RFI Horror Stories: Demolition Disasters & Construction Nightmares featuring Zach Rapaport | Halloween Special - What the RFI?

Episode Transcript
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(01:00:01):
It's the scariest time of the year.And today I'm here with Zach,
and we're gonna uncoverthe most haunting RFIs.
So grab your flashlightand let's get into it.
Woo hoo.(upbeat music)
Welcome to What the RFI.I'm Matt Brennan, and this
is the podcast all about CA.Not only it is Halloween today,

(01:00:25):
but I am joined by avery special guest, Zach.
And Zach, you've got quite a historyand when it comes to RFI horror stories,
tell about yourself.I do, I do.
Thanks for having me, Matt.This is great.
And the chats that we had,before we hopped on, I love it.
I'm more and moreexcited as we get into it.

(01:00:48):
So a little bit about me, I'mbased here in New York City.
And also now that I've wornthe mask for a little bit,
for Halloween, I'm gonna take you off.Also, no need to obscure my identity.
New York City based,New York area raised.
Originally got mystart right out of college,

(01:01:08):
which by the way, I went to collegefor political science and legal studies.
And now I do real estate development,design management and
construction management.So message to the kids out there.
It doesn't matterwhat you graduated with.
On your bachelor's, you can always pivot.So fear not.
So once I graduated,just wasn't really
sure what I wanted to do.I was studying for law school.

(01:01:31):
Not enthused, nothing against attorneys,but just kind of sense
that it just wasn't reallywhat I wanted to do with
the rest of my life for it.It just wasn't, you
have to like what you do.And I grew up just
outside the city on Long Island.And my dad was a developer out there.
And growing up, I kindof always just looked at,

(01:01:53):
and he was a developer and also a GC,kind of vertically integrated.
Small stuff, nothingmajor, mostly like homes,
like high value homes,some multifamily work,
some retail work, some out of groundwork.So growing up, I kind of just,
I looked atconstruction as like a summer job.
It wasn't really, I didn'treally look at it as a career,

(01:02:16):
which is funny because I lived in a homewith someone who made it a career,
a very successful career.But when you're growing up,
you don't reallythink about it like that.
So after college, but quick non-sequitur,actually right after college,
a bunch of my friends weregoing to get their masters
or already had full-time jobs lined up.And I was nervous, I
didn't know what to do.So I did what any 22 year

(01:02:38):
old who wasn't sure what to dowould do when I moved
to Alaska for six months.Wow. And yeah,
I was a helicopter tour guide for theMendlet Hall Glacier
for about six monthsbefore, and it was great.
Really into hiking at the time, still am.Back then it was like, if I didn't know
what I wanted to do,may as well just go hike for six months

(01:02:59):
and get paid for it.It's not a bad gig.
Can't complain of that.We go off-roading and
sometimes we get rewardedfor doing trails for Onyx, right?
It's a pretty cool app.So if you're
off-roading, that's what we do.So yeah, it's nice to get
paid for what you love doing.It is, it's great.
I'm fortunate to be in that position now.But when I came back from Alaska,

(01:03:21):
I was trying to figureout what I wanted to do.
And I just remember mydad, thick New York accent,
comes home one day and he sees meat the kitchen table studying
and obviously not looking too happywith my LSAT practice
scores and all that.And he walks in and he goes,
"Dude, what are you doing?You're miserable.
Come out with me onthe job site tomorrow,

(01:03:41):
see if you like it."And I'll never forget this.
And I credit a lot of it towhy I'm very roll up my sleeves
with my own company.I get to the job site and
I guess wishful thinkingor a hopeful optimism.
I step out of my car andI'm like, "Okay, great."
Like, am I managing, likesee my dad and walk over?

(01:04:02):
Am I managing a crew?Like, what's on my docket today?
And he hands me a shovel and a broom.And he goes, "You dig until you know
what's going on here."And I was like, "I have a college degree.
What do you mean, sir?Like, hold on.
This is beneath me."And again, Matt, to this day,
I credit that with myattitude really in general.

(01:04:23):
It cultivated myability to treat everyone
with equal respect.I've been on job sites
where not everyone is treatedwith equal respect and
that's critical for me.Always hello, goodbye.
Thank you for your work.And it also helps with my

(01:04:44):
construction management chopsbecause when you're
actually in the trenches yourselfyou're doing it.
To start when you'rerunning conduit for electrical
and you're running copper andwaste lines and digging holes
and setting forms forconcrete foundations
and drilling helical piles.And I've done it all.

(01:05:04):
Not all, all, but most, I would say.You understand the timings of things.
You understand the sequencing of things.I can walk onto a job site
and without even speaking to the super,I can know what comes next.
And I can make sure that that's scheduledand make sure that that's all in play.
Which is kind of like my ace in the holewhen it comes to what

(01:05:24):
I do now with Meerkat.But without getting too ahead.
Worked with my dad for a couple of years.Then I decided that
I, and most of his workwas on Long Island,
pretty much all of his work.And my sites were set a little higher.
So I started lookingfor jobs in the city.
Started working with AGC that focusedon mostly hospitality based work.

(01:05:45):
So restaurants, some retailfood and beverage concepts
on the GC side.And some multifamily work
and then some out of ground work as well.So I was pretty well
rounded those first couple yearsin New York City.
From there I went to acouple of the GCs in total,

(01:06:08):
almost 10 years working on the GC side.About nine and a half.
And I like to say that my last GC clientwas a Danish coffee brand
called Joe and the Juice.Because I, yeah, you
may have heard of them.But they hired a
company that I was working forto build a couple stores for them.

(01:06:30):
And I was the lead PM.So I got to, you know,
liaise with their team.And when we opened up the third store
that we opened with them, they were like,hey, what's with all the change orders?
And I was like, well, you know, I hategetting change orders.
It's not, I don't like it.It's not, I'm not happy about it,

(01:06:51):
but your plans weren't great.And so, you know, we missed a couple
details here and there.If you're happy with the
product, I'm happy with it.I'm not happy I have to
give you these change orders,but you need someone on the inside
who's gonna be, you know,reviewing these in greater detail.
Maybe you have someone alreadyand we need to
supplement them or what have you.And I could see the gears

(01:07:13):
returning and they were like,well, how much you just come work for us.
And I was like, hmm,hadn't considered that,
but let's do it, new adventure, why not?So I joined up with them
and there was a great directorof development when I came on.
He left shortly after Icame on, a matter of months,

(01:07:35):
maybe two months.And then I got thrust into
the head of development chair.One of the first things
that I did out the gatewas basically review
all of our unsigned leasesand work letters and
all of our documentationto make sure that what we
were getting ourselves intowasn't going to cause, you know,
potential forheartache for years sometimes.

(01:07:59):
You know, you know as well as I do,if you don't have a
gas line or you need itand you have to deal with the utilities,
it can be a chore to say the least.And timing, which we'll
get into in today's show.Yes, sir, yes, sir.
So once we kind of aligned and started,we beefed up our brand

(01:08:19):
standards a little bitso we could actually move at speed.
When I came on, I think wehad maybe five or six stores
and when I left, we had just over 40.So, nice, pretty quick.
Yeah, all in a spanabout two and a half years.
So we moved quick.How many were you managing at that time?
What was that?How many were you managing at that time?

