Our mad, frantic construction diaries

Tension, tough negotiations and travel – our three diarists share a typical week in the fast-moving construction industry. QS Greg Marshall, project manager Lucy East and hearing-impaired design manager Eoin Burns were speaking to Roxanne McMeeken. Photographs by Edward Tyler.

Greg Marshall ICIOB

Director, Greg Marshall Quantity Surveying

Monday
I’m 42 so I’ve seen a few recoveries but I’ve never experienced one as dramatic as this. Six months ago I was struggling to fill my days. Now there aren’t enough waking hours to get everything done for all my clients, who are specialist contractors and mostly one-man bands.

But this morning’s drive from home in Solihull to the Cotswolds doesn’t feel like work. Not a cloud in the sky when I arrive in the village of Milton-under-Wychwood.

I’m meeting a bricklayer, who is a client, at a private care home site, where he’s working. He’s got several care homes on the go, so he needs me at least one day a week at the moment. The first thing he says is that last week he won three more projects.

Today, I’m doing valuations, which means measuring on site and then submitting a valuation and invoice to my opposite number at the main contractor. You’ve got to get these in early because cash flow is crucial to small businesses like my client. Like me, he’s a sole trader so he just doesn’t have the financial clout to cope with late payments.

We have slightly surreal lunch in a tea room in the picturesque village of Stow-on-the-Wold. They probably don’t see too many brickies in paint-splattered tracksuits here.

Tuesday
I’m off to London on the train. I spend a lot of time like this, just me and my laptop. Some people find train journeys annoying but these are my most productive hours.

Just before pulling into Euston I Google a client that has owed me £2,000 for a few months. It was tough being owed that money over Christmas when there wasn’t too much coming in. Now it’s easier to cope with — which is just as well because I find the client is in the London Gazette. I doubt I’ll get a penny out of them now.

It’s a wake up call. With my workload growing I should start being more picky about who I work with. I resolve to start doing credit checks on clients.

Wednesday
A difficult meeting with a main contractor. My subcontractor client gave them a quote four months ago but the job has only started now, so we’ve got to add 9% to our price. With the market picking up prices for labour and materials are going through the roof.

The meeting doesn’t end too well. The main contractor tells us he might make a loss. It’s not how I normally operate and not what I would call professional, but we’ve got no choice.

There’s now a real danger with how you price jobs. I’m trying to factor in further price rises, which I expect, but without a crystal ball it’s difficult to know exactly how much prices will rise. Then you’ve got to think what other surveyors might be forecasting. It’s difficult to get it right and I think recently I lost a bid because of it, but then that’s probably better than ending up with a loss-making job.

Thursday
I’ve won an electrical substation job! My client will be doing the groundworks. It’s not champagne time but it’s a good bit of bread and butter construction work. We knew we were close but we went to meet the client to discuss the programme and payment terms, so it’s a bonus to come away having actually won the job.

The only downside that is that I reckon we won this purely on price rather than quality and experience. That’s still the case for smaller jobs like this. It’s also a shame that the main contractor has a framework to do these substations around the country but I know if we bid for another one with them the experience we gain on this one won’t move us any further forward. Instead we’ll most likely have to bid again from scratch, which is just a waste of everyone’s time and money.

Friday
I accompany a subbie I represent to meet a builder at his headquarters in Nottingham. It’s a pre-contact meeting, or what I call a “sussing you out meeting”.

We’re shown into the boardroom, where, unexpectedly, there is a piano. But we’re negotiating a £350,000 job so it doesn’t seem the right time to ask about the presence of a random musical instrument.

The meeting goes well and I’m quietly confident we’ve got the job. You can tell when they like you.

Back to my office at home for an afternoon writing quotes for new clients and invoicing. I also catch up on social media. I don’t claim to know what I’m doing with Twitter because I’ve only been on it regularly since January. But I do understand that it’s become a case of, if you’re not involved in it, it looks odd.

