Control Your Business’ Growth

Growth is good—in moderation. Take these steps to avoid becoming one of the companies whose business is so booming that it actually fails.

You could call it too much of a good thing: A larger-than-expected contract comes in, or your overall project load starts growing exponentially, and all of a sudden you’ve got more business than your firm can handle. Such a scenario can challenge your management abilities and even pose risks to your company’s survival. Experts say that with today’s uneven economy, contractors need to plan well for sudden growth.

Success can sometimes be a problem if it’s not managed correctly. Smaller organizations can absorb a certain amount of growth simply with the owner and one or two workers putting in more hours. But as annual revenues start approaching the $1 million mark, existing systems can start to go awry if your infrastructure is not set up for that level of business.

At this point, owners need to start spending less time in the field and more time in the office, not a situation most contractors relish. But devoting the time to big-picture planning becomes crucial as your business expands. This kind of management is important in any business, but in a business that is growing quickly, it is imperative. The owner’s job is to make sure they are proactively managing the resources they need to deliver the work.

Another important issue for owners is taking the time to understand which jobs are the right jobs for his or her company to accept. It pays to look at your work history to determine which kinds of jobs are the most profitable. You don’t want just volume. Simply taking on more work without recognizing potential revenue impact can result in a cash-flow crunch, since more work requires more manpower, and that added payroll might have to be met before the client or general contractor has paid you.

Planning is crucial when your business starts taking off, and because workers are an electrical contractor’s biggest resource, these preparations need to start with a timetable of when new employees may need to be hired to ensure adequate staffing. Think ahead about how many employees you’re going to need, where you’re going to find them, and what you’re going to do when you get them. Owners need to consider how long it will take to find, hire and train new workers when they’re developing timetables.

Financial planning also is crucial. A line of credit or other financial assistance can help address cash-flow issues, but contractors still have to estimate carefully to ensure the work they accept has a positive bottom-line impact, or they could end up working themselves into bankruptcy. If you do not have a very strong understanding of your financial situation and your margins, you can quickly grow yourself out of business.

Being informed about a general contractor’s financial standing can be important when contractors work as subcontractors on larger projects. In addition, these companies may have specific policies and procedures regarding invoicing and payment, and not following these protocols exactly could delay payment.

All this analysis and planning may seem overwhelming, especially if you’re also facing a backlog of work and a client load that’s beyond what your present staff can support. However, doing your deskwork now, even when you’d rather be working in the field, will give you the opportunity to grow your business even more in the future.

Tips To Protect Workers In Cold Environments

Prolonged exposure to freezing or cold temperatures may cause serious health problems such as trench foot, frostbite and hypothermia. In extreme cases, including cold water immersion, exposure can lead to death. Danger signs include uncontrolled shivering, slurred speech, clumsy movements, fatigue and confused behavior. If these signs are observed, call for emergency help.

OSHA's Cold Stress Card provides a reference guide and recommendations to combat and prevent many illnesses and injuries. Available in English and Spanish, this laminated fold-up card is free to employers, workers and the public. Tips include:

How to Protect Workers

• Recognize the environmental and workplace conditions that may be dangerous.
• Learn the signs and symptoms of cold-induced illnesses and injuries and what to do to help workers.
• Train workers about cold-induced illnesses and injuries.
• Encourage workers to wear proper clothing for cold, wet and windy conditions, including layers that can be adjusted to changing conditions.
• Be sure workers in extreme conditions take a frequent short break in warm dry shelters to allow their bodies to warm up.
• Try to schedule work for the warmest part of the day.
• Avoid exhaustion or fatigue because energy is needed to keep muscles warm.
• Use the buddy system - work in pairs so that one worker can recognize danger signs.
• Drink warm, sweet beverages (sugar water, sports-type drinks) and avoid drinks with caffeine (coffee, tea, sodas or hot chocolate) or alcohol.
• Eat warm, high-calorie foods such as hot pasta dishes.
• Remember, workers face increased risks when they take certain medications, are in poor physical condition or suffer from illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension or cardiovascular disease.

For free copies of OSHA's Cold Stress Card in English or Spanish, go to OSHA's website, www.osha.gov, or call 1(800) 321-OSHA.

OSHA's objective is to prevent work-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths. Since the agency was created in 1971, occupational deaths have been cut by 62% and injuries have declined by 42%. Construction Book Express offers a wide variety of OSHA publications.

Best Practices for Energy Efficiency

Last week we discussed what NOT to do when it comes to energy efficiency. This week we present some best practices for energy-efficient design and building.

