know, we, we try to get ahead of that process. We try to have our guys, you know, and subcontractors go ahead, build their punch list prior to, you know, a punch list walk with, with an architect or, or an owner. Yeah. Just to minimize that list and be
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Proactive. This is a great suggestion for general contractors Baton Rouge.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah. Just, just to, you know, show that you’re putting your, you know, best foot forward. Yeah. and obviously if the, if you come in and there’s not much of a list and you look a lot better, you know? Yeah. but it’s just something to ensure that the products meet an expectation for the owner. Yeah. And I mean, that could be, there can be simple things on the list. That could be, you know, some major things on the list. It just depends on the type of project. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. Generally speaking, it’s, it’s usually a pretty minor list with not a lot of, you know, not a lot of, I guess, things that are kind of catching you off guard. Yeah. You know, I, I would say that, you know, your superintendent and even your subcontractors, I mean, for some of these jobs, they could have been on the job for five or six months or even longer, maybe a year. So there, there’s definitely things that slip through the, you know, the cracks that they don’t necessarily see because they’re looking at it every day. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Some fresh eyes help those. Again, another great point for general contractors Baton Rouge.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yeah. So fresh, those eyes. And even the owner, you know, the owners haven’t seen this final product, so they’re, they’re, they can usually point out a few things that they would like to see, you know? Yeah. Different or kind of rehashed for sure. So, so that’s kind of what happens in that final walkthrough. And it’s, it’s a common process. I mean, it’s a real formal process in the public world. Yeah. And then, you know, we kind of bring it over to our private projects as well. You know, anytime you have a process, it usually, it usually ends with a better product. Yeah. so we do the same thing in the private world. We, we try to have these walks and in the private world, there’s different types of projects. I mean, if we working with an architect, they usually would set this up anyway. Yeah. But if it’s a design build project, we still want to come in and kind of have this same process. Obviously I think it goes without being said, there’s a little more flexibility in the private side of things than there is in the public, you know, public sector. Sure. but it’s, it’s still a good process to implement on, on both sides, you
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Know? Yeah. So tell us a little bit about the closeout docs. What, what those entail and how, you know, those help the owner out, the project owner once we’re handing this, this thing over to them now. Would love to hear in the comments from general contractors Baton Rouge about how they feel about closeout docs.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Yeah. So if you’ve ever bought a house or done anything you know, got some time into it and realize some product that you have is going out and you don’t know where it came from or a model number or anything like that. Yeah. That’s kind of what this closeout process does. It gives, it gives the owner a contact for the vendor or the super con subcontractor. You know, it gives, you know, operation manuals, it gives warranty manuals for those products. And, and it’s just, it really leaves them with something that they can go fall back on. I mean, yeah. You know, warranty and closeout kind of run hand in hand. Everybody’s gonna offer, you know, we, we typically always offer a one year warranty. And depending on the project, I mean, the public world, those warranties are really spelled out the private world.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Yeah. It’s, it’s kind of up to us and up to the owner to, to come to, you know, an agreement on the warranty period. Yeah. But but that closeout document kind of spells all that information out. It sets the expectation on warranty. It, it gives ’em the product data, it gives ’em the maintenance data, it gives ’em the operational data, and, and then at the end of the day, it also gives ’em the, you know, the contact for the subcontract. Yeah. so that’s the kind of information that would be put together in those closeout documents so that you don’t just walk away and they have all this whole new space with, with no real information on it,
Speaker 2 (05:29):
How to manage it and run it. That’s right. Yeah. Operate it. A lot of times those those operation manuals and maintenance manuals in the past, they were typically always physical and then of course, added to those closeout ducts would be the as builts too, just so you know where everything’s running at. But today it’s common also to have, include an e-file of all those documents too. Right. Yeah. Which, that could be quite a little project putting that together too.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
And generally that’s what most people want these days. They don’t wanna see all the paper documents. I mean, closeout documents could be a really thick binder. Hopefully general contractors Baton Rouge are listening up and got that point about producing an electronic file of closeout docs, including “as-builts.”