Anyway, it seems to be good networking tool – I’m now up to 140 followers – and I enjoy tweeting my thoughts on industry issues. But today I can’t resist a tweet about that piano.

Follow Greg Marshall @GMQS

Lucy East MCIOB

Project manager, EPCO Building

Monday
My Monday morning meeting with our accounts manager goes well. I’m running a business (Romford-based EPCO) with six employees and varying numbers of subcontractors, so the first thing I like to know at the start of the week is that our cash flow situation is okay. The good news is that we’re being paid what we’re owed within a reasonable amount of time.

Technically, I’m a director, but I use the title project manager because it better reflects the fact that I’m a qualified building surveyor and project manager. It shows that despite being female, 32 and having taken over the family business from my Dad, I do have some clue about construction. In fact, I’m involved in pretty much everything our principal contracting firm does.

I spend the afternoon looking at a project brief and writing the programme for the refurbishment of a healthcare facility in a Victorian building. Since my parents started the firm in the early 1970s we’ve worked mainly on schools, but in recent years, moving into healthcare and universities, as well as some private sector projects, has helped keep us going.

The past five years have still been pretty trying though. We’ve had to increase the work we tender for hugely – thankfully Dad still handles tenders, though he keeps threatening to retire! Turnover and profit are down compared to before the recession, however, last year turnover increased on the previous year to £2.2m, so things are improving.

Tuesday
I visit a hospice we’re refurbishing in the Thames Gateway, Kent, to meet their contract administrators and discuss the programme. It’s incredibly sensitive because the hospice is still fully operational while we’re carrying out the work in stages.

Our strategy involves erecting enclosures around wherever we’re working and letting staff know well in advance of planned works. We’ve also told our operatives that if a nurse asks them to stop working at any time, they should immediately go for a tea break.

We chose the guys for this job carefully and I’m really pleased with how it’s going. They are being fantastic.

Wednesday
I’m on site with our contracts manager at a hospital in Essex, where we’re about to do a cable pull-through. We need to pull an exceptionally heavy electrical cable through an existing 205-metre underground duct.

When we inspect the duct it’s clear it is not an easy or pleasant place to work in. It’s packed full of other cables and pipes, obstructed in places and there is even 2ft of water in some spots. So we have find space for our cable and a safe way to clip it to the walls. At the same time the cable needs to arrive on site over six days because there is nowhere to store all of it at once. We also need to arrange a security guard to watch the cable whenever we’re not working, which means 24 hours over the weekend and from 4.30pm to 7.45am on weekdays.

It’s going to be challenging to prepare but once we’ve worked out how to do it the job should be straightforward. This one will be all in the planning.

Thursday
I need to do one more thing before starting the cable pull-through job, which is to negotiate a price for the all-important cable. I’ve been talking to several suppliers for a few weeks. They’re all keen to get the order from us because it’s such a big one. We need no less than 2,500 metres of cable.

I call each supplier and ask whether they can do a better price than previously discussed. We are on a fixed price so the fact that copper prices fluctuate all the time means we’re carrying quite a bit of risk. In the end I get a price I’m happy with and place the order.

That’s a mammoth task ticked off, so it’s very satisfying, even if my brain’s done in. I go home on time for a change and have lovely time with my two-year-old daughter. It can be stressful balancing such a full-on job with being a mum but playing with Rose is the perfect way to unwind. She’s what keeps me going.

Friday
I’m at a commercial building in the West End, where we’re replacing one of three heating pumps and installing a steel frame that will allow all three pumps to be lifted out in future, if necessary. We’re also working with a steel fabricator to design a completely bespoke frame. I discuss the specification for the job with the client and it’s really enjoyable – I always like a proper bit of M&E work.

Later I’m in east London with a client for an end of defects inspection on another of our healthcare projects. There are a few cracks in the plaster, so I’ll have to send a guy back to spend half a day filling them in. But there are no major issues so our retention money will be released, which is more good news for next Monday’s cash flow meeting.