(01:08:42):
Like personnel.Yeah.
So when I came on, it was just me.And then-- Just you and them.
Yeah, okay.And then how many projects,
you were managing all those40 kind of over the 24 months?
I was the direct point of contact,but the good thing is that
once we developed a storein a market, so when I came on,
I think we had one store in LA.By the time I left, I

(01:09:04):
think we had four or fiveand I was able to rely
on that market managerfor boots on the ground Intel.
They weren't necessarilylearned on construction,
but I got to like, even if,even though it was
challenging at the time,it actually allowed me
to learn how to speakabout complicated things
when it comes to constructionand more simple terms,

(01:09:27):
which in turn actually allows meto be a really good owner's rep
because my clients are not exactlyconstruction experts
and I don't expect them to be.But if I can explain how
a screw hit a copper lineand now we're spewing and
we need to hit the ball valveand all that, if I can condense that down

(01:09:47):
and make it more simple,then makes my job easier
and makes it less complicated,which leads to less stress for everyone.
So I actually, again,at the time, I was like,
man, I really wish I had somebody who,I could fly around the country
who knew what I was talking about,but pressure makes diamonds.
So.(laughs) Exactly.

(01:10:08):
And going back, like justvery inspired and intrigued
and kudos to your dadkind of taking a site
and giving you that real life experience.And like you said it yourself,
you gain your ownperspective and appreciation
and which for yourwhole entire career and life
is kind of taking on that role ofrealizing everyone's equal

(01:10:31):
and that kind of stuff and you've got it.And share a similar story
of my own, like grade 11,I just walked onto a
construction site and said,I want to work, I don't care.
Let me just hitsomething, let me hammer something,
let me dig, tell me, show me the ropes.And to this day, like,
there's been lots of milestonesin life and everything,
but that's one of those,probably in those top tens,

(01:10:53):
where the sitesupervisor, Sean, gave me a chance
and said, sure, you want to work for us,we'll pay eight bucks, I'll do three.
And to this day, like, youknow it, you get it, right?
When you're starting adrawing, you're looking at details,
your mind's eye just starts formulating,building that itself.
And unfortunately, a lot of architectsthat are coming into this game,

(01:11:17):
they've never even picked up a hammer.They've never loaded
up a Brad Naylor, right?You don't even know what
the compressor does, right?All these things,
like some simple things,let alone the challenge
that they face on site,or the other thing is the detailing.
Let's just bring this Evecoming into this little thing.
No problem, I can draw it in Revit.Yeah, how the heck are you going
to actually build that on site?You know, anyways, so that's so awesome.

(01:11:41):
Always inspiring tohear others go through
that similar kind of experience.And the way that your dad, that's top
notch, that's awesome.The old school guy,
unfortunately he's left us,but you know, I kind of, it's okay.
I live my life in his image daily.Really, really special guy.

(01:12:04):
But it's funny that you say thatbecause I get that sense too.
And I think that for a lot of owners repsand project management firms,
I can understand why they do it,but I really only
hire people who are PMs,as PMs who have actual
construction experience.Because I think that there's a lot,

(01:12:28):
even if you have aconstruction management degree,
if you haven't spent anextended amount of time on site,
if you haven't gone from a demoed spaceto a completed space
and been on site every dayin your steel toes and gotten dusty
and actually sensedit and heard everything
and belt it, movepipe yourself, whatever,

(01:12:50):
it's hard to conceptualize the process.In real terms and not in these lofty
kind of like theoretical ideas of like,hey, this comes after
this, not for this one, man.And if you were on
site, you would know thatwe're gonna do our HVAC after the ACT

(01:13:11):
or something likethat for whatever reason.
So there's all kinds ofintricacies in this business.
And I think that a lotof people lose the idea
that there's intricacy becausethey want a one size fits all
like a universal applicationbecause SOPs are
nice, they're comfortable.But that's not always the

(01:13:32):
case in our business, is it?No, yeah, so many times.
And that's the big thing.You draw and you spend
hours detailing this way,this way, this building,
maybe it has a step foundation,whatever the case is.
And then it gets to siteand something goes wrong.
Just like, oh, it was so detailed.We even walked you through some of these.
You even asked RFI's about this?Still couldn't follow

(01:13:56):
the simple instructions,but no, it's all good, life changes.
But it's having that right attitude,being adaptable in site
and how can we work togetherto kind of get it back on track.
Exactly.So given being Halloween,
all the RFI horror stories,the surprising
submittals, changes, everything,we've got a variety of

(01:14:20):
topics that we'll seewhere we get through today and everything
because with your hugeamount of experience,
again, from being in the field,being now to the owner's rep site,
I'm sure you've got a handful of storiesthat we can banter back and forth
and keep the names out of itand do with discretion and professional.
But again, for thelisteners that do listen to this,

(01:14:41):
they really appreciate the fact that,hey, it's called a learning curve, right?
Take it as a learningmoment of your own of going,
oh, shoot, I've got a similar jobthat might be in the same process.
Or I'm actually in thatsame moment right now,
how do I get out of this?And I know the listeners
that really appreciate this.So one of them, and again, we'll keep

(01:15:02):
this very Halloweenish,but uncovering the demo works.
Oh, spooky.(laughing) Well, first off, have you ever uncovered
through a renovation or aTI or anything like that
in your demo and something?Have you seen anything like really crazy,
like a message in the bottle or skeleton?Man, I have.

(01:15:24):
Yeah, I have, it's alittle gross of a story.
So I'm gonna tell you,and if we wanna edit it,
because it's not fitfor universal consumption,
we'll do that, but I'll tell you.We'll put you on the episode saying,
this is a little bit out there.Warning, skeletal remains.
But not a human.We were doing a project,

(01:15:49):
a big multifamilyadaptive reuse renovation
in Midtown East in Manhattan.Building was very old, very, very old,
and it was under-maintained for decades,which I think is why my
client was able to pick it upfor relatively cheap.
And the plans looked great.You know, the renders looked great.

(01:16:13):
Day one.(laughing)I'm sorry, it's just so funny.
Day one, we do our ribbon cutting.We're in there, we have a
sledgehammer up on a scaffoldwe're ready to start
taking down the ceiling.Matt, I kid you not,
we take our first hit.It was like three guys with sledgehammers

(01:16:37):
up going into the ceiling.(laughing)
Like, not even kidding,hundreds of dead rat skeletons.
This is so, so New York, right?No kidding.
Someone was recording this, right?Oh my God, I wish, I wish.

(01:16:57):
We had the ribbon, like thebig scissors and the ribbon,
and then the scaffold and we were like,hey, one, two,
everybody's in a hard hat, three.They hit it, rat skeletons falling,
hitting people in the head.People start screaming, they're like,
oh my God, what is that?(laughing) What?

