I’ve talked with a number of different contractors this week, and the theme has been Understanding The Details. There are some folks that are stellar at their trades, but are great only because they do the same thing and have honed their techniques and methods. There are other contractors that you hire to do new things precisely because they’ll work through the newness with the designer. Building something new can be intimidating (and possibly expensive!) if the folks doing it don’t understand the details. Both of my specialties (acoustics and sustainability) are packed with new details, science, and technology that are different than “standard” Midwestern building techniques.
The very best conversations with contractors when working on something new (to them) is Why. Getting everyone on the team to understand why we’re building a detail a certain way, informs priorities. Once that understanding i shared, it is a lot easier for a complicated building model to make sense in real life. It also allows for much better cost estimating, smarter product substitutions, and fewer change orders.
Something I’m working on is adding a basic level of that Why to the drawing set itself. It’s definitely useful to explain it to the estimator when the job starts, but if that understanding doesn’t transfer to the folks holding nailguns and pulling tape, then it’s not as beneficial. It is not be necessary for every single sub on a job site to know the entire design concept, but it is extremely useful if the specific detail that they’re building off of in the field has some hints instead of only dimensions.