Contract only the trades that keep working
When COVID hit in the middle of a concrete custom home build, I signed only trades I expected to keep showing up.
COVID arrived while we were midway through a heavy-concrete custom home. On our other jobs, a single trade stopping had frozen an entire project.
On this build, most trades had not yet signed. That meant no prior contract tied my hands, so I could pick on a single criterion that year: who would really turn up. I signed only companies that planned to work straight through COVID, and I kept the framing and concrete trade that already had a strong relationship with us.
As I remember it, the 14-month build wrapped about a month and a half early. The trades were happy to have the work.
Staying uncommitted gives you an option. When the market breaks, sign for reliability first.
Story details
| Project | Santa Monica house |
|---|---|
| Type | High-stakes save |
| Year | 2019 to 2021 |
| Firm telling | on the Common Ground wiki |