Address the Basics First
The design of an energy-efficient house begins with a well-insulated, air-sealed shell and very efficient HVAC equipment, which means a minimum 90 percent AFUE (annual fuel utilization efficiency) furnace and 13 SEER (seasonal energy efficiency ratio) air conditioner.

Anyone intending to build an energy-efficient house needs to be sure these basic requirements are met before considering exotic (and expensive) components like photovoltaic modules.

Orient the House Properly
Passive-solar design does not need to be complicated; a few simple steps can save significant amounts of energy. Yet most new-home builders still pay almost no attention to orientation.

If the lot size permits, a house should always be oriented with its long axis aligned in an east-west direction. In most climates, about half the home's windows should be facing south. In hot climates, it's important to minimize the number and size of west-facing windows.

Install Basement Wall Insulation
According to the prescriptive requirements of the International Energy Conservation Code, basement walls should be insulated in climate zones 4 and higher.

Basement walls can be insulated from the exterior or the interior. Most builders find that installing interior basement insulation is easier and cheaper than installing exterior basement insulation; far too often, however, they get the details wrong.

Interior basement insulation is effective only if the work is properly detailed and meticulously installed. The rim-joist area must be air sealed (either with sprayed polyurethane foam or very careful caulking), and the rim-joist area and walls must be carefully insulated with rigid-foam sheets or sprayed polyurethane foam. Never use fiberglass batts to insulate basement walls.

Exterior basement insulation usually performs better than interior basement insulation. It locates the wall's thermal mass within the building's thermal envelope; if installed properly, it can be used to protect the rim-joist area. Also, by keeping the concrete warm, it prevents the condensation and moisture problems often associated with interior basement insulation.

Install Better Windows
Windows represent the weakest thermal link in most building envelopes. Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Energy has chosen to set a very low bar for Energy Star windows, so Energy Star labels provide little guidance to builders. In most parts of the country, in fact, an Energy Star window is equal to a code-minimum window.

Specifying windows can be complicated, but a few general principles apply. Casement windows usually have less air leakage than double-hung windows. In heating climates, the best windows will have a lower U-factor than windows minimally complying with Energy Star standards (U-0.35). Consider investing in windows with argon-filled triple glazing and two low-e coatings; such windows are available with a whole-window U-factor as low as 0.17.

In south central and southern climate zones, Energy Star specifications call for windows to have a maximum solar heat-gain coefficient (SHGC) rating of 0.40. In these zones, consider purchasing windows that beat this standard — that is, windows with an SHGC below 0.40. Specifying glazing with a very low SHGC is especially important for west-facing windows, since these are the ones most likely to contribute to overheating.

Install Rigid Foam Wall Sheathing
Many cold-climate builders still cling to the belief that foam sheathing creates a wrong-side vapor retarder and therefore contributes to wall rot. In fact, the inside surface of foam sheathing will be much warmer than the inside surface of OSB or plywood sheathing, and will therefore be less likely to support condensation. Foam-sheathed walls, if built correctly, are less likely to have moisture problems than walls sheathed with OSB or plywood.

Foam sheathing wraps a home's walls in a warm jacket, keeping the framing warm and dry and greatly reducing thermal bridging through studs. Furthermore, if foam sheathing is held in place with vertical strapping, a rain screen is created behind the siding.

Builders making the switch to foam sheathing must choose one of three strategies for bracing walls against racking. They can install traditional 1x4 let-in braces, diagonal steel strapping (for example, Simpson TWB straps), or, at the corners, sheets of well-nailed 1/2-inch plywood. The plywood can then be covered with 1/2-inch rigid foam to match the thickness of the 1-inch foam installed everywhere else.

Of course, before settling on a bracing method you should make sure your local building inspector approves of your plan.

Install a Drain-Water Heat-Recovery System
One of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to reduce energy used for domestic hot water is to install a drain-water heat-recovery device.

The best-known such device is the GFX, which consists of a length of 3- or 4-inch copper drainpipe surrounded by a spiraling cocoon of 3/4-inch copper tubing (see Notebook, 3/97). Designed to be installed vertically in a plumbing waste line, a GFX unit transfers about 55 percent of the heat energy in the drain water to the incoming supply water. In homes where residents prefer showers to baths, a GFX can save 20 percent to 25 percent of the energy used for water heating.

The best thing about a GFX unit is its indestructibility: Having no moving parts, it is likely to last as long as the house in which it's installed. Model S3-60, the whole-house model (a 3-inch copper drain 60 inches long), costs $520.

Install a Solar Hot-Water System
Rising energy prices have made solar hot-water systems a good investment in most parts of the country. At sites beyond the reach of natural gas pipelines — where conventional water heaters must be fueled by either propane or electricity — an investment in a solar hot-water system will usually have a fairly quick payback.

