Carpenter’s Corner: Jim Reigel
Maintaining quality on a tight time frame
When I’m on a jobsite, it’s much easier to maintain quality when I have plenty of time to pay attention to the details. But this wasn’t the case when I was working on a kitchen remodel last December.
The kitchen had to be finished in time for Christmas, which meant I had to demo the entire kitchen and install the new floors, cabinetry, countertops, appliances and fixtures in less than 24 days. Because we had such a tight time frame, I couldn’t follow my normal process, but I also couldn’t cut corners. I still had to give the client the quality work and clean job site they were looking for.
The first thing I did was advance planning. Normally I plan a week at a time, but I had to plan several weeks all at once. It made a difference because before we even started I identified a critical point that we need to work around. Our client wanted a beautiful granite countertop, which takes several weeks to come in. So I knew I had to plan everything around the countertops.
At BRHI, we have a lead carpenter on the job each day, which allows us to be in constant communication with the client, our office staff and our subcontractors. Each day, I was communicating with all the different parts to make sure we identified and fixed problems before they became an issue. I also set our subcontractors up to win. By pre-planning and preparing the site for them, our subs were able to come in and do their job quickly and efficiently.
By Christmas, we were able to give the client a complete turnkey product in just three weeks, but we were still able to pay attention to the little details. For example, we finished the tops of all the cabinets, since the home had a catwalk that looked down on the kitchen. That way the kitchen had a polished, finished look from every angle.
“The tops of cabinets look fabulous from upstairs. I am surprised at what a difference it makes and am glad you were able to have Jim take care of this for us.” – Rebekah Paulson