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah. Multiple binders, <laugh>, and,
Speaker 3 (06:06):
You know, with the e-file E files, it can be, you know, a lot easier to search and find exactly what you’re looking for. Yeah. And, and, you know, the asbi were an important part of the, the the closeout documents. I mean, it shows how everything’s ran. It shows, you know, where particular, you know, pipes and different things are ran. So it’s, it’s real handy part of the closeout documents.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Absolutely. So talk a little bit about you know, we’ve been through the, the, the punch list, the walkthrough, we’ve executed the punch list. Now we’ve, we’ve got the closeout docs coming together, and so we still got some final payment coming and Yeah. And we know that there’s you know, lean lien waivers, things like that. Mm-Hmm. How does that whole process you know, fall into place and, and maybe highlight how it kind of may differ between the public and the private sector?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah, so at the end of the, let’s call it the final walkthrough, so usually there’s a punch list walkthrough, and then there’s a kind of a final walkthrough Yeah. Where you verify that the punch list has been done Yeah. With the, a architect, the owner, whoever mm-hmm <affirmative>. So once that, once that’s complete, they usually issue a notice of acceptance, some documents similar to that mm-hmm <affirmative>. And that document’s filed away at the clerk of court, and you have a lien period, usually 45 days. And then after that 45 days, you know, the owner can release payment with confidence that there’s nobody out there that’s, you know, not been paid or anybody that’s done wrong on the project. Yeah. ’cause typically by then, it would’ve come up if there was some issue. Yeah. so that’s kind of how the whole, you know, the whole lien period and lien waiver works. Basically, you get a clean lien at the end of the 45 days. Yeah. We submit that to the owner, and then the owner knows, Hey, I can release payment, you know, with no real issue. Yeah. and it does defer a little, differ a little bit on the, on the private side. However, just like I mentioned earlier, it’s really kind of a good process and it, it’s, you know, protects everybody. It kind of, you know,
Speaker 2 (08:11):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
It’s just a help, really. So we, we typically kind of try to implement that on the private side also. Yeah. Specifically if the owner, you know, wants that extra level of, you know, I, I don’t wanna say protection, but just give you some confidence that everything’s gonna be done in the right manner, you know?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah. I let you sleep at night too, because you, you know that there’s not gonna be some fire that’s gonna come outta nowhere that you’re gonna have to put out because someone didn’t get paid. Everything’s been fully disclosed, everything’s had time to go through its processes, and once it’s done, it’s done. Right. You can move on with your life. So, good deal. All right. So that kind of wraps up our, our punch list walk, you know, getting final documents together for the owner how, you know, the, the last payments or, you know, how those take place. And the fact that, you know, you make sure that there are no liens that, that the property’s, you know, clear and free from any kind of encumbrance because someone didn’t get paid and all that. So now we’re post completion and, and what kind of follow up do we have? What the warranty period has started, now the project is officially completed. Yeah. So how do we manage this, this post completion period?
Speaker 3 (09:24):
So usually what happens at this point is, you know, at the one year mark, we have kind of what you call a warranty walk. And basically you meet with, you know, the owner, you meet with the architect, or you know, whatever professional record is involved. And you kinda walk the space, make sure everything’s holding up according to plan make sure there’s no little outstanding things that need to be taken care of. Yeah. that maybe the owner’s kind of overlooked or just, you know, everybody gets busy. Might, maybe something’s popped up and you know, you need to get it fixed, but you don’t take the time to reach out to us or whatever. Yeah. So we wanna look at all those kind of items and understand at the one year mark, like, what’s everything look like. Yeah. And, and I would say that from time to time, there’s a few things that, that might come up in that meeting.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Just, just like what I said, you know, I was like, man, we’ve been noticing that this is not, this is out, but we hadn’t had time to call y’all. Yeah. But we’d really like to get it fixed under the warranty period. So, you know, we would reach out and if it’s a subcontractor, if it’s something that in-house that we need to repair or whatever mm-hmm <affirmative>. We’d get those things kind of taken care of. Yeah. But, but basically, you know, it’s kind of a, we wanna show that we’re, we’re there to, you know, to honor our warranty. Yeah. But also it’s kind of a clean break. Like at this point at this point, you know, if there’s, if there’s issues or if there’s things going on then yeah, we’re here to help and we’re here to get things done, but it, it’s probably goes beyond a reasonable warranty item at that point.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
It’s probably just, you know, because of wear and tear or, or whatever it is. Yeah. so it, it, it shows the honor that, look, you know, we are, we’ve met our expectation and we’ve done everything we can in good faith to make this thing, you know? Right. so it just kind of draws a line in the sand too, which is important because Yeah. You know, if not, if, if the owner just constantly reaching out to you, a lot of times we kind of feel obligated to, to keep, you know, helping and helping Yeah. And it, it can drag on for a long time. Yeah. So it’s, it’s really a good, it’s a really a good process for, you know, for both sides really.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah. Again, and that’s another example of, like you said having a process in place, even if it’s not necessarily required. Yeah. You, you take the initiative and have it, ’cause it does, it, it sets boundaries, it sets expectations, and that’s lets people complete certain steps and move on and go to the next thing and not, you know, constantly be getting pulled back into something that should be Yeah. Complete and over with. So as far as managing client satisfaction developing feedback loop so that you can continue to improve the processes of your company and your team, how, how does that unfold? What, what are some of the things that you do to try to get, you know, good customer feedback and use that to improve?
