Category: GENdex

  • Gloves are off

    Gloves are off

    It isn’t that I don’t understand why Amcor/Echelon/Old Castle/CRH Americas would choose to try and defend a crap product called Insultech but I also understand it was the wrong choice. West Jordan, Hogan, JRCA and every other sucker who even considered purchasing this product will make you regret your decision. Glue? Not just one kind…

  • I totally understand

    I totally understand

    Don’t try this at home folks or at the building you just helped build but I COMPLETELY understand this guy’s sentiment. I wonder what this guy would do to buildings here if he went a year without getting paid. It wasn’t even 30 days past the promised pay date and for less than a $1000.00…

  • My head hurts

    My head hurts

    Today was incredible. I learned even more than I ever wanted to about treachery, lies, and deceit.

  • gensRATE, govsRATE, ownsRATE, engsRATE and plansRATE

    gensRATE, govsRATE, ownsRATE, engsRATE and plansRATE

    Sad that one job justifies every one of these websites. Coming soon to a blog near you. In this case the owner is a government and horrible. The GC horrible, the architect and his plans are all lacking to say the least.

  • Design Build

    Design Build

    Funny that Design Build is your advertised competitive advantage to owners but you fail to mention to your subs that their bids are to be considered as such.

  • genDEX attempts to objectively rate the risk a GC might present to a subcontrator considering signing a contract.

    genDEX attempts to objectively rate the risk a GC might present to a subcontrator considering signing a contract.

    Can someone with nearly $300,000,000 of revenue receive the contractor of the year award from a magazine? Gross sales? A couple of cutesy quotes from a vested customer? GensRATE aims to objectively analyze, measure and rate GCs according to numerous metrics. Just know this. Licking your finger and putting it in the air no longer…

  • Don’t be afraid

    Don’t be afraid

    A small sub is bound to look at a GC and think they are simply too big to fight. I’ll just take what I can get and lick my wounds knowing I was just unfairly disadvantaged. Well don’t be. Simply be creative. Find their pain point and drive a spear through it. (That is literally…

  • United States v. Spearin

    United States v. Spearin

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Spearin It is extremely unfortunate that I had to learn about this today and yet today is my lucky day. If GCs would simply be fair, reasonable, sensible I would never have had to learn about this case. That is the unfortunate part. 2018 was the absolute worst in terms of treatment from some GCs.…

  • REJECTED by architect

    REJECTED by architect

    It happens. There are bound to be disagreements on any job. What is unforgivable in this situation is that at least 4 change orders were rejected because the GC didn’t do their job. The 4 COs got booted because the architect thought they were too tardy. They were submitted tardily by the GC not by…

  • Kickbacks

    Kickbacks

    So yes it is still a thing. A former employer kicked back $55,000 on a $550,000 contract. Yes that is a thing.

  • Government records requests results in threats by GC/City

    Government records requests results in threats by GC/City

    So FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests on a federal level or state level requests are sources to help you get paid. You can get access to budgets, change orders and all sorts of other shenanigans. For example. Finding out that there is still $500,000 left in contingency funds but the GC claims poverty and…

  • Retention

    Retention

    If you don’t bill for it you don’t get paid for it. By that I mean when the GC waits and then waits and waits. Building was occupied in August with a ribbon cutting ceremony in September. Here we are in January with retention still not billed by the GC and therefore not paid by…

  • Houston we have a problem

    Houston we have a problem

    Your contract is with the GC. Yes but it is the GC that is causing the problem. Yes but we’re just the owners so therefore we don’t really care you’re getting the run around. That’s why we hired the GC so they could do that for us. Hiring them has absolved us of human decency…

  • The holidays

    The holidays

    Companies that care and were generous to pay early and in full. LM OlsonDWALundahlGerberPaulsen Companies that make the Grinch a saint. Hogan ConstructionAscent ConstructionA special shout out to Guardian Construction who suggested in a former life that happiness should be something as small as a turkey in lieu of a real bonus. To those who…

  • Be fair he says

    Be fair he says

    Fair. Fair? Fair is not unilaterally complain and then slash labor rates for which you have already received in your credits back. Now you won’t decide whether to use your slashed labor rate which will actually now be better for us since the credits back to you far outweigh our change orders. That alone isn’t…

  • The hypocrisy of it all: When a supplier can’t

    Code of Ethics. Supplier code. Doing business code. Every single thing from their “five pillars” of doing business to 50-page ethics code flies completely in the face of everything that has occurred with their product. In fact lies have been told by the manufacturer’s sales reps to attempt to cover-up a variety of things. They’re…

  • Typically contingency % for building

    Everywhere I look I see 5-10% as typical. That said there is currently a 26 million dollar public works project that only set aside 2.5%. From there the GC doesn’t book change orders but strictly as contingency expenses but then turns around and claims a low amount of change orders which isn’t true. So rather…

  • New CO ratio to be included in future genDEX

    It isn’t integrated yet as details are still being worked on but the general idea is that GCs seem to be really good at booking credits and back charges and REALLY slow at approving change orders. This can greatly affect pay apps and cash flows. A slight difference might be expected because of presentation to…

  • Beware the strength of the sub

    Whether you join an association like American Subcontractors Association and/or participate here with reviews of GCs you must do something. It kills me that a major supplier to a 4 generation old subcontractor would rather throw that multi-million dollar relationship away than to own up to a substandard product. Multi-billion dollar company. They never disclosed…

  • The possibilities of GRAMA and FOIA

    There are probably other names but GRAMA stands for Government Records and Management Act. FOIA for Freedom of Information Act. If you’re on a public project you have the right to request records relating to that project from the public entity/owner. Private projects take brute force via lawsuit but with public projects you might be…