Category Archives: Construction

Is Construction a Good Career to Start During a Recession?

The beginning of a recession, or even a minor economic downturn, is never the best time to be looking for any job. Although the construction industry can be one that gets hit harder when finances everywhere are tight, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad career choice overall. When you see professionals who have been doing this for 30 or 40 years, you know that they’ve stuck with it through all kinds of economic conditions. It’s reasonable to think that you can too. If you’re worried that a recession means you need to pick a different career, there are reasons to be positive about this one. Here are a few things to consider as you make a choice.

Construction’s Labor Shortage Isn’t Going Away Anytime Soon
The construction industry has a labor shortage that extends back several years. Specifically, this labor shortage began after millions of skilled workers left the industry during the housing crisis. The length of time that the industry has spent trying to fill this gap shows you that it’s not going to go away overnight. Although a recession often leads to a decrease in new construction starts, there are still a lot of projects in the pipeline. That means that the industry still needs a lot more people than it has now.

Recessions Don’t Hit All Fields in the Same Way
When pondering a recession, financial experts tend to talk about industries in very broad terms. But if you make career decisions based on those terms, you might end up cheating yourself out of a good career. In truth, certain parts of an industry may be affected very differently than other parts. For example, if you know that homeowners and businesses will still need maintenance on various aspects of the buildings they own, you can imagine that related fields will not disappear overnight. This is particularly true for fields where there already weren’t enough qualified workers, like electricians.

Economic Improvements Reward the Ambitious
Have you ever missed a big opportunity because you were a little late to decide? This happens all the time throughout your life. Recessions don’t last forever, which means that there will be a turning point where economic conditions start to get better. This is where you’ll see new business owners and homeowners with better financial backing looking for qualified contracting businesses available to meet their increasing needs. If you are already established and ready to help, you will be more likely to be able to take those opportunities than someone who waited a few years to see what happens.

Investing in Education Opens Doors
Some people know what they want to do with their lives by the end of elementary school and are able to build careers to meet those expectations flawlessly. But for most people, settling on the career they want to keep for a lifetime takes at least a little trial and error. The best way to set yourself up for where you want to go is to invest in your education. If you were already close to getting your contractor’s license, there really isn’t anything stopping you from seeing how that works. As with anything, the attempts that you make to find a career that don’t pan out give you practical tips for the future. That means that anything you do right now to learn more and invest in your skills has the potential for a big payoff later.

Economic Downturns Don’t Last Forever
When you’re in the middle of a recession, it feels like one month of struggle lasts a year. But in reality, the worst of a recession or economic downturn often runs for a year or two, after which it gets better. And when that happens, you’ll see that backlog of new construction starts burst through. If you are ready to take advantage of it, you’ll be in a much better position to establish your business and set yourself up for a great long-term career in construction.

Recessions can be difficult, but they don’t have to ruin your career plans. If you’re ready to find out how construction can get through all kinds of economic situations, visit CSLS today!

5 Ways to Work With the Community During Large-Scale Construction Projects

When you make arrangements to work on a large-scale construction project, you’ll probably work with a lot of invested parties. The property owner, the client, the city or state in some cases. You may be the general contractor, or you might be subcontracting under another professional. But what about the community? Construction projects that are high-profile or take a long time need the community’s support to minimize problems. Here are five ways you can ensure that you cause the least disruption.

Identify the Flow Around the Jobsite
If the jobsite is in a relatively remote area, there might not be a lot of homes or businesses around it. But if you are in a suburban or urban part of the region, there will be a lot of things happening near the jobsite. Your task is to figure out what they are. Identifying things like:

  • Traffic patterns
  • Parking needs
  • Pedestrian walkways

will help you figure out where people are most likely to be while you are trying to get your work done. You may need to visit the site on different days and different times of the day to gain a full picture of what you can expect.

Minimize Immediate Impacts
If you want to have the least negative impact on the community surrounding you, the best way to do this is to imagine what you would want if you lived there. Think about how you feel about rude tourists taking over your neighborhood. They take up all the parking, they exhaust local resources, and they leave a lot of garbage behind. Unfortunately, people who come to an area to work temporarily can often create the same kinds of problems. If you’re a member of the community, then you feel more responsible for making sure these kinds of things don’t happen as a part of your business.