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah, so I mean, I think the first thing that we’ve done and, and what we’ve done for a long time is just simply ask for a Google review. I mean, when we first started, it was basically just, Hey, man, how do we do, you know, in, in conversation. Yeah. I wanted to know as an owner, like, how’d you feel about the job? Yeah. and you know, that’s good and everything, but sometimes you, you don’t get honest feedback because it’s hard to look at somebody and say, man, you, you did good there, but you didn’t do good there. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. but you know, from there we kind of went to let’s start getting Google reviews. I know that became a big thing, you know, years ago, and that’s something that we’ve tried to Yeah. You
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Know, social proof’s important today. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
We’ve tried to, tried to implement and make sure that we are getting Google reviews and that kind of thing from some of our clients and take it a step farther and even, and even do like a video review that we can get Yeah. You know, put on our website. I think that those are very strong. Those are great. Because you can, you know, once you hear a person, you see ’em on camera, you get a feel for kind of how that, who that person is. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. It’s really a strong, you know, a strong deal when they, when they come in and give you a testimonial that away for sure. So it’s something that we’ve done, you know, I will say those are a little bit tough, tough to get. People don’t like to get on camera and Yeah. You know, talk or do anything really. Yeah. But but those are very powerful tool if you, if you get clients that are willing to do it. So it’s always nice when, when we do have one that’ll do it. And then I’m not sure what we even call this last deal. We got like a satisfaction poll or
Speaker 2 (13:39):
It’s an anonymous client survey Survey Yeah. Like
Speaker 3 (13:41):
A survey survey, customer survey survey that we basically put out, you know, to get anonymous feedback and Yeah. You know, we try to send it to a lot of members of the, you know, we call it team members, but just everybody involved in the project, we wanna know, you know, how we perform, you know, at what level to their expectations. So we send out to everybody. Yeah. And that’s a really, really powerful tool to use, you know? Yeah. And the thing about it is, if you can get good, honest feedback, I mean, it works for both of us, you know, I mean mm-hmm <affirmative>. If you’re just telling us that we’re doing a good job all the time and there’s areas that we’re not happy in, then we’re continually failing probably other customers too, because we don’t know it. That’s right. But also for that person that’s kind of not willing to leave the feedback, I mean, you’re, if we work together again, you’re probably not going to get satisfied again to the highest level.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yeah. Because we don’t know about the pain point. So it’s always nice to, to hear both sides of it. If there is a pain point, like, let’s let us hear about it so we can make it right. Yeah. And, and, and make the product better for not only if we work with them again, but for other clients. Yeah, for sure. And look, if it’s all good, that’s great too. I mean, we want to hear that nothing like a good slap on the back at a boy and, and keep going, you know? So Yeah. That lets us know that the processes and the stuff that we are doing are working. Yeah. So if it’s, I’m not saying that we’re looking for bad feedback, if it’s all good feedback, that’s good too. Yeah. That, that benefits us as well. Absolutely. So it’s just good honest feedback. It, it just serves us both sides, you know?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yeah. And we know that over time because we ask for feedback and honest feedback, even if there are areas where we have to improve that really sets the tone for the relationship between us and the client. And that can, just, by doing that can result in getting a referral where if you hadn’t asked for the feedback, you may have, they may have, you know, made you feel like you did a great job and then just never offered a referral, and you never, they just go away and they’re never become a client again, never refer you. Right. But just by asking for that feedback, even if they had an issue here or there a lot of times that will win you that referral because they, they find that to be, you know, something very positive and that it shows that you have integrity. So yeah, we know that, that that’s something that we try to do as well. Well,
Speaker 3 (16:02):
So I think just asking for the feedback shows you that you care. Yeah. It shows you that you, you know, you wanna get better. Yeah. so I think that you have to ask
Speaker 2 (16:12):
For it. Yeah. It’s going that extra mile and, and like you said, it helps you get on target too. You keep making those necessary adjustments. Eventually you’re gonna start hitting bullseye over a period of years of getting good feedback like that, and then actually Right. You know, making it actionable and taking steps to Yeah. Adjust your, your you know, your aim, I guess you call it. So. All right. Well, let’s, let’s kind of recap this five part series. Like I said, this is part five, the project’s complete. We just went over all the different elements that are involved in that. You know, punch list, warranty, closeout documents you know, all these different things, final payment, things like that. But let’s just go ahead and talk about just very briefly how we got here. Part one, what was that about? Yeah,
Speaker 3 (17:01):
I mean, part one I think was like the business development client acquisition. You know, this is where we’re, we’re out there trying to create some leads. Yeah. you know, the, the, the cool part about that is it’s fun to be able to put some ads out there or to have you add some clients to your, you know, to your, your list of guys that you’re dropping off cookies to, or people you’re setting up appointments with to visit with. Yeah. You know, to have those leads or to get a lead one feels like a win. Yeah. But then for it to convert to a job, it really just puts the icing on the cake, you know? So Yeah. That’s the cool part about that first phase. It, it’s fun to go see some of your work pay off to be able to create some leads and, and then to get a job off of it.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
