Switched from a 4 man crew to a 6 man crew for interior framing after a client called me out

I was bidding a 12,000 sq ft office fit-out in Denver and planned to use my usual 4 man framing crew to save on labor. The client, who used to be a super, looked at my schedule and straight up said, 'You're gonna be two weeks late with that crew size. The math doesn't work.' He showed me his old spreadsheets, breaking down linear feet of wall per man per day. I argued about coordination and space, but he was right. I bumped it to 6 guys, split them into two teams of three with clear zones, and we finished the rough framing in 7 days instead of the 14 I had scheduled. The extra payroll was worth it for the schedule certainty and the client's trust. Now I run the numbers his way on every bid over 8,000 sq ft. Has anyone else had a client give you a better way to run your own job?

3 comments

3 Comments

kim_hart72mo ago

Sometimes a bigger crew just creates more traffic jams and mistakes. That old spreadsheet math doesn't always work in a real space.

tarac1628d ago

Jumped into a project at a friend's shop last year where they had 8 people on a line doing what should have taken 4. Turned out half of them were just getting in each other's way, like you said @kim_hart7. We slimmed it down to 5 and split into two smaller teams for different parts of the job. Production actually went up because people weren't tripping over each other. Sometimes less truly is more in a tight space.

kaiblack2mo ago

Happens all the time in weird places. My barber told me to change the blade on my clippers twice as often, said the dull pulls were causing my neck rash. He was right. My mechanic showed me a cheaper oil filter brand that actually lasts longer. We get so stuck in our own routines we miss the obvious fixes that someone with fresh eyes can spot instantly. That client had the spreadsheet but he also had the distance from the problem.