(01:17:18):
Oh man, at least none are moving too.Oh my, oh, that's wild.
Yeah, typically notjust one, just so cheap.
Insane.Less, less gross, I guess you could say,
but most of the demothat I've done in New York,
especially in these older spaces,you always find some
kind of weird time capsulefrom days past.

(01:17:42):
I remember I was takingapart a space to do a yoga studio
and in the Upper East Side in Manhattan,and we took down some walls,
and I think I found theremains of someone's lunch
from the 80s, so it was likea can of tab, remember tab?

(01:18:05):
Did you guys have that up in Canada?Yeah, no, we had, what was the,
anyways, yeah, yeah,spam, that kind of stuff.
Exactly, like discontinueditems and sodas and all that.
And so, I don't know, it's like you'restepping back in time
when you're taking thestuff apart sometimes.

(01:18:30):
And I'm trying to thinkif there was anything else
that was super funky.Oh, we did find, this is
funny, we were taking apart a,we were doing some demo
on a bed and breakfaston Nantucket to basically
update it to be a boutique propertyand we found a safe in the basement.

(01:18:51):
Under, there was abasement and no one knew
that there was a sub-basementuntil we actually
started redoing the floors.And so, we found the
safe and we were like,whoa, what's in this thing?
And we called the locksmith,the locksmith was booked out a week
because it's an island, Nantucket,so we were like, everybody's staring at
the safe for a week.We're like, what's in it?

(01:19:12):
Like, you think there'sa million bucks in it?
What do you think is in it?Memoirs, what is it?
Stock bonds, youknow, what could this be?
One letter.Like hundreds of dollars and like,
turns out, so anticlimactic,turns out that it's
like a couple of boxesof like empty, empty like jewelry boxes

(01:19:32):
from like necklacesand bracelets and stuff.
And I was like, whywould you lock this up?
Give us something cool.But it was like the talk
at the site for like that.It was like, what do
you think is in the safe?And like everybody's like
outside having a cigarette.It's like, I bet it's
somebody's birth certificatefrom the 1800s or something like that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.Oh, that would have been fine.

(01:19:53):
You guys, yeah, youshould have had like a pool
and in the end it sounds like nobodywould have gotten it,
which is unfortunate.It wasn't as crazy as it could have been.
When we were doing arenovation of my last house
and everything, becausewe were sub-flooring it up,
you know, because it wascarpet and we made it all level
and then we're gonna put new flooring.And then of course I
put the underlayment down.And before I put the
underlayment down, I was like,you know what, someone's

(01:20:15):
gonna rip up this floor one dayand I'm not gonna be here.
So I quickly like didthe whole police, you know,
murder scene, you know, lie down.Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I got, you know, I got mykids to draw all around me
and then I put them down there.And then I said, the
Brennans are watching you.So the moment someone redoes that floor,
that laminate floor in my old house,which I'm not there anymore,

(01:20:37):
the moment they rip that up,they won't wanna be there anymore.
And it wasn't bad, but you know,even did in bread and Sharpie.
And again, it wasn't too creepy,but it would be, it'd set me
off if I was in that moment.I'd be like, shit, I'm just
ripping off the entire floor.Let's just reframe the house.
You know, I don't care.Call the ghostbusters.
Exactly.Let's have a little bit of fun.

(01:20:59):
Fact of we're watching you.It's just like, yeah, I
thought it was pretty brilliant.I love that, man.
I love that.So do that.
When you're doing your redos,do that whole time
capsule thing if you can.I think that's kind of fun.
We did it one school where wedid put an actual time capsule
and put a vault under there.And it was all the students for the year
when the school was completed,they all got to put their stuff

(01:21:19):
and then they sealed it off and saying,we'll open this in 20 years or something
and made a big plaque.And yeah, it was pretty cool.
And it was a neat idea.And I think doing that
for more and more jobs,I think is kind of fun.
Shows the history of where we've beenand to hear where it
is and predictions too.Yeah.
And it looked cool.I'll just put an old iPhone in there

(01:21:42):
so that when someoneunearths it and they're like,
what's this?And it's because we have our phones
implanted in our heads at that point.So they're like, why would
you need a device for that?Like I can call my dad right now.
Like,(laughs)Well, I'm getting, I
don't know about you,but I'm getting the,
you know, I just turned 42and I was working with a young group
and everything before and I was like,oh yeah, that was on the floppy disk.

(01:22:06):
I was on a CD and they'rejust kind of a dumb founder.
You're like, no, come on.You gotta tell me how a CD is like or.
Oh, you mean the save icon?Yeah, exactly.
What's that?Napster, that sounds like a cool drink.
No, no, no, no.It was a big revolution
where you had to download music.What do you mean
download and part and burn CDs?How did you burn CDs?
Oh goodness.Oh, I get it, man.

(01:22:27):
I get it.Totally.But yeah, other than a pipe and
everything like that,I, you know, we've kind of looking
when we're at any schools,that was kind of our biggest surprises.
One demo and again, at this last place,for me from a horror
story was I was getting some,I put in some incelium
speakers and everythingand you know, to get the
lines over to the side wall,you know, basically I

(01:22:50):
had to drill through joistsand then fish it over and
then it went in behind the crownand it was all nice and clean
because it was a renovation, right?I didn't want to tear
off the whole ceiling.Well, the first hole I
drilled through the joists,no problem, but I wanted, it was getting,
trying to fish the line,it was just being really finicky.
I wasn't getting anywhere.So I thought, oh,
I'll drill another hole,but on an angle, second hole.
Well, of course my luck and I, you know,this is how I went in the lottery,

(01:23:12):
just in the sense of Imanaged to hit a half inch
pex pipe right dead on.Boom.
Thankfully I had the crawlspace door open, ran down.
The thing was out in twoseconds, but I was like,
Rick, now I got to really rip up the wallor the ceiling just to fix this.
Oh, it's just like my luck kind of stuff.So those are, those are the demos,

(01:23:33):
the demo side of it, butyeah, always, always good fun.
Lead times, that's anultimate true nightmare
on its own in that sense.Were you, you know, even like today,
but like, have youever been where you just
couldn't complete aproject because the lead time
was so, so long?Yes.Yeah.

(01:23:53):
The first one thatcomes to mind is the one
that I rallied against forweeks until the designers
finally overruled me.I was a general contractor
and they were insistent,insistent to use a specific
Calicata marble forall of the countertops.
It was, it was a 250unit multifamily renovation,

(01:24:16):
interior renovation.Yeah.
So not a small amount of Calicata marble.No.
And when we spoke to the,to our Italian counterparts
about lead time, they werelike, I'm not even going to try
an Italian accent becausethat would be the scariest thing
on this podcast.I'm not going to do it.
Well, it's going to take.(laughs)Nice.