Make Safety a Priority
As a construction professional, you are used to making safety a priority for yourself and your employees. If you’re located in an area where there are a lot of people passing by, you must also pay attention to their safety. For example, construction that happens on or near the roads can affect traffic. Making sure the pedestrians, drivers and bicyclists have appropriate signage and direction can help keep them from interfering with your work. It also increases the likelihood that they will avoid harm while you are operating in such close proximity to them.

Be Mindful of Project Completion Timelines
As a resident, you have likely had to deal with construction projects that impeded traffic or other movement that ended much later than expected. While overrun in your schedule is an extremely common part of the construction industry, that doesn’t mean that the community will automatically support it. For projects that make it difficult for people to get to and from home or work, especially those that require a change of route, it’s important to pay attention to how much time you need to complete it. Giving a more accurate estimate increases your credibility and minimizes frustration in the community.

Support Local Businesses

Taking over a small part of an urban center is likely to impact local businesses as well as residents. If you can find ways to provide some extra support for those businesses, you can reduce the negative impact that it has on their income. For example, you can search out local suppliers for materials and rental equipment. You can even plan to eat lunch at local restaurants. Just keep in mind that as a member of the community, you want to make sure that the way that you engage with these businesses remains positive throughout the project.

Construction projects have a way of spreading effects throughout the community. If you focus on your efforts, you can ensure that the impact is generally supportive of community needs. For more information about building a successful contracting business, visit CSLS today!

 

What’s Buried Under Your Construction Site?

Finding toxic waste or hazardous materials isn’t the only disturbing thing you might find as you dig into a construction site. In many parts of the country, people start work on a construction project only to learn that it was a sacred burial ground long ago. There may be laws you have to follow when you discover such things, especially if they involve human remains. Here’s a few tips that will help you keep your head and your project on schedule.

Consider Testing Before You Dig
You can often avoid a lot of problems simply by doing some research in advance of the project. If you’re subcontracting, you might not have as much say in the process before you start. Otherwise, consider getting a sense for what might be under the surface. Soil testing helps to reveal possible contaminants or toxins that could cause problems once they come out of the ground. If you’re worried that you might be disrupting an old graveyard or burial ground, look at old surveys of the property. You might even be able to see old pictures to give you more information.

Research Local Rules
In California, this practice is common enough that there may be state and local guidelines in place to guide your actions. In September 2019, workers participating in a project to widen the 405 in Orange County found remains they believed to come from Indigenous Americans. The law dictates that they were unable to release information about the location or what they found except to local authorities. Investigate state laws concerning finding human remains, and see if the city or county has a task force that helps to handle the situation. This will help ensure that you can manage things without making yourself liable.

Create a Plan of Action
No one expects to dig into the ground and find bones unless they’re working in a field like archeology or anthropology. This means that you and your employees might be surprised or even shocked by the presence of remains. It’s best to start with a plan of action. Tell your employees that if they find remains, they should:

  • stop work at the site immediately
  • alert local authorities
  • avoid telling anyone about the site

This can happen in almost any part of the state. Dry areas can preserve bones for millennia, which means that you may have no idea what is lurking beneath 10 or even 15 feet of dirt.

Avoid Disturbing the Site
Really old remains look quite different from bones of those who died a few years ago. Besides that distinction, you may have no idea exactly what you have found. That is why you should leave it alone as soon as you find it, until authorities have a chance to investigate. It may not be human remains. It could be a burial ground. It might be evidence of a crime. Leaving the remains as they are allows investigators to determine the most information, including whether or not they should do additional digging to search for other remains.

Keep Information Discreet
Once you’ve alerted the authorities, it is not necessarily obvious what will be the next course of action. You may need to let the client know that there has been a delay, although local guidelines will determine how much information you can give them. Officials usually like to keep these finds quiet at first, as a way to avoid further disruption of the site. Although it may be difficult not to go rushing to the newspapers with the story, you may find it makes sense. For your own workflow, you don’t want a flood of tourists arriving to traipse through your worksite once you get clearance to continue.

There are lots of things hiding under the surface that you might not know about. Research in advance can help flush out a few possibilities, but you won’t know everything until you dig. Making a plan helps you avoid finding more than you bargained for. To dig into a construction career you’ll enjoy for years to come, visit CSLS today!