Eoin Burns MCIOB

Assistant design manager, Willmott Dixon

Monday
I arrive on site at 8.30am and I’m trying to think positive. However, it’s not the best start to the week: It’s tipping it down, and I’m in Croydon.

I’m at one of two design and build schools schemes in the borough that we’re working on. This one is at Oakley Road, which will be the new location for Ryelands, a local primary. After I dry out and down a warming cup of coffee in the site office, the team of four site investigation specialists I’ve arranged to meet arrives.

We chose them for the job last week and they are on our list of pre-approved suppliers, but I want to meet them in person just to make double sure before we appoint them formally.

This is in large part because I’m deaf. We’ve only been in touch through emails until now and I can’t really do phone calls, so for me, meeting face to face is vital.

Since birth I’ve not had 80-90% of my hearing so I’m profoundly deaf. It can be frustrating for me but it can also be really positive because I work twice as hard at communication. I make sure I meet everyone I work with and I arrange meetings well in advance whenever possible. There are also small things you can do. For instance, my emails contain a note explaining that my name is pronounced “Owen”. 

I brief the site investigation team about the project while we walk around site so I can physically show them exactly what I’m talking about. It goes well and I reckon we’ve made the right choice of team. Appropriately enough, the sun comes out.

Tuesday
Back at Oakley Road my colleague Peter Poole (senior design manager) and I are facing an age-old issue. This project involves refurbishing an Edwardian building to create a 2,700 sq m school for 420 primary pupils and 38 nursery pupils. The architect wants to knock down a major structural wall to create more space. No doubt it would look the business but we just don’t have the budget for another system to do the wall’s job – no less than propping up the roof.

In the end we agree on what I think is a good compromise – we’ll trim the wall and add a few extra columns. Crisis averted.

Some people like everything to be set in stone but I really enjoy a bit of unpredictability. Being in the pre-contract department I come in while everything’s still up in the air and I have to close it all down ready to pass on to the construction team. You have to trim costs and prevent the architect running away with the job, but you’ve also got to ensure you don’t dent the architect’s confidence and their sense of ownership of the project.

This is why I was one the first people to go for the title of chartered construction manager. It gets across the complexity and dynamism of our role much more than being called a “chartered builder”.

Wednesday
We’re at a Croydon Council office today with the client and their quantity surveyor to review the budget for Oakley Road. The fact is that there have been some cost over-runs so we’re looking for savings. We’ve got an idea but once again, the architect won’t like it.

We had discussed replacing the windows of the existing building. However, we suspect the planners will say that if we replace any, we’ll have to replace the lot, and they’ll all have to retain the heritage look. In fairness, it will cost a fortune, so we agree not touch the windows, saving around £373,000.

It won’t be fun breaking the news to the architect and to be honest I can completely see why the architect wanted to replace the windows. But money doesn’t grow on trees. 

Thursday
Another meeting with Croydon today about how to tackle the other school we’re working on, the 1,165-pupil Oasis Arena Post Primary, which will be on the former site of Ryelands school. Peter and I convince the client to scrap a plan to demolish the existing school and rebuild from scratch. Instead we’ll incorporate the building into our new scheme. The plan makes a lot of sense: the existing structure is only 20 years old so it should have a few decades left in it.

Friday
Recently I vowed never to cycle again after two crashes and deciding it’s just too dangerous to cycle in London. But I’ve always been into sports. Last year I did a 666km bike trip from the top to the bottom of Ireland, where I’m from. I also played for the Irish Deaf Men’s Football Team at the Deaflympics in Sofia, Bulgaria.

So today for the first time I cycle from home in Colliers Wood, south London, to our headquarters in Cobham. To my surprise and relief, it’s great to be back on the bike. It takes 50 minutes, allows me to beat the traffic and instead of burning fuel, I’m burning fat!

I spend the day printing drawings for a new project and checking that they match both our measurements and the client’s brief. Then I narrow them down from about 200 to 12 crucial drawings, which I’ll send to the QS. It’s a bit boring to be honest, but it’s necessary, and satisfying to get it all done. Now for the cycle home…