A substantial fraction of the hot water needs of most families can be met by two 4-foot-by-8-foot collectors. It's almost always better to have an oversized storage tank than an undersized tank; if the budget permits, install a 120-gallon stainless-steel indirect water-heater tank from Amtrol, Bradford White, Burnham, Heat Transfer Products, Triangle Tube, or Viessmann. An instantaneous gas water heater can be used for backup.

Upgrade the Mechanical Ventilation System
Because an energy-efficient house has a well-defined air barrier and very low air-leakage rates, mechanical ventilation is essential.

Ventilation can be provided with a simple exhaust-only system (a timer-controlled bath exhaust fan, for example) or a passive supply system (such as a passive fresh-air duct, controlled by a motorized damper and connected to a furnace's return-air plenum).

But the most efficient way to provide fresh air to every room is with an HRV or an energy-recovery ventilator (ERV). Currently, the most energy-efficient ERV available is the RecoupAerator 200DX from Stirling.

Install Dedicated Ventilation Ductwork
Every HRV deserves dedicated ventilation ductwork. Ducts designed to distribute air for heating or cooling are not optimal for distributing ventilation air, so don't try to use the same ducts for both purposes.

A forced-air heating system usually draws its return air from a big grille in the hallway. An HRV, on the other hand, should draw its exhaust air from bathrooms, utility rooms, and the laundry room. Unlike forced-air heating ducts, ventilation ducts are sized for low airflow; usually they measure only 4 inches or 6 inches in diameter.

Install a Better Lighting Package
Installing compact fluorescent instead of incandescent bulbs is probably the most cost-effective energy upgrade in any home. Now that the quality of compact fluorescent bulbs has improved and prices have dropped, make sure all your houses are incandescent-free.

Arrange for Blower-Door Testing
Do you know how much air leaks under your rim joists or bottom plates? If you're still a blower-door virgin, you haven't yet earned the right to brag to customers about construction quality. Most blower-door contractors can recount stories of proud builders humbled by the revelations of a door-mounted fan.

Once you're familiar with the lessons taught by whole-house depressurization, you'll probably be more conscientious with gaskets and spray foam on your next house.

Tweaking the Recipe
It goes without saying that it's possible to build a high-performance house that deviates from these guidelines. The recommendations are based on logical principles, but they inevitably reflect my own biases. Furthermore, specifications for an energy-efficient house depend greatly upon local climate.

Before settling on any construction details, you should always investigate methods used by other energy-efficient builders in your region.

Energy Efficiency Don'ts

 Efficiency Dos and Don’ts From an Energy Nerd by Martin Holladay

With high fuel prices here to stay, now is the time to get it right. Many builders are familiar with energy-efficient construction techniques — they just can't convince their clients that energy efficiency is worth the extra investment. Most builders are accustomed to juggling several balls at once: They need to satisfy their clients, keep the local building inspector happy, and make a profit.

Sometimes, however, a builder gets lucky and lands a client who insists on a high-performance home and is willing to pay for it. To help you get ready for that day, here's a list of dos and don'ts — starting with the don'ts.

Don't Design a Complicated Roof
For those who espouse the principle "form follows function," the ideal roof is a simple gable over an unheated attic, much like the roof on the house we all drew in kindergarten. Unfortunately, designers these days are fond of complicated roofs — ones with enough valleys, dormers, and intersecting planes to make the home look from a distance like an entire Tuscan village.

Such roofs are difficult to insulate without resorting to spray polyurethane foam. Though spray foam is effective, it's also expensive. In most cases, simple roofs are easier to insulate, easier to ventilate, and far less prone to ice dams than complicated roofs.

Don't Install a Hydronic Snow-Melt System
Snow can be removed from a driveway with a shovel, a snow-blower, or a plow. It can also be removed by burning great quantities of fuel to heat water circulating through buried pipes.

In rare cases — for example, at the home of a handicapped client — a hydronic snow-melt system makes sense. In most homes, however, such systems are uncalled for.

Don't Build a Poorly Insulated Slab
In a hot climate, an uninsulated slab in contact with cool soil can lower cooling costs. In a cold climate, though, slabs should be well-insulated.

Some cold-climate builders, having learned that heat rises, install thick attic insulation while leaving their slabs uninsulated. But heat actually moves from warm to cold in all directions. While it's true that in winter the soil beneath a slab is warmer than the outside air, a slab can still lose a significant amount of heat.

In cold climates, a basement slab should be insulated with at least 2 inches of extruded polystyrene (XPS) under the entire slab. For a slab-on-grade home in a cold climate, specify 3 or 4 inches of XPS under the entire slab, with additional vertical foam at the slab's perimeter. Foil-faced bubble pack (R-1.3) is no substitute for adequate insulation; under a slab, it's virtually useless.

