We all hear about nightmare builders. There is a reputation that builders take advantage of people. Builders are a different breed than the architects and the clients that hire them. We think of builders as blue collar workers. They are typically not college educated like their clients. Instead, the builders are educated on the job by the repetition of actually doing their trade. They learn by doing, and they eventually become really good at it. They are generally not “book-smart” and excel at tactile and visual learning. This is in contrast to the clients who are generally book-smart and sit at a desk typing emails all day. Builders generally don’t think the same way and cannot operate technology with the same prowess. This different mode of learning and thinking puts builders and clients at odds with each other. I don’t think either way is better, but learning to cope with one another is essential.
As an architect, I work with many many many builders. I get to see how they work, what they charge for it, and the outcome. In my experience, I have only encountered two builders that I consider nightmare builders that have a low ethical compass. All the other builders, which are 99.9% of them, do have good morals, and they strive to do the right thing. These builders vary in their skill level, in their degree of interest in their work, and their ability to provide the outcome requested of them by clients. This all boils down to setting expectations. The client needs to have reasonable expectations for the builder, and the builder must set clear expectations for the client. If the client wants to scrutinize items down to the inch or fractions of an inch, then the client must expect the cost to be higher to account for the extra planning, craftsmanship, and periodic pauses for approval and adjustment as required to achieve that meticulous goal. If the client doesn’t care about fine detail, then they can expect the builder to make assumptions and build a reasonable product similar to the intended goal at a lower cost.
The misalignment with expectation is really the root cause of being considered a nightmare builder or nightmare client. Going into any project, the builder must assume the cost of material and amount of labor necessary to give the client what they expect. These assumptions are based on prior experience. If the client wants a level of detail or quality that exceeds the assumption, the client should expect to pay more for it. If the client wants to spend time scrutinizing all the options before deciding upon a method or material, the client should realize that extra time costs money, and additional administrative costs will raise the price to achieve the outcome desired. The builder is not in the business of running a “construction university,” so the client should expect to pay tuition if they want overly detailed explanations on means and methods of construction. It is the builder’s job to meet the design intent and performance requirements, and there are many ways to arrive at that outcome. It is up to the builder to decide how to get there.
When a client excessively changes their requests, they put subcontractors and material suppliers “through the ringer”, and those clients need to realize that those subs and suppliers will either refuse to do the work or need to charge more to compensate for the added difficulty.
Clients must remember that builders are experts in their trade, and they have already vetted the best subcontractors and suppliers that work best with their practices for the right price. If a client interrupts those practices, the builder is not performing within their tested, tried, and true system. This causes unknowns which generally causes prices to go up.
As an architect, I work on dozens of projects at a time, so I get to see current market rates for things. I know when to call “bullshit” on something. Sometimes I’m wrong, and a builder puts me in my place. But usually the builder is in new territory trying a type of work they haven’t done before and are not familiar with the associated costs.
Trusting the builder and architect is key. They are working ethically with the best available information and science at the time a request is made. Everyone wants the same outcome: a great building and a pleasant experience. Clients must do their fair share of taking accountability on the effects of the requests they make. Builders and architects will do their best to set reasonable expectations, so the clients should heed that advice.
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