See how these builders from around the world are using Buildertrend during COVID-19

After many weeks of quarantine and social distancing, we’re checking in with Buildertrend users from around the world to see how they’ve been affected and how they’re using Buildertrend to keep their business moving.

We hope you will benefit from the different perspectives of your fellow construction professionals during this time. Remember, we’re all in this together.

Name: Ed Miller

Company: Highland Ridge Custom Home Remodeling

Location: Oregon City, Oregon

Project Status: Halted construction on all new projects

Can you tell us a little bit about your company?

Highland Ridge is a family owned business and we serve the Portland area doing about 50 jobs a year. We are design-build specialists. Design-build means that all the key aspects of our projects are integrated — from design to building to warranty. This approach ensures the vision our clients started with equals the home they end up with — their vision stays perfectly intact, down to the smallest detail. This approach is always less stressful.

How has COVID-19 impacted the way you do business?

Right now, we’re not starting construction on any new projects and focusing our attention on developing new jobs through technology. We’re continuing to get leads through our Buildertrend embedded lead generation form and we’re lucky that our current work allows for social distancing. We’re continually talking to our guys and keeping a close eye on the evolving situation. We’re optimistic through technology we can continue to develop projects, finish existing work and prepare for future projects.

How are you using Buildertrend in our current environment?

We’re using Buildertrend to upload initial intake videos and create estimates from those videos. We’re sharing our Buildertrend desktops with clients and team members via Zoom. We’re able to develop projects, make selections and revise budgets from our home offices and we’re using Buildertrend as a tool to help with “pre-construction” homework. We just started using the ACH/credit card payments feature to avoid additional contact or trips to the bank for the homeowners. Additionally, we’re able to share Buildertrend mobile screens via Airplay and Zoom to review plans and we’re also uploading our Zoom videos into Buildertrend’s Daily Logs.

Name: Heather Tankersley

Company: Tankersley Construction

Location: Gold River, California

Project Status: Continued construction with precautions

Can you tell us a little bit about your company?

Tankersley Construction was started in 2017 by my husband, Steve. We both come from commercial construction backgrounds as project managers and have worked in the industry for over 15 years. We started the business with the goal of running residential remodeling the way you run a commercial construction project. Critical path schedule, lean construction and correct sequencing of subtrades. We currently have five employees and completed $1.3 million in work in 2019.

How has COVID-19 impacted the way you do business?

We are located in the greater Sacramento area of California. With the shelter in place order coming out quickly, we saw a rapid stop put on all work that we had in pre-construction and started. We had two active projects that were down to studs when the shelter in place order was issued. After further clarification of essential work by the governor’s office, we continued working on these jobs to get our owners back in their home. This also has its challenges in balancing the safety of our clients, employees and subcontractors. Our approach has been to limit the number of people onsite, increase cleaning procedures and add policies for entering the site and wrapping up at the end of the day. The guidelines and recommendations have been changing almost weekly, so keeping our employees, owners and subcontractors informed on our policies has been crucial.

How are you using Buildertrend in our current environment?

This time has allowed us to be able to explore more of the features that we were not using in Buildertrend and revamp our processes to be able to utilize Buildertrend more. We have asked our project managers to include more details in their daily logs and photos. This allows our teams to review the work in place remotely when we would normally rely on job walks to identify potential issues. Buildertrend is essential no matter what time it is! It is a key part of our operation and a tool we rely on.

Name: Jared Borden

Company: Sullivan Homes

Location: St. George, Utah

Project Status: Continued construction with precautions

Can you tell us a little bit about your company?

Since 2003, Sullivan Homes has been focused on our commitment to building quality homes. Our focus on quality goes beyond foundations, walls and roofs into building more than just a place to live, but a place our customers will be proud to call home for generations. Building a home means more to us than just square footage, amenities and price. It means ample space to gather loved ones. It means not having to sacrifice the home you want for the price you need. As many past clients would agree, a Sullivan Home just feels right because it’s just right for them.

How has COVID-19 impacted the way you do business?

In the growing area of St. George, Utah, our community has been significantly impacted by this pandemic, but thankfully our company has the tools and resources to move the majority of our office staff to a work-from-home situation. Our superintendents are still out at the job sites every day, working closely with our trusted subcontractors while still maintaining standard social distancing practices. We have shifted to primarily appointment-only meetings with clients to keep the number of people in our office and model homes to a minimum while still providing every facet of our business for them.

Has Buildertrend been essential in managing your business during this time?

Buildertrend has already been an essential part of Sullivan Homes’ business for many years. Their consistent help and understanding of the homebuilding process and updates/feedback throughout the entirety of our relationship together has helped our business grow and scale to what it is now with even more growth in the future. Through these chaotic times in our world, Buildertrend has further strengthened our capability to keep things running smoothly, no matter what comes our way.

Name: John Lea

Company: Decksouth

Location: Marietta, Georgia

Project Status: Continuing construction with precautions

Can you tell us a little bit about your company?

Decksouth was started in 1998 with one part-time carpenter/fireman. Today we have a team of 24. We are a true design-build company focusing on outdoor living. We take about 65 -70 projects from concept to completion each year and we also have a design only service. Our shop and showroom is located about 20 miles north of Atlanta in Marietta, Georgia.

How has COVID-19 impacted the way you do business?

COVID-19 has closed down our city (like most). As most states, we have a list of essential and non-essential businesses released by our governor. Thankfully, we are considered essential and take honor and pride in that fact. As a natural effect of the virus, so many of my team members have questions and concerns. As the leader I’ve decide to communicate, communicate and communicate some more. I allow every voice to be heard and remind everyone how important they are to not only our company but our community and our state. I’ve said over and over to take pride and stand proud of the job and role they have in the community and our local economy.