So yeah, that’s really what I like about that, that first phase. Yeah. And then I think, you know, the second phase was kind of project planning maybe some contracting, I don’t know, remember exactly what we talked about in that second phase, but you know, the thing I like about that phase is, is that’s where you really be able to, you really start to build rapport with your client. Yeah. you know, you get to know each other, you get to hear their vision, you get to hear about, you know, what they want. Yeah. And it’s, it’s, it’s a fun process. I mean, I’m kind of a people’s person. So I li I, I like that phase of the project, getting to know ’em, getting to understand what they wanna do. Yeah. It’s it’s just kind of, I enjoy it. Some, some people don’t like that part of it, but, but I, I like it.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
You get a feel for the design team element too, at point,
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Right? Yeah. We bring in our sub team now, most of those guys we already have relationships with. Yeah. We work with ’em all the time. Yeah. But it’s fun to see everybody gel and come together it as kinda one group and, and, and really just build the team, you know, it’s fun, fun process.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Yeah. It starts looking real at that point.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yeah. And then, you know, the third phase was kind of the pre-construction phase, and that’s where you, you really start to look into permitting and, and doing some of that different stuff. I mean, to me, this is kind of the <laugh>, the blah phase, if you will,
Speaker 2 (18:57):
The tough logistics.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
This is not always exciting. Yeah. unfortunately it’s something that has to be done, you know? Yeah. To move the project ahead. Yeah. but probably, definitely the boring, the most boring part of the of putting together a project for sure. And, and then, you know, the fourth phase is actually construction and, you know, we do all these other phases ’cause we like to build, like, this is what we want to do. So moving into construction’s always exciting. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
At
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Last, <laugh> always fun to break, you know, ground on a project, see stuff happening. For sure. So that, that’s the phase that we really enjoy, is just getting out there, building the job. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. Making it happen. Yes. And then, and then completion is, is, is, you know, it’s rewarding because completion is the, you know, the award for all this other stuff that you’ve done, these other steps. Yeah. you know, it’s exciting for us to see the final product specifically if we help, you know, design build and that kind of thing is really exciting. But even, even if it was completely designed by somebody else, it’s always fun to see the project finished. Yes. You know, it’s always fun to, to see the honor, you know, ecstatic and ready to move into their space. Yeah. very rewarding. Completion is just kind of a rewarding phase. It kind of tops everything off, you know? Yes. so I think all the phases are, you know, fairly cool and exciting or whatever, except for that one kind of <laugh> permit. I hate dealing with the permit part of it. Yeah. But yeah, it’s it’s, it’s rewarding man. It, it’s super fun. And I, I love what we do.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yeah. Great, great process. Lot of steps. Hopefully y’all have enjoyed this five part series. And if you’re an aspiring contractor or if you work with contractors in your industry say you’re a commercial real estate professional, commercial lender architect, engineer, hopefully this gives you a, a little better understanding of all the processes that as a contractor we go through to create a built environment. A lot of logistics. The first three steps of this five part series is basically all planning and logistics. And before we ever get to do what we actually love to do, which is, like you said, build something. So hopefully enjoy that for each of these episodes. On the K-Cup there are also corresponding articles on our LinkedIn feed. So you can follow us on LinkedIn, the Kelly Construction Group. And you can find an article for each of these steps part one through part five.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
And you use those as a resource. If you’re an aspiring contractor, you could literally use those as an outline, a rough outline on what it’s gonna take to become a contractor. Or if you know a somebody who’s aspiring to do something like that, you might direct them to this information so that they can familiarize themself with what’s involved in actually being a contractor. It’s not a cakewalk. It’s not for you know, people that don’t like rolling up their sleeves and really digging in and working hard. ’cause There are some very you know, challenging steps to the process, right? Yeah. Particularly step three, <laugh>, part three, all the logistics around permits and site prep, and, and making sure that, you know, zoning’s right. And all that stuff. But in the end, you, you end up with a, a finished result that you can be proud of, you get paid well for it.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
And and the project owner comes away with what they’ve, you know, their dream is now a huge, giant step forward to being fulfilled. So, great process great opportunity for everyone to, to learn a lot and grow. So we hope you enjoyed this five part series. We’ll have some good stuff in store for you. Next week we’re gonna come up with some more you know, good insights on business particularly around this industry. And we also have some great interviews planned here coming up in the very near future. So stay tuned to the K-Cup. Come back and see us again. Any part and words, John? Yeah, hopefully general contractors Baton Rouge enjoyed this episode and got something of value out of it, let us know in the comments.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Oh man. Let’s go build something.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
All right, that sounds good. Let’s go build something.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Cut.