(01:24:38):
To my Italian friends,just know I love you.
I'm just messing with you.Yeah.
I think they said that itwould be something like four
weeks to, I don'tknow, just making it up,
but like four to six weeksto produce and then like six
to eight weeks at sea andthen three weeks to fabricate
on site or something like that.It turns out that when

(01:25:01):
they gave that lead time,they had assumed that they
had enough in that quarrythat they were already in.
So they got probablyabout 85% of what we needed
out of the quarry.And then they said, we're
all, there's nothing left.(laughs)

(01:25:23):
Another color.So then they were like,
you guys can wait six monthsfor us to go through the Italian
magistrate to allow usto open up our next
quarry in this vein of marbleor we can give you a different color.
The pink.Keep it a pink.

(01:25:46):
Lots of that.So he, yeah, no one uses pink anymore.
That's scary.Yeah, there's a scary topic.
Yeah.So I'll never forget on
one of the weekly calls,I'm like, guys,
engineered stone is produced herein this country.
Can we just like, can wefinish these off and then wait

(01:26:07):
for it to come in andthen just ref, like,
is there anything we can do?And the designer said,
the designers turnedto the project owners,
like, you know, the peopleinvested in this have spent
over a hundred milliondollars on this renovation.
And they go, can you guys wait six monthsto open the project?
And we're like, do youreally just not like, what?

(01:26:32):
Think about this, like,like, like a seven year old
would have the logicbehind, maybe I don't,
maybe I shouldn't evenrequest to wait for six months
when we've been on thisproject for three years.
No kidding.It's like, you know, like
you bring the kid example,you know, you just like
stand out of the toy store.We can go in.
No, can we, do you want to wait, youknow, five more hours

(01:26:55):
or?Exactly.Like, clearly we're not doing that.
So what did you find?Like, of course you didn't wait.
We know that, but.No, no, we didn't.
Yeah, well, the owner gotso upset at that comments
on that call thatthey basically just said,

(01:27:15):
you guys are all good here.We appreciate what you've
done for 85% of the units.We're going to figure
the rest out ourselves.And they just went, they went to a local,
a local, you know, stone fender,and they found the best match.
And they just, you know, they took one,one set of professional
photos and it's, to me,it looked effectively the same.

(01:27:36):
I'm not a designer and Irespect what designers do,
but to me, it lookedeffectively the same.
So I remember at the end of it, when we,when we sourced that,
they were like, this is like,25, 30% lower than
what we got from Italy.And I was like, I'm not,
I'm not going to say a word.I'm not going to say anything.
No, I made my case.I made my case.

(01:27:57):
I did not die on the hilland we moved on, but yes,
lead times, challenging, challenging.We also had most
recently, do you want one more?No, no, no, keep going.
You're on a roll.We also had more recently,
we had a project we weredoing where the elevator company
told us it would be 12months and six months in,

(01:28:19):
they said it would be another 18.And we were like, that can't happen.
So what do we do?And it took, I think
three or four calls with themfor them to finally
realize that what we had,or what they had included in their spec
was actually not what we needed.And it was an oversight

(01:28:41):
by the general contractorto basically sign off on that spec
when it wasn't even what we had requestedin the first place.
So, it took some really granular andnuanced detailed review
to understand that like,we don't have to wait 18 months
for something we don't even want.So all good.

(01:29:03):
And then we got it acouple of months later.
So it was fine.Yeah.Yeah.
Like there's always a solution,always, always a solution, always.
They're totally, yeah.And that's the thing is just,
again, how can one pivot lookat it and then work with it?
But one elevator horror story I hadwas we were doing brand new high rises.
And the first thing is owner,because it was a private developer,

(01:29:25):
so we had a little bit of flexibility,wasn't going like a
open tender or something.We said, all right,
what elevator group doyou want to work with?
Well, we really like this group.Fantastic.
I love them too.Done them a lot of schools.
And called them up, said,this is what we're doing.
We've got an 18 and a 22 story high risegoing in this location.
What model do you recommend?How many, you know, where

(01:29:47):
we're thinking two for sure.You know, we're thinking a third.
Yeah, these are it.Got the model, got the parts,
it's a great game.Y'all the cut sheets, drew up the core,
perfect, sent it back,had this coordination.
And then we started drawing.Fast forward three years,
once everything was all,or not even, I think
just two years or whatever,but basically once
you got all the permitsand they were, I finally got the parkade

(01:30:07):
and they're finally doing the tower.Then we get the shop drawings.
I'm like, this is notwhat we talked about.
This is,this is different.
So we had to make some radical changes,but again, just trying to be proactive.
And it's like, please let usgo back to what you gave me.
It's all documented, but just thenightmare that brings,
because now you're designing on the flyand you're like, what am I compromising?

(01:30:29):
Because, and there's no options,because this is, we've
changed the model or whatever.Oh, anyway, so.
Oh, I know it.Yeah.
Important kind of key.Those almost shaped the whole project.
This little, the heart, you know,sometimes shouldn't be,
but it does and it changes.But yeah, just
wrapping up the lead times.One thing was we had a few
jobs that couldn't wrap upbecause they didn't get the

(01:30:51):
distribution panels on time.Now, two though, they
didn't listen to us,listen to myself when
we're at the first site meetingsaying, where's the panel shop drawings?
Because I want to review this and givethis back to you today
because I know this isn'ta three month lead time.
We're still having supply chain issues.This is going to be eight to 12 months
and your projectschedule is only eight months.
So we're not going to energize this.You're not going to get substantial.

(01:31:14):
What do you want to do?Just get those drawings, those shop
drawings to us right now.Get that order and right
away so we can avoid that.So yeah, lead times lead times that suck,
but what has been themost shocking change order
that you've seen to date?Ooh.A lot of them.
This one's a fun one.I did a project recently

(01:31:42):
in which, I don't know.Yeah, I mean, I guess it's
a good one to talk about.So it's a cautionary
tale into making surethat you standardize your
bid template for an RFP.We were doing a project, a restaurant,

(01:32:08):
and for whatever reason,the owner didn't want to use a
standardized template.And the drawback with that is that
you get different proposalsthat cover different things
that are in different formats,and it's harder to ensure that you have
a full and cohesive GC packagewhen you're seeing
totally different formats.So we had, my team is very circumspect

(01:32:37):
and very careful when it comes to review.We had four GCs, all with
different bid templates,all with different
exclusions, exclusions.It was just messy to say the least.
Not by our doing, morejust because we approached it
in a way that was not themost effective way to start.