Don't Insulate Rim Joists With Unfaced Fiberglass
Although fiberglass insulation is a thermal barrier, it is not an air barrier. If unfaced fiberglass is used to insulate a rim joist, moist indoor air can filter through the batt, leading to condensation at the cold rim joist. The result, eventually, is mold and rot.

There are several acceptable ways to insulate a rim joist. Rigid foam insulation can be installed on the exterior of a recessed rim joist; small pieces of rigid foam can be inserted in each joist bay from the inside; or spray polyurethane foam can be used to seal the entire rim-joist area.

Don't Install Recessed Can Lights on the Top Floor
Despite their tendency to cast strange shadows on people's faces, recessed can lights retain an inexplicable popularity. Ignoring the pleas of lighting experts — who note that it makes more sense to light the ceiling than the floor — many customers still request recessed cans.

When installed in an insulated ceiling, these fixtures are an energy disaster. Some builders have switched to "airtight" cans. But airtight cans are not completely airtight. The amount of leakage depends on the care exercised when installing the gasketed trim kit, and any future trim changes can affect the fixture's airtightness.

It is much easier to air-seal electrical boxes installed for surface-mounted fixtures than to air-seal a recessed can. Just say no to recessed cans.

Don't Install Oversized HVAC Equipment
Compared with homes built 30 years ago, today's houses are more airtight and better insulated, so their heating and cooling loads are smaller. Yet many HVAC contractors continue to use old rules of thumb to size furnaces and air conditioners, often throwing in a generous safety factor for good measure.

Oversized furnaces and air conditioners cost more than right-sized units. Oversized equipment frequently operates less efficiently, too, because it suffers from short cycling. An oversized air conditioner often shuts down before it's had a chance to wring much moisture out of the air, compromising comfort.

Although HVAC contractors usually claim to have performed detailed load calculations, you should insist on seeing written evidence. Heating and cooling loads should be calculated for each room and must be based on accurate specifications for window sizes, orientation, and U-factor, and for the installed glazing's solar heat coefficient. Don't let your contractor talk you into adding a safety factor to a calculated load.

Experience has shown that builders who want right-sized HVAC equipment need to educate themselves on this issue and double-check the work of their HVAC sub. If you don't feel qualified to verify your sub's calculations, at least specify two-stage equipment that can operate at partial load most days of the year.

Don't Install HVAC Equipment Or Ducts in an Attic
An attic is almost as cold as the exterior in winter, and can be much hotter than the exterior in summer. While attic floors are often insulated to R-38, attic ducts are usually insulated to a measly R-4 or R-6.

During the summer, the difference in temperature between the cool air in the ducts and a hot attic is much greater than the difference in temperature between the indoor and the outdoor air. So why does attic ductwork have so much less insulation than a wall or a ceiling?

Moreover, the air in a supply duct is at a much higher pressure than the air inside a house. Since most duct seams leak, a significant portion of the volume of air passing through attic ducts usually leaks into the attic. Any leaks in return ducts allow the blower to pull hot, humid attic air into the air handler.

Installing a furnace or air handler in an attic causes even more problems than merely installing ductwork there. A recent study found that the leakage of a typical air handler, coupled with the leakage at the air-handler-to-plenum connection, amounts to 4.6 percent of the airflow on the return side. If the air handler is installed in an attic, a 4.6 percent return-air leak can produce a 16 percent reduction in cooling output and a 20 percent increase in cooling energy use. Any duct leakage would make the situation even worse.

In most homes, HVAC equipment and ductwork belong in the basement or crawlspace. If it's absolutely necessary to build on a slab, include a utility room for HVAC equipment and install ducts in air-sealed interior soffits.

Don't Install a Powered Attic Ventilator
Many builders assume that hot attics are a problem. If soffit and ridge vents don't keep an attic cool, they may decide to install an exhaust fan in the attic to improve attic ventilation. This is almost always a mistake.

If an attic has no ductwork or HVAC equipment and its floor has a deep layer of insulation, high attic temperatures don't matter much. In fact, high attic temperatures can help lower winter heating bills.

Several studies have shown that a powered attic ventilator often draws its makeup air from air leaks in the attic floor, pulling conditioned air out of the house instead of in from the soffits. This, of course, increases the homeowner's energy bills.

Don't Use a Standard Furnace Fan To Distribute Ventilation Air
Most new homes include some type of whole-house mechanical ventilation system — for example, a passive outdoor-air duct connected to a furnace's return-air plenum. Some builders provide ventilation by connecting a heat-recovery ventilator (HRV) to the home's forced-air ductwork.

