3 Common Reasons for Delays in Construction & How To Avoid Them

Commercial construction delays often place unnecessary time constraints and financial burdens on developers. When construction management teams allow seemingly avoidable issues to cause incremental deadlines to be missed, building contractors are too often responsible for lost leased space revenue and cost overruns. As a leader in construction management in Florida, MH Williams Construction Group has the necessary infrastructure and experienced commercial builders to complete projects on time and on budget. These are common reasons for delays and ways our Florida construction services avoid them.

1: Ineffective Construction Management

One of the key factors that leads to construction delays stems from working with an outfit that lacks long-term experience. Commercial contractors lean on knowledge about building codes, safety regulations, and other technical aspects. They also must garner boots-on-the-ground experience about how the various trades operate, realistic timetables, and scheduling.

What tends to occur when working with commercial construction contractors that lack both technical and experiential knowledge are scheduling gaps. For example, sheetrock subcontractors can be delayed when electricians running power lines behind walls suffer setbacks. Once such a delay happens, it has a domino effect on the entire project. Suffer multiple delays and a project could fall months behind. As a leading commercial general contractor Florida developers have worked with since 1987, our workflow expertise and scheduling mitigates such oversights.

2: Inherent Design Flaws

Effective construction management in Florida tasks a general contractor with proactive participation in the first two phases of a project — design and execution. If properly orchestrated, the third phase — post-construction maintenance and upkeep — are likely to meet cost expectations. But when design flaws are not caught and corrected on the drawing board, execution cannot seamlessly transpire.

For example, it’s not uncommon for structural flaws to be identified by experienced hands-on builders after construction has begun. Despite third-party architects signing off on blueprints, mistakes can cause substantial delays that may require removing and rebuilding portions of a project.

That’s why pre-construction services such as in-house design can be a game-changer. When developers and investors work with a start-to-finish commercial general contractor that brings all the key stakeholders to the table, such oversights are eliminated. Successful projects are not conceived on the drawing board in a vacuum, they are accomplished on time and on budget by hard-working professionals from multiple industries.

3: Ineffective Workforce Management

It’s not unusual for outfits that routinely miss crucial deadlines to point to things such as bad weather as a reason for delays. That reason must be considered within a specific context of a construction project.

If South Florida suffers a severe weather event such as a tropical storm, initial excavation work may need to be postponed due to safety considerations. Operating heavy equipment under muddy and loose soil conditions can be dangerous. While the weather can create reasonable delays, diligent workforce management can overcome many weather-related postponements.

For example, rain may prompt the rescheduling of outside work. But teams can be directed to move forward with inside phases that ultimately keep the overall project on its timeline. One of the many strategies used by savvy commercial contractors is to have a fluid plan that can pivot when necessary.

Another common failing occurs when companies work with unreliable subcontractors. This is not to say these outfits do subpar work. Rather, subcontractors have a tendency to overbook their workers in order to stay busy. This may involve taking on purely inside work to safeguard them against rain delays. But when the multiple clients they work with grow frustrated about the slow completion pace, something has to give. As a leader in commercial construction in Florida, MH Williams Construction Group enjoys long-standing relationships with only reliable subcontractors who show up and complete their portion on time.

Work With Top Commercial General Contractor Florida Developers Trust

After more than three decades, the MH Williams Construction Group has earned a superior reputation for completing projects on time and on budget. These successes include office building construction, shopping center construction projects, medical office construction, and automotive construction, among other industries.

Few industrial construction companies bring start-to-finish resources under one roof. As a quality construction company based in Melbourne, Florida, our pre-construction services and diligent project management strategies help investors and developers avoid unnecessary delays and accompanying costs.