(01:33:02):
And so we ended up goingwith a GC who was the lowest,
which is not always the bad thing.I know everyone says like, "Lowest GC,"
but if you're properlybettered and they're hungry,
it's fine.We start the project,
we sign the contract,we start the project, and they go,

(01:33:26):
"Okay, so who's gonna buy all the lightfixtures in the tile?"
And I was like, "You,what do you mean who?
It's you.You want me to go and buy 60 hi-hats?
That's not for me to do,that's not for the owner to do."
And they were like,"Well, per our contract,"

(01:33:48):
and I cut them off right there.I was like, "Listen, we
just signed this thingsix hours ago.
I still have an opportunity,probably legally, to nullify this.
I need to know right now if you'reincluding this or not,
or if this is some kind of game."And I shook them a little bit.
I think I screwed with them a little bit.Because I tone drop, and I was just like,

(01:34:11):
"You are not messingwith the right person here.
We are not going to allow this to happenthis early in the project especially."
No.So go back to your bid
sheet, put it on this bid format.I don't like overruling my client,
but sometimes you needto do things a certain way
because you know thatthey're tried and true.
And put it all into this.Mark out your inclusions and your

(01:34:34):
exclusions in this box.Put it this way.
And magically, a $75,000change order disappeared.
Oh, surprise, surprise.Crazy.Yeah.
Good on you for saying the precedent,because that's always that game, I find,

(01:34:55):
from the architectural standpoint.That first change order,
and when it's not even legit,it's kind of like,
where you raise your eye,and go, "What the heck is this?
Or where is this coming from?"That moment, that second that comes over,
how you handle it,that sets the precedent
over where thingsbecome second nature to the,
it just becomes, "Oh, ofcourse we'll give a new change

(01:35:17):
or they'll prove it."Because they did it on this
one and this one and this one.But if you stand your
ground like you said and went,"Hold on, we're ready
to cancel this thing.We'll start from scratch
and get a new GC on this."That was, I agree, that
was the right approachbecause you set the
precedent going forwardthat smarten up, do your job.
Bingo.Yes.Let's work together and just start.

(01:35:39):
Let's make something great here.But let's not get into this nonsense.
Totally.And I always like to say two things
when it comes to change orders.One is that I was a GC.
I know that game.GCs that I've worked
with have been amazing.All of them I would work with again
and they're still on my bid lists.But I do know just being on the inside

(01:36:01):
that part of the GCbusiness is doing things like that.
They could be themost genuine GC possible,
but if there is an opportunity for themto increase their profit margin,
rationally they will.So it makes sense to
me, but like you said,sets the precedent.
Being on the GC side,if you send that first change order

(01:36:26):
and it's signeduncontested, it's open season.
Yeah, that's right.It's like it's, you can,
I'm not gonna say that theclient becomes a doormat,
but it's more like you knowthat if there are certain things
that you would normallyinclude for a client relationship
that maybe you misswith your subcontractors
such as Finset when you're doing tile.If your subcontractor didn't include it

(01:36:50):
because they thought theyhad a flush stub straight
to begin with and they didn't need itor flash patching, things like that,
then you would know notto go to the client on that
and you would just eat it.You would eat the
cost and your 25% marginwould become 24.8.
But if you know they're gonna go for it,flip it over to them
with additional OH and Pand general conditions.

(01:37:11):
Why not?Because why not?
Yeah, so.Oh, how do you think?
You wanna make thatextra money too and I get it.
But that's whereyou're having a good team
on both friends makes the difference.Yeah, and I always say
in my project interviews,for Meerkat, I'm
like, listen, I was a GC.I know the dirty tricks.
I know how that process works.So I'm able to poke holes in

(01:37:33):
it and read between the linesand understand if it's legitimate or not.
And you know if I come toyou owner and I tell you,
hey, this is a legitimate change order,that you know that I've fully assessed it
and that I fully vetted it.I've reviewed it against
the plans, their contract,their inclusions,
their schedule of values,their exclusions and it
is a valid change orderthat was either a design
miss, a field condition,whatever the case.

(01:37:54):
If it was my miss, I'd tell them too.Like, hey, I missed
this in the scope review.Yeah.
You know, I'm sorry.But that's why we
hold, you know, five to 10%for change orders and
field conditions because,you know, I know everyone is so excited
to work with a robot.But to me, I think that there's,
even though mistakes happen,there's a beauty to working with humans
because if you have agood team, it's exciting.

(01:38:18):
You know, errors andall, warrants and all.
So.Yeah, absolutely.
Again, that collaboration is key, 100%.And yeah, kind of as
you were talking about,like one story, I think
I was sharing it before,but it was doing six
daycares throughout the province.And so we issued, you know, there was,
mechanical came to a fire damper changeand now we had to add one location.

(01:38:40):
So guess what?Six proposed changes went out
to all these different daycares.We're all being built by different GCs.
And some of the subtrades were on the same jobs.
So when we got pricing, it was like,yep, good, good, good.
This is odd.This one's a lot.
And it's like, this is way high.Oh no, that's fair market value.
I'm like, well, do you want me to go getthe other sub trade that's
doing my other, you know,school to do the same thing?

(01:39:02):
But anyways, that'sjust, yeah, don't, yeah.
And that's the precedent.Cause there is that moment where
there's going to be a mistake on sitewhere it's going to like,
hey, can you scratch my back this time?And vice versa.
And it's just, yeah, again,going back to the team
atmosphere and that attitude,it does play really well.
Cause yeah, we're humanthings are going to happen,

(01:39:23):
you know, if it's fairand reasonable, absolutely.
You know, we'll pay forit and that kind of stuff,
but don't start nickel in and diming overa little, little stupid
things here and there.Cause it's just going
to come back and bite youwhen there's a big screw up
and we've got toaccommodate that, you know, on site.
Yeah.And look, it's, you
bring up a good point.And this is something that I do
and that I don't thinkall owners reps do is,

(01:39:44):
and I tell my clients that I do it.Like I think some,
there's, there's three categoriesfor what I'm about to tell you.
And one is they try to keep the budgetas razor thin as
possible at the beginning.Then you end up with a
boatload of additional costs.Then there's the second option.
The second methodologyfor GC budgeting is to,
this is my preferred, isto, is to tell them, you know,

(01:40:09):
Hey, listen, things are going to come up.I think we need a contingency.
I think I call, Idon't call it a contingency
because sometimes theythink contingency is free money.
I call it, I call it, andcause language is important.
I call it the piggy bank.So we're only breaking
that up in case of emergency.We're only breaking that
if you miss it, I miss it,the sub miss it, the owner missed it.

(01:40:31):
That's, that's what,that's what that's for.
That's not if you missedsomething or you bid something
that's non-conquipliantthat you can break that
because you can't and I'll catch you.So do not.
But it's kind of like a debit account.It's like, Hey, we need overtime
so we can make our date this Saturday.I don't want to change order for that.
I want you to takethat from our piggy bank.

(01:40:53):
And, you know, I don't want to increasethe contract value for that.
And if you use all ofit, then you use all of it.
Right.If you don'toftentimes what I'll talk to my,
to my client about,I'll say like, Hey, listen,
we have another like5,000 bucks in piggy bank
and the GC did a great job.Just let them keep it.
It's a project bonus.You know, it's like
ultimately end of the day,especially if we're doing like a

(01:41:15):
multi-location rollout,we want partners who are
excited to work with us again.It's, it's so much less.
I think a lot of peoplesee it as like a unit thing.
And I'm building a company in which Ilike to treat people
so equitably that theywant to jump out of their seat
when I call them tohelp me with something
because time is alwaysthe enemy in this business.