Both methods have an Achilles heel: They depend on the furnace fan to distribute ventilation air. In homes equipped with air cleaners, homeowners may leave the furnace fan running continuously. This can carry a substantial energy penalty. Furnace fans are designed to move a lot of air — up to 1,400 cfm — yet most homes require only 50 or 100 cfm for ventilation. In fan-only mode, certain furnaces can draw as much as 700 to 800 watts.

One solution is to specify a furnace with a blower powered by an electronically commutated motor (ECM) that draws 200 to 250 watts in fan-only mode. Another is to choose a different type of ventilation system — a simple exhaust-only system or an HRV with dedicated ventilation ductwork.

Don't Install a Humidifier
Homes with very dry indoor air during the winter are usually leaky. Make the building more airtight, and it won't be as dry.

Installing a humidifier is so risky it should be avoided like the plague. In cold climates, almost all moisture problems are worsened by elevated indoor humidity. High levels of indoor humidity are associated with wet walls and wet roof assemblies.

If homeowners want a humidifier, warn them about the dangers of humidification. If they insist, let them install it themselves after you leave the job.

Project Pre-Planning

Project planning can be described as the amount of time spent moving around a jobsite, mobilizing and cleaning up every day, studying plans, laying out the work, and other activities not directly related to actual installation.

This “non-installation” time is spread evenly over the course of the typical project. A few minutes here, a few minutes there, day-by-day, spread over the entire crew. More than half of this “non-installation” time is spent on plans, layout and material logistics.

• What if you could shift those activities to the front of the project, the “Pre-Planning” stage?
• Could those activities be done more efficiently as a dedicated task rather than in the field a few minutes before going to work?
• How much money could you save in efficiency if more of the work was pre-planned? Could you get your crew to work a few minutes earlier?
• Could you minimize trips from the work areas to the job office / gang box if things were better planned?

How much would the bottom-line on your projects change if you could improve labor productivity by 5%?

Construction and Problems

Constructing a project is challenging; it is very messy. There will always be problems. Problems are a fact and they need to be factored into your plans. Problems are often amplified on construction projects because of the separation of the design functions from the construction functions.

Architects, engineers and design consultants are often forced into “low-bid” contracts and the pressure to constantly deliver lower prices means cutting out on coordination between engineering disciplines, eliminating detail drawings, cutting down on elevations, minimizing plan-checking and peer reviews, etc.

All of this cost-cutting on the design side means that fewer and fewer conflicts are caught at the design stage and left for the contractors to figure out.

How you overcome problems will determine the success of your project.

The Cost of Problems

Problems are not usually recognized until you are right in the middle of them – at this point the problem will cost about 30% to fix – so if you are in the middle of a $1,000 piece of work and discover a problem it will cost about $1,300 before you are done.

In the worst case, when problems are discovered after the work is complete it will cost up to 80% to fix.

Our focus needs to be on spending whatever resources are necessary to identify and solve problems BEFORE we are in the middle of construction.

A 5,000 Man Hour Project

Pre-planning is just what it sounds like – it is about taking the time that is normally spent on planning throughout the project and shifting it to the beginning of the project.

When you look at what happens during the day for one person it just looks like a few minutes and it seems impossible to save any real time. Let’s look at a 5,000-hour project and how the time is spent in the field.

Over a 1 year, 5,000-man-hour project, there are 6-7 hours per day spent on non-installation activities; a total of 1,800 man-hours. We can plan our attack by focusing on four key areas:

1. Plans & layout – 11%, 550 hours
2. Material Logistics – 6%, 300 hours
3. Mobilization, cleanup and site movement – 13%, 650 hours
4. Breaks and other non-productive time – 6%, 300 hours

Planning & Layout – Where Can You Be Most Efficient?

There is no question that planning and layout has to be done. The question is when and where can it be done most efficiently?

• Pre-planning is about moving as many of the field layout, coordination and planning issues to the front of the project as possible.
• Pre-planning is about taking the activity out of the field and into a controlled environment that is specifically designed for efficient planning.
• Pre-planning is about taking advantage of tools that allow more accurate layout and communication of ideas.
• Pre-planning is about finding and resolving problems before you start working to minimize disruptions to progress and re-work.
• Pre-planning is about locating value-engineering and pre-fabrication opportunities well before construction starts.

There is no hard and fast rule about what pre-planning looks like. The process will look slightly different for each company and project type. The goal is to build a culture into the company where people seek out opportunities to shift work from the project to a more controlled environment. It is about shifting the thought process from being reactive to proactive.