Anyone else in construction seeing any recent downturn in business.

Aventus · Sep 29, 2018

We do mid to large commercial construction with offices in Virginia, DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia. This year is YUUUGE for each office and we don't see it slowing anytime soon. We should be doing more but we have too many job openings for qualified Estimators and Project Managers.

Depending on what vertical markets you serve, (hotels, hospitals, assisted living, multi-family, etc. etc. etc. are all separate vertical markets) it's normal for a specific vertical to have a slow period during the year. We work in/for twelve different vertical markets and every one has a slow quarter (or two) during the year.

Your question for overall construction may not be the question you should be asking. Just my 2 pennies.

ToolAA · Sep 29, 2018

Aventus said:
We do mid to large commercial construction with offices in Virginia, DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia. This year is YUUUGE for each office and we don't see it slowing anytime soon. We should be doing more but we have too many job openings for qualified Estimators and Project Managers.

Depending on what vertical markets you serve, (hotels, hospitals, assisted living, multi-family, etc. etc. etc. are all separate vertical markets) it's normal for a specific vertical to have a slow period during the year. We work in/for twelve different vertical markets and every one has a slow quarter (or two) during the year.

Your question for overall construction may not be the question you should be asking. Just my 2 pennies.

Its part of the picture. Our business comes from 5 main markets. Hospitals, Assisted Living, Restaurant/Food Service, Office Space Developers, and some residential contractors.

We too fluctuate between segments often and we are not a large company, so the swings from segment to segment are very large.

One thing I am seeing is more millwork packages coming from china for higher end projects. It indirectly impacts us because it impacts our millwork customers.

One month doesn’t make a trend but I will keep watching closely.

Stoveman · Sep 30, 2018

Commercial foodservice equipment is not slowing down. But then again we rarely slow down so we may not be the best barometer.

Rob1035 · Oct 1, 2018

Aventus said:
We do mid to large commercial construction with offices in Virginia, DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia. This year is YUUUGE for each office and we don't see it slowing anytime soon. We should be doing more but we have too many job openings for qualified Estimators and Project Managers.

Same here, and we do a ton of multi-family stuff. Can't hire people fast enough.

moparmike610 · Oct 1, 2018

Definitely not slow in the commercial/industrial hvac world.

2nd=Good+Substantial · Oct 1, 2018

I write performance bonds for contractors. The first half of the year was gangbusters. Lately, my contractors are seeing Notice to Proceed taking longer and longer which is hurting productivity. Finding enough good people has been a limiting factor also.

The Maryland law that went into effect today that makes a contractor responsible for downstream subcontractors' employees' wages is scary. Another poorly written, vague law compliments of the MGA.

cobra · Oct 4, 2018

I’m a facilities manager/ construction manager for a medstar hospital. All the subcontractors I’ve been using
(Electrical,mechanical,hvac,,etc. have been swamped and have been having a tough time hiring skilled trades to keep up with the up swing in new construction and upgrades.seems like the demand for the skilled trades is at it’s highest. Almost every contractor I use is swamped or short staffed.
We are having problems finding licensed operating engineers and maintenance technicians to fill open positions within medstar.

dontpanic · Oct 4, 2018

I got three unsolicited job offers today. Abosolutely crazy.

Art3 · Oct 4, 2018

It's probably because the weather finally quit acting a fool, but this week it has seemed like allllll the road construction is back in action...everywhere :rolleyes:

ToolAA · Oct 4, 2018

After posting this last week we’ve landed to mid sized projects this week along with several smaller ones. I’ve been spending time in the road visiting clients and trying to gauge the market. I’ve got some customers stating the are having their best year ever but a few have indeed seen some downturn however, not for the reasons I thought.

My largest customer has 3 big hospitals projects all way behind schedule. So they think they took their foot off the gas a few months ago and intentionally booked fewer jobs out if concern they would be overbooked.

They account for about 12% of our sales so their sudden drop off would be part of the reason our bookings dropped in September.

I’m going to keep an eye kn this. I’m interested to see how the Tariffs impact our market.

2nd=Good+Substantial · Oct 4, 2018

ToolAA said:
....

I’m going to keep an eye kn this. I’m interested to see how the Tariffs impact our market.

My contractors have said they have no problem getting materials but prices are going up now in anticipation the tariffs will have an impact. Suppliers are also only guaranteeing prices for a short time. Some contractors are padding their materials costs on jobs that have a delayed start date.

mxrider · Oct 6, 2018

2nd=Good+Substantial said:
Some contractors are padding their materials costs on jobs that have a delayed start date.

Many of our jobs are over a year out and we have been doing just that. Marine plywood has gone through the roof and is going to run dry soon.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

fd318 · Oct 8, 2018

I work in a vinyl replacement window factory. (We also install windows.) We have a 6 week lead time (normally 2 weeks) and is just keep getting longer. The boss is trying to expand the factory right now. In 2-3 weeks we are starting a second shift to try to catch up on demand. We have hired about a dozen new office workers and are out of cubical space. We've started a Pittsburgh and some middle of PA office. No, I don't think home upgrades, at least for windows are slowing down. If anything it's gone up about 30% from last year.

ToolAA · Oct 19, 2018

Well It could have been a blip.

i posted my message two weeks ago and in the last 10 days we probably landed 5 weeks of work. If it keeps up at this pace for 2 more weeks we’ll have caught up to our forecast.

I did get aggressive pricing a few projects with good paying customers and hit the pavement which may have helped yank a job or two away from competitors.

webb297 · Oct 19, 2018

Custom Commercial HVAC - we have at least one, if not 2 jobs every weekend between now and Christmas, excluding Thanksgiving.... That's above our ongoing M-F jobs.

welder516 · Oct 19, 2018

It is off the chain , i am loaded right now and not rum (yet) ... :innocent0

Stoveman · Oct 24, 2018

The lawyer business in DC apparently isn't slowing down. One of the three NTP letters I got today was for another law firm corporate cafeteria. This will make four in the last year.

44man · Oct 24, 2018

I have always preached no matter how much work we have never take your foot off the bidding throttle

I am in the office working on a bid going out today and we can’t do the work we have due to not being able to find top shelf help and if we get this job I really don’t know how I can get this work done

But I will damn sure figure it out

Having at least a year ahead work load is tough but not as tough as trying to keep the guys busy

Bertfish · Oct 24, 2018

Just had a bid from Carroll Insulation. 5k for all fiberglass in a 2000 square foot house. He said normally they are next day but they are so busy they're out 3 to 4 days at this point. Guess for them that's really slammed.

Rob1035 · Oct 24, 2018

We use Carroll a lot, and they have been slammed for months.

Anyone else in construction seeing any recent downturn in business.

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