(01:41:38):
So I need to havereliable people who I could call
even for like, like you said,like a market rate change order check,
say, Hey, do you havefive minutes to review
whether this is legit?That means everything to me.
And I do that by makingsure everybody's paid on time.
Everybody's treated with respect.I, hello, goodbye.
Thank you for your work.It's, it's all important stuff.

(01:42:01):
Yeah.No, I absolutely, you're right.
Again, the whole teamattitude, it works better.
And yeah, I've been onjobs on both where it's like,
I don't want to work with this GC everagain kind of stuff.
But, but these ones,I can't wait to do the next
job with them because it was,we were, we were cracking the champagne
at the end of the projectbecause it was so exciting.
It was thrilling.It was worth it.
It wasn't that bitter, youknow, bitter moment going,

(01:42:23):
Oh, we finished the job.Great job teaming.
You have to give that,you know, well done speech.
And it's like, I can't dothis because it's not me.
This was all lies.There is no harmony at this point.
Totally man.No, too funny.
But have you seen a lot ofprojects die and get revived

(01:42:47):
and come back to life?I've seen projects, yes and no.
A lot of times when I'm doing,I'm working with most,
most of my clients right noware either venture
backed or like investor backedconcepts that are looking
to expand and expand quickly.So a lot of times it's

(01:43:09):
not that the projectswill necessarily be live, but you know,
we'll be working on a potential location,call it one, two, three
main street for like a month,two months, three months.
And for whatever reason,either the landlord tries
to renegotiate at the endor the seller tries to
renegotiate at the end.And we may have
schematics test fits, you know,we might even be close to

(01:43:32):
like design documentationand a permit set by the
time we get the call that says,and this doesn't happen
often because I typically tryto make sure that we
don't get too over our feesbefore it gets too far ahead.
Yeah, recently I've hada couple that, you know,
whether they're fromrenegotiation or from, you know,
a change in theunderwriting, a change in the eventual,

(01:43:55):
you know, the endusers operating expenses
doesn't start to makesense with the, you know,
with the rent and thecommon area maintenance charges
and things like that, that they just die.And it's the first couple
of times that it happened,it was like, felt, I mean,
sad of course, but you know,cause you put a lot of

(01:44:15):
work into these things,but then it also, I don't know,
not to get likeesoteric and philosophical,
but I think that notnecessarily that everything happens
for a reason, but I dothink that if there is,
it's not like any deal is perfect.There's no 100%, yes,

(01:44:36):
everyone's super happywith everything on this
thing, but if there are dealsthat have, you know, what
I call like a lot of hairor like a lot of
complication, if you try to force itthrough, that doesn't go away.
It just kind of gets swept under the rugand then eventually
it rears its ugly headand then you get
delayed for a couple of weeksor you have a field
condition or the landlord forcessomething on you that, you know,

(01:44:57):
you don't want to be forced upon.And so at the first couple of times,
but I just kind of feltreally sad and I was like,
oh, I wish we got that one.Now I'm just like,
okay, wasn't gonna work.Wasn't gonna work to begin with.
And whether that's like,you know, a coping mechanism,
whether it's real, younever know, but either way,

(01:45:18):
it allows me to mournfor exactly 34 minutes
and then I'm on to the next.So it's more of just like a mental shift.
Perspective or a perspective shift.It's not often that I see them die and
then get resurrectedas much as I try to

(01:45:38):
warm up the defibrillators.A lot of times they go and
they go and they stay gone.I had two deals
recently that were put on,I think the term used
was indefinite pause,which is a euphemistic
way of saying they've died.But the good thing with them is that

(01:45:59):
they're large enough,I think that, and they
were far enough alongon design and
contemplation regarding business plan.And, you know, we had
stakeholders involvedand all the contracts are cut now,
but what was cool is that, you know,when we were able to
ascertain that they were, you know,kind of put on life support,

(01:46:21):
I had the idea toreach out to the sellers
of the projects basically and say,"Hey, would you be open to
me brokering this thing?"Because that would allow
my team to continue working,that would allow the
designers, the architects,the general
contractor, everybody that was,the projects were mid-flight.
We were cooking and then we got the call,shovels down, pencils down, you know,

(01:46:43):
mouse and keyboards down.And they were like, "Yeah,
if you find a buyer, you know,you guys slot right in,
we get our check, we walk,and you guys build the rest."
And so I am grateful to be anentrepreneur in many ways,
but a lot of times in moments like that,I'm like, if I was just a, you know,

(01:47:04):
a director at a company,I wouldn't necessarily have the liberty
or the ability orcontacts to be able to do that.
But I've been, you know,kind of like selling
those around a little bit,you know, kind of
like parading them aroundin conversations that I have at
networking events and such.And there's some good interest.
So I'm hoping,I'm hoping that I can resurrect them
because they're great projects,but I'm not going to hold my breath.

(01:47:28):
You know, I'm moving forward.And if they come
back, then I'll staff up.And if they don't,
then I'll staff up anyway,because I'm growing somewhere else.
So only forward, only forward.A hundred percent.
Yeah, there was onespecific city district
that really does kill a lot of projectsbecause their review

(01:47:48):
times are just completelynot reasonable, not ethical, it's bad.
And that's where we've seen jobs go infor a development permit,
just to get that approvaljust from the shape and form.
And that goes in there for two years.And they just, you know, it's like,
what's going on, what's going on?And they just play the game.

(01:48:10):
Oh, it's under review.It's under review.
It goes to this council meetingand just nothing relating to the project,
but just very resilient.And not just geared towards individuals,
it's geared justtowards the whole community.
And that's probablyone of the other reasons
why we have a housingcrisis at that moment,
because these permitsare just taking so long.
So we've seen owners justsay, this is not worth it.

(01:48:30):
This district is such a waste of my time.And they basically just sell it.
And then you get someowner that does come back,
who has time that goes andthey'll pick up and be like,
hey, you did the concept drawings.Can we finish it?
Sure, sounds good.So we've seen that where
those projects have diedwithin the city, and
then they've been revivedand come back to life

(01:48:52):
in that kind of sense.But yeah, I'm trying to
think of any other onesthat I personally did.
I did a couple homes,really high-end homes.
And then unfortunately, they just said,yeah, we just don't have the budget now.
And I was like, well,that's why we were talking
about budget from day one, but hey,that's, I'm glad you at
least figured that outversus the thing half framed
and realizing you hadno money to finish it.
Like, so positive.Matt, let me ask you a question.

(01:49:16):
What do you think,talking about that district
that you were just talking about,that it's like the
quagmire, the perimeter quagmire.Why, I guess, two-part question.
Why do you think it's like that?And then what do you
think can be done to solve it?Is it a federal
government intervention issueonto local politics?

