Construction Archives

Protect Your Construction Company from the Effects of High Supply Prices

Building supply manufacturers are doing their best to catch up with the high demand for their materials. Material prices overall are continuing to climb, making it difficult for contractors of all types and sizes to provide their services in the same manner they did before the pandemic as well as grow their businesses.

What can contractors do?

Communication is key for contractors and business owners right now. It is important for clients to know developments in supply chains and pricing. Much of the information that should be communicated can be included in contracts. Even though they cannot impact the supply chain and prices of materials, contractors can protect themselves from losing money and work through several means.

Expiration Dates

With prices and supply availability changing every day, contractors cannot guarantee a price for long. Since there is a chance that original quotes can change at a moment’s notice, contractors can explain that their quote is only viable until a certain date.

Delay Clauses

Since there are typically damages contractors must claim when a job is not completed by the projected date, it is important for contractors to include delay clauses in their contracts. With the pandemic and the unknowns of the building materials supply chains, contractors cannot be held accountable for the delay in construction due to lack of materials.

Need more insight?

Our experts are consistently keeping tabs on industry changes. Contact one of our representatives today for consulting that will keep your business running smoothly and productively in the midst of unknowns.

The Post-Covid Urban Revival: What’s Next For Big Cities?

Today, more than four out of five people in the United States live in cities and urban areas. Over the country’s long history of urbanization, cities like New York, San Francisco and Chicago swelled not only in population, but also in their prominence as American cultural icons. That cachet helped these metropolises thrive even when economic conditions were challenging elsewhere, providing landlords and other commercial real estate stakeholders with a level of stability and security smaller cities couldn’t match.

In recent years, though, these storied cities started falling victim to their own success. Unebbing demand for limited residential and commercial space led to skyrocketing costs, and near-constant expansions and enhancements to government services necessitated new fees and higher taxes. At the same time, the emergence of remote working meant that people didn’t have to move to these uber-expensive cities to work for the companies that called them home. New technology, combined with cost of living and quality of life concerns, chipped away at that old preeminence, and businesses and individuals started choosing Atlanta over New York, Denver over Chicago and Austin over San Francisco. A Brookings Institution study found that population growth in the country’s largest urban areas dropped by almost half through the 2010s.

Download the below article to find out how the COVID-19 pandemic amplified some of the disadvantages of living and working in densely populated cities and accelerated migration to smaller cities and more rural areas.