Your Time is Up, and It’s Not Even Gold

It was a friday afternoon of a long weekend, I’ve visited a restauranteur friend, William, in his newly decorated office. Fascinated by his eight-digit-valued sports memorabilia wallpapering his walls, so as his vintage Ralph Lauren’s leather sofa. The space is more like a gentleman’s lounge. With brass hardware anywhere you look, there’s that luscious Loro Piana throw lying around that fragrant camel brown leather piece my eyes can’t get away from.

“Bro, I didn’t know you had awesome taste when it comes to these stuff,” I complimented.

“Tsss! I’m very much fine with what I’ll find from SM. I just want my MJ’s and Kobe’s displayed, im done. It’s my fiance’s work.”, he answered back unsure if he’s unimpressed or thankful.

Another friend of ours arrived, Victor, an electrical engineer, now, an up and coming general contractor. Easy to deal with, good workmanship, affordable, no wonder he’s a crowd favorite amongst Makati’s most elusive properties, especially the tita’s of manila.

His African roast hasn’t come in yet, this Ji-Pyeong lookalike just can’t contain himself, “William, Pare, how’s your construction going? The one with a penthouse and a plunge pool? You guys commenced with the construction already right?!”  

“We’re fine, erpat’s excited. He wants to move in to the penthouse, he said he’s tired of that old Mahogany Road. Why do you ask? Oh, can you check out the blueprints, it’s for our review. Bill me if needed”, Will commented as his feet were raised on his Dixon’s gold table.

Bit impressed with what he’s seen, Victor scanned through the 105 sheets of blueprints. “These are just architectural and architectural interiors right? Everything seems complete. I will have these reviewed, in exchange of the signed Jordan card that I want.”, he confirmed.

William wondered, “One, bloody no on that Jordans. Haha! Two, aren’t these standard already?! We need these, especially you the contractor, to complete all the b***s*** these designers were talking about.”

“Thank you! See? You as the owner would understand how f**** essential these drawings are. I just don’t get it why our interior design drawings, considering they’re the country’s IT designers, would just draw on paper, label them, that’s it! I’m waiting for construction plans (blueprints), all we get are sketches, like seriously?!” Engineer just cracked.

“Just ask them for it, I’m sure they would provide it”, the restauranteur defended.

“I personally did, by email, six months ago. All they’ve got is ‘after two weeks’. 14 days passed, same answer. It’s already been repetitive, even the client was irritated already. He said they’re too busy with magazine features left and right”, the contractor complained.

“Man! You’re in deep s***. I would bet P10,000.00, our project will be finished ahead of you. It’s total of 6000sqm, yours is just what?! 1200?!” Will gallantly raised his checkbook.

“It’s 1270sqm to be exact. Yours is easier, all warehouse space, except for the pool and the penthouse. No worries! Not new to this, projects here in PH were mostly delayed That’s why we have contingency budget for times like this. Sure, it’s a bet! Yo Indio, whose side you’re on?”, the contractor yelled at me with much fear and pride all at the same time.

As I was listening to the conversation, I already knew which side I’m going to be in. More than that, i would question, whose fault is it anyway? Im positive that there’s a substantial explanation for that six month delay. What is causing the delay? I wouldn’t mind a month, or worst, two. Or, was it really the designer’s fault, or they were just casualties of a major cause of delay? It was claimed firmly, that delay is becoming a norm here in our country, and they would have contingency budget for all these sorts.

Placed my bucks to the penthouse more than the multimillion residential project. But this kept me wondering, what are the factors that makes the project late? As I strongly believe “Time is Money”, and I rather spend it on travels and fine things, rather than inefficiencies. I asked around a bit, and came up with some non-scientific-yet-juicy reports about this matter.

1. Clueless Clients

There’s a project by an award winning architect. The house was well planned, finishing materials are impeccable. Only, it took at least 24 months to finish the planning of that 900 sqm. lot property. Acceptable. When the construction started, the nouveaux clients had more than enough time to check on the project. Therefore, whatever was on the architect’s specifications, they were able to scrutinize, replace, then review, then back again, then review again, then finalize, then replace. With more than 100 items on the list, surely it will take much time and energy. Nothing’s wrong since it’s the owner’s discretion. The point here is if the owner doesn’t know what they want, or worse, doesn’t believe in the designer’s recommendations, it’s no wonder that the construction period will take half a decade to build and a half a dozen checkbooks to sign.

2. Bad Bids = Broke Budget

A range of engineering contractors were called to participate in a bidding for this prestigious commercial project. Two out of five were pre-qualified. First one gave a good price. With their good performance, they were already on negotiations. However, the second one resubmitted their quote, and apparently, they inexplicably dropped their price. They got the project. The first one ended up puzzled because they didn’t know why all of a sudden, they didn’t make it, until they figured it out.

A year later, the developer was reaching to the first contractor to quote on some works. To their unexpected surprise, the quoted price delivered by the second contractor was next to impossible to finish the project. Already on the brink of substandard and unacceptable deliveries, the second contractor just made everything work. As a result, the contractor wasn’t able to finish on schedule because they have to cut down the workers, provide lower cost materials leading to back jobs, and do everything they can to sustain the project.

This is unfair on the part of the owner, but the contractor had to make ends meet. There comes the situation everyone would wish to turn back time, especially on the part of the owner.

3. Incomplete Instructions and Information

Referring to Victor’s claim, the designers were missing out much documents for their design. There were blueprints sent, but all of them were mostly plans, no detail drawings available. They requested for further infomation, but unluckily, those came in six months late. The construction cannot move much, because some items were dependent on those drawing details.

Regardless if the contractor’s claims are true, reality speaking, the outputs of the gen con’s work are very much dependent on the drawings given by the architect / designers. No drawings, no work. If they will move through what was discussed verbally, back jobs would come knocking by the door and back jobs cost time.

4. Promiscuous Patrons

Another multimillion residential project was already 70% accomplished. Now, the celebrity client complained that the garage at the back should be bigger. The space was good enough for their requirements, signed as approved, but they needed something more. That was such a confusion for everybody. There were so many times that the owner could’ve noticed, but they just kept nodding. Since the client insisted to make it bigger, they have to demolish the structure and some parts of the main house, just to give way to whatever they think was best. A definite subject for change order.

Whatever the owner’s request, it could be done. It’s their money, still. However, if we will talk about time, as long as the time and labor spent were being paid, no problem. Then again, if we’re referring about delays, this is one of the major source. We’re not pinpointing the owners, they can always do whatever they want, after all, it’s theirs. It’s just that we can eliminate this if only matters will be well paid with attention, instead of coming in late, consuming much time on OOTD’s and IG stories during weekly construction meetings.

These are just familiar reasons why there are much delays on a project, especially here in our country. If only we will see how people on the other side operates, they are bound to finish everything on time, not unless they have $10,000.00 to burn per day. Truthfully, it is inevitable for a project to have some detours along the way. It might be a norm. But another truth, it can be lessened, or prevented, only if we will be mindful of our time and priorities. Yes, time is money, but money is not time, and certainly it cannot buy back time. There are far more important things than construction, and those are the ones money cannot buy. If we lose time, we might end up running after those, and totally lose them.

With regards to the bet, I was able to buy myself a weekend ticket to Phuket, for two. No wonder my friends are successful at their craft, they’re on time and true to their words.

About the author

This talent extraordinaire commands some dosage of curious substances – Architect by morning, Paper Curator by afternoon, and some more creative endeavors by night. Having an eye for things that are unsual, this self-confessed old soul would tune in to orchestral music whenever he’s running, boxing, or fencing.

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