(01:49:39):
Is it an activism thing?Is it, because we deal with
that a little bit down herein New York.
There's somethingcalled a hotel special permit
that's required in orderto build any new lodging
out of grounds thatyou can do conversions.
But I don't know if you've seen the priceof a hotel room here, but
it's astronomically highbecause the supply is so small

(01:50:00):
because we have a lot of touristsand people love coming here.
Exactly.It is a net, it's a net negative
to not have moresupply coming into the city.
And I don't say that justas someone in development.
I say that as a NewYork City resident as well,
that we should have more hotel rooms,but for whatever

(01:50:20):
reason that permit existsand they give like two hotel
special permits a year too.Oh gee, so they are
really controlling themthat the amount of flow
of hotels coming into that.Interesting.
Yeah, and I think the reason whyis probably because they wanna focus
on multifamily development,but no one's building multifamily
because there's also somuch red tape and hurdles

(01:50:42):
and rat skeletons in the ceilingthat it's incredibly challenging.
So back to, I had aquestion, but please answer that one.
Yeah, I know.So I think I'll answer
your second question.Kind of like the one thing,
like we were doing a school, right?And we went for the
permit process and everything.And it still took a long time at this
particular district.And when we, you know,

(01:51:03):
like we kept calling themand calling them, hey,
when are we gonna getour first round of comments?
Is there any comments?And we got our comments
and I looked through itand it was like three, four pages.
And I was like, holy smokes,there's a lot of go-through.
So again, just copy andpaste that into a Word document
and then just started formally respondingto each little line item.
And there was a couple oflittle points that picked up.
But one thing I find with districtsand kind of doing this for so long,

(01:51:26):
it's like, why are you fussing aboutthese particular details?
This has nothing with you.What you guys should be
focusing on is A, the site plan,the zoning, you know,
make sure that we havethe right amount of parking stalls
based on your zoning by-law.If there's bike stalls,
those kinds of things,then the next plan you should
be looking at is life safety.Is it matching what the

(01:51:47):
building code is requiringand following that?
And then if anything, sure,skip to the end of the package
and look at the elevations,you know, the pretty pictures
and just making surethat matches what was done
at the development permit,you know, maximum heights,
you know, again, allbased on the by-laws.
Like that's what theyshould be working on.
But yet I find they gettotally cut up in the weeds

(01:52:08):
and it's like they'refocusing on this stuff.
And it's like, well, first of all,you got a building permit,
so we'll call that our 60%.By the way, we're so far ahead.
We're like that detailyou're looking at it,
it's done, it's not thishalf-baked detail or anything.
And then the other thing, the only thingthat should be looking at the floor plans
is just from theaccessibility requirements.
So it's really kind of buildings by-laws,what they should be

(01:52:29):
checking, checking the siteand then basically checking accessibility
and travel distanceand the fire life safety.
So it was like four plansthey should just be looking at
in depth, but they getso caught up in the weeds
and everything else.And going back to
this one school project,I had this individual plan checker
that unfortunately hadto go above her head.
We didn't want to do that.That was kind of the final
straw, but we had enough.She was trying to say what

(01:52:52):
the structural engineer notedfor his calculations are incorrect.
Hold on, excuse me.Are you signing off on these drawings?
Did you be part of this?This is none of your business.
He's the one that gave you his schedules.You know, he's got the liability on this.
And yet you're tellinghim to change the note.
That's not happening.End of story. That's wild.

(01:53:12):
Exactly.That's kind of the
stuff where they all wantto be their things.
Or again, when it comesto like development permit,
well, this is a real gray areabecause we can have the whole idea
what the building shouldlike based on my tastes
and your tastes and vice versa.What is it?
How is this helping the community?Yes, I don't want to see a square box up.

(01:53:34):
You know, I like having goodarchitecture in those cities
and anywhere for that matter,even if it's just a residential home.
I like seeing good creative architectureversus a single simple box.
Of course, yeah.But to be so critical
about how we're doing thingsand go through that process, you know,
is that really thebest effort of your time?
Is that really your business?Are you even allowed to comment

(01:53:55):
on that type ofdesign loading or something
or challenging the code?And those are the things I find that
cities get so buried inand it doesn't make sense, right?
It's like a number of years ago,I had to go renew my driver's license.
It was a five minute task in total,but I was there for two hours
because I had to go see this personand this person and this person.

(01:54:16):
It's the same thing with drawings.They do this whole thing.
There should be almost be like a managerin some of these cities that are just,
they're the pushers, right?They're basically
saying, okay, you got this day.I'm gonna see you tomorrow to grab it
and I'm gonna deliver itto Henry and engineering.
And while he's doingit, I've got the building.
Seriously, to gothrough some of these reviews,
it should take a weekand if you do it efficient

(01:54:40):
and hey, you would know even your queueis like a modular plan.
We know when it's gonna enter the queueand we know when it's gonna be done
because once it's thereand you could even have
this all online saying,yeah, it's entering the queue.
Just like if you bought acar off of Ford or something,
you could see, oh,it's in production, great.
Now we would lock down the estimate,date, time it's gonna
be delivered and done.And I think if we, going

(01:55:03):
back to the systematic sideof things in the city
halls and what they're doing,that's the problems that are not,
they're running everywhere.And the particular one
that I opened up with,yes, the government did get involved
because they're hearingall these horror stories
from all these peopleappealing and saying,
we're trying to solve the housing crisis.We're trying to build stuff,
but this district is justroad blocking us from the start.

(01:55:26):
The government hired a whole new staffto come in and help,
not help with the reviews,to help the
individuals doing the reviews.And it was just like, what are you doing?
And it did nothing.So we can have-
The bureaucracy.Yeah, bureaucracy.
I'm sure we could have awhole political podcast on that,
episode just on that.But to answer the question in short,

(01:55:48):
I think it's the processesthat are currently in place
and nobody really knowsand no one's interested
and they wanna run at this nice slow paceand they're looking at stuff
that really doesn'tapply to them necessarily.
Focus on what you're governing to do.I couldn't agree more.
And I think it's funnybecause I always like to joke
that there was a wholeindustry that came about

(01:56:10):
because government is soinefficient and it's expediting.
I don't know if you have that up in BC,but in New York,
there are people who arepaid handsome amounts of money
to know the ins andouts of the government
because it's so overly complicatedthat you basically pay someone for access
to the borough commissioner of Manhattanwhen you don't get a plan.
I just had to do it last week.I had a plan set that was in

(01:56:32):
for a post-approvalamendment to renew a permit
because we're stilldeveloping financing for it
and it wasn't looked at for six weeks.So I had to call in a favor
and spend X amount of dollarsfor them to pick up the phone
and call the borough commissionerto ask them to ask the person to review
and stamp approve our plans.Why?Yeah.

(01:56:53):
Crazy.(laughs) Yeah, shouldn't be.
Yeah, again, thewhole babysitting clause,
I don't want to babysit.I shouldn't have these automatic
reminders in my account.No.
You should be surprised at me.Oh, I got a permit.
That's awesome.Great, let's keep going.
Or you got good comments.Great.
But I had one district,I have to call them several times.
And again, this isdeveloped permit stage for,

(01:57:14):
and this was just a month.This is crazy.
It was like a $20 million home orsomething at the time.
They actually lost the drawings.And I'm like, when did
you lose the drawings?Was this last time I
spoke to you and followed up?Or was it, no, no, no, it
was about a few months ago.Oh my goodness.
I would have sent youbrand new drawings like that.
I would have put them printedand curve them over
to you in a heartbeat.Why couldn't you just tell me?

(01:57:37):
But.That's a horror story right there.
Recently I did aproject in a small township
in a state that's not New Yorkthat I hadn't worked in before.
I've worked in manymajor metropolitan areas,
but small townships,there's all these funky roles
and they have their way of doing thingsand there's no use in fighting.

(01:57:58):
So we got our plan set.Like I developed a Gantt chart.
Like we were good to go.We were ready to submit.
And I called the building department.I'm like, hey, what
email address should I senddigital copies of our permit set to?
And they were just like,no, we actually have to,
we actually have to receive full hardcopies of everything.
And I was like.It's a toiletry, yeah.

(01:58:21):
You want, you want what?It's 2025.
You want full paperhard copies of everything.
And I like, what?It was shocking.
Like I couldn't actually comprehend itbecause even since like 2013, 2014,
it's been digital submission via PDF.And basically every

(01:58:44):
major metropolitan areathat I've worked in.
I've dealt with the paperthing every once in a while,
but in like rural areas.Like I'm talking like middle of nowhere.
This is like an hourand a half drive outside
of New York city.Like it's not, it's a small town,
but it's not like it's boondocks.Right.
Yeah, it was crazy to me.I had to hop in the car

(01:59:05):
that day and drive themwhere else we were
going to be off schedule.Then I show up and it looks like,
it looks like themanuscript draft library
of like the Declaration of Independence.And I'm like, this is not organized.
I'm going to give you these plans.I was joking around with the clerk.
I was like, I'm goingto give you these plans.
How can you guaranteeyou're not going to lose them?
And she's like, we use apurple post-it note for it.

(01:59:25):
And I was like,Oh, purple.
Oh, of course that's your system.Purple post-it notes.
Well, not, I totally, I totally,if it was pink, that's different, right?
But purple, different story.Purple, purple, we're
going to keep track of.We had a similar story.
We had a district, same thing.They wanted all these brand new sets.
They're like, do youknow the cost of this?

(01:59:47):
We will go to Best Buy and we,or we'll order something
off online, off Amazon.We'll buy you a 42 inch monitor
and we'll give you the digital files,because it's cheaper for us to do that
and to print these dumb drawingsthat are going to be totally different
the next time that you want a revisionor you've got comments
because we're so fasttracking these anyways.

(02:00:08):
So too funny.But wrapping up this day of horror
stories has been great.If you kind of had to wrap
it up in a sentence or two,what would be some good advice
to kind of pass alongto the generation that,
or whoever is listeningto the show right now?
Yeah, I mean, I knowit's off-mentioned advice

(02:00:31):
and, but it rings true,is that over-communicate,
over-communicate,over-communicate, over-communicate.
Entering into a project where the,if you're building a restaurant
where the kitchen designerhas not met the architect
until you're already underwayon plans is a major mistake.

(02:00:56):
Entering into aproject where the millwork,
the case for the woodwork resource hasnot met the architect
and the architect hasto include their designs
in the plans, major mistake.Even though people might
feel like it's a waste of time,and I've dealt with people
like this and that's fine,people might think

(02:01:16):
that it's a waste of timeto have an all-hands
meeting once every two weeksand then do smaller project meeting
with the core team once a week.People might think it's a waste of time,
but you'd be surprisedhow many things come up
on those calls that are like,oh, I wasn't thinking about that.
If I had a, oh, I wasn'tthinking about that timer
or a counter on my desk,it would be in the hundreds.

(02:01:37):
And that's how you runa successful project.
It's not just because wework in digital environments
and we have plans andwe have tools to overlay
architecturals withmechanicals, with electrical.
Doesn't mean thatthings aren't gonna happen
because we're building inthe physical environment,
the built space, the built environment.So over communicate,

(02:01:59):
don't be afraid to send emailson things as small as,
hey, is this drain gonna bea two inch drain or a three inch drain
because I need to makesure that my coffee guy
has enough room in his flex line.Small emails like that
are, it's not just to like,cover your butt, it's to
make sure that there iswidespread
communication over potentially,over simple issues that

(02:02:21):
could become complicated.So save yourself the horror stories
and over communicate a little more.And I totally agree, communication 101,
that's a podcast on its own that Iprobably should do too
because yeah, it's soeasy to pick up the phone.
And I know from the architect standpoint,sometimes they don't have

(02:02:41):
that hours to allocate it to it.But again, if you
don't pick up that phone,that's gonna be a five minute call.
Well, what result of you not doing thatcould turn into hours of rework and a
dissatisfied client.So 100%.
It's hours of rework and even worse,the cash register rings
later than anticipated.And that's a big problem

(02:03:02):
because it's not just dollars,it's time and you have
dead rent and you have peopleand you have marketing plans that go awry
and you have training and you hire staffand just keep, just, yeah.
This was great.This was and thank you so
much for being part of thisour con this very

(02:03:23):
Halloween special show too.But where can the audience, nice.
Where can the audience find you?meerkatcompanies.com is our main website
that has pretty much allof our service offerings,
active work, completedwork and ways to contact us.

(02:03:43):
Connect with me onLinkedIn, just Zach Rappaport,
follow us our LinkedInpage meerkatcompanies.
And then we arestarting to build our Instagram
following a little bit.That is also meerkatcompanies as well.
So we're pretty well alignedon the online presence
actually, which is nice.Very cool, absolutely.

(02:04:04):
Yeah, thank you again.This was a blast and again, through,
not gonna say mistakes, butjust through these stories
and challenges that we've all faced,I hope, again, viewers,
listeners that pick it upand go, hey, I'm in that same scenario
and that they can hopefully not,basically just keep
evolving and progressingin the right way and
that's where it's all about.But this was awesome.

(02:04:26):
One last thing that I'll say too,and I know we wanna close out,
but one last thing that I'll say toois that even though mistakes do happen
and they can be reallystressful at the time,
take it from me who'sdone 65 plus projects,
you survive, theproject eventually finishes,
it is a little stressful,but there's always a way out.
So when you have thatmindset and you're calmer,

(02:04:48):
you're able to problemsolve more efficiently.
So don't let the panic get to you,stay calm and you will figure it out
even though there areproblems throughout.
That's advice no one ever gave me,but it's advice that I give to people
when things happen because things happen.We're humans and it's
construction and it's complicated,so keep a level ahead
and you'll figure it out.I think that's just advice

(02:05:10):
just for day-to-day life.It is. Yeah.It is.
Well, not beautiful, no.Let's close this up.
So architects keepdesigning, contractors keep making
those blueprints reality.We'll see on the next one.
(upbeat music)

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RFI Horror Stories: Demolition Disasters & Construction Nightmares featuring Zach Rapaport | Halloween Special

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}RFI Horror Stories: Demolition Disasters & Construction Nightmares featuring Zach Rapaport | Halloween Special