How is Buildertrend been essential to managing your business in our current environment?

Buildertrend is 100% essential. Buildertrend has never been more important to our business than it is right now. For obvious reasons, we are not able to manage each job with as many onsite visits. Using photos, daily logs and to-dos has always been key, however, now more than ever. Being able to share video messages with the entire team has been great as well.

Name: Steven Miranda

Company: NOVUS Building Services

Location: West Palm Beach, Florida

Project Status: Continuing construction with precautions

Can you tell us a little bit about your company?

NOVUS Building Services LLC is a fast-growing, interior non-structural multifamily renovations company that provides the most complete and professional client experience for multifamily (apartment) renovations. From fabrication and installation of stone and quartz countertops to full scope renovations on the East Coast of the United States.

How has COVID-19 impacted the way you do business?

We serve many properties and clients up and down the East Coast; the COVID-19 pandemic has had an undeniable effect on every person, industry and business we have the opportunity and pleasure to work with. In many ways, human resources have been the biggest challenge. Production, communication, volume of incoming work, supply chain economics and flow of business has seen an impact, but we are managing to support our clients due to the incredible work ethic of the individuals I have the pleasure to work with every day. For myself specifically, managing the human factor of daily operations and logistics, the capacity to maintain remote communication with clients and vendors, in addition to continuous changes to our schedule, have been the most challenging things to deal with.

How is Buildertrend been essential to managing your business in our current environment?

Buildertrend allows us to connect with our suppliers, field crews and colleagues no matter where they are, anytime. It also allows us to organize all the moving chess pieces required to accomplish the “always on time” turnover of renovated apartments for people moving into new places and the property management companies that oversee them. The software has helped us keep our team safe, remotely connected, and clients satisfied with real-time project management scheduling. Through the app, features and vast functionality, we know what each person is doing in the field and the manufacturing facility, minimizing face-to-face conversations and subsequently enforcing social distancing requirements to keep people safe and healthy.

Buildertrend has been critical to our daily operations, allowing us to operate regardless of what is happening. Accuracy for project management and scheduling has increased our capabilities, which has made our clients stay confident in our abilities, ensuring that new tenants will have a new home when they were promised, especially during such a sensitive time.

Name: Bob Deeks

Company: RDC Fine Homes

Location: Whistler, British Columbia, Canada

Project Status: Continuing construction with precautions

Can you tell us a little bit about your company?

RDC is an award-winning, net zero residential renovator and new home builder based out of Whistler, BC. We are working hard to adopt lean planning and building strategies and have recently adopted the Last Planner System to improve our Integrated Design Process.

How has COVID-19 impacted the way you do business?

We have seen a reduction in work as a number of projects have been put on pause, and while we have a couple of new projects in development, many of our best sales leads have gone silent as a result of the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19. Admin staff are working from home and sites are set up with handwashing stations are practicing social distancing and sanitizing tools and surfaces. We were lucky in that we were already set up with Microsoft Teams and Join.me for video conferencing and screen sharing.

How are you using Buildertrend in our current environment?

Buildertrend continues to be a great tool to connect our teams and clients, particularly when we cannot make regular visits to the site. The visibility of the schedule and budgets being available 24/7 are really helpful as we no longer have the ability to meet with team members and clients in the way we previously did. The photos on the daily logs have been a wonderful resource for our clients, and they have commented that this is something they really look forward to each morning.

Buildertrend is embedded in our everyday workflow and process, and we could not operate reliably in the way we do without it, even under normal circumstances. In the new COVID-19 era it has created a relatively seamless transition to our new reality.

Name: Daniel Klinkenberg

Company: Urban Homes

Location: Hamilton, New Zealand

Project Status: Construction halted completely

Can you tell us a little bit about your company?

Urban Homes is a fast-growing residential custom home design and build company. We have been building homes in the Waikato for the past 16 years. We have a team of over 50 staff consisting of sales, designers, estimators, project managers, builders and accountants. We are Waikato’s most awarded home builder and have a passion for delivering a great customer journey and experience.

How has COVID-19 impacted the way you do business?

As of the 27th of March, all of New Zealand was placed into lockdown for a minimum of four weeks due to COVID-19. This meant that we had to close our offices and show homes. We also had to secure all 60 plus of our sites that are under construction as building work is unable to commence during lock down. We had to transition all of our team to working remotely from isolation at home. This has really tested our systems, processes and culture in a good way.

What Buildertrend features have helped you most while having to work remotely?

We’ve been using the communication tools with our suppliers, sub trades and clients. Due to not being able to build during this period we have been unable to generate revenue, which puts a lot of pressure on cashflow. The payments tab of Buildertrend has been an outstanding tool to forecast future claims as our payments are all linked to our schedule items. This means that when we project claims for the future it provides us with a very accurate understanding of what we can expect to come in and when. Additionally, our project managers are using Buildertrend to effectively plan our re-establishment of sites. As you can imagine when the country is placed on lockdown for four weeks, we are expecting it to be incredibly busy when we return.

Name: Jason Economos

Company: Beyond Build Construction

Location: Sydney, Australia

Project Status: Continuing construction with precautions

Can you tell us a little bit about your company?

Established in 2016, Beyond Build Constructions is a Sydney-based custom home building company with a current team of 15 employees, mainly carpenters. We complete around 10-12 custom builds ranging from renovations and extensions to new builds and duplexes.

How has COVID-19 impacted the way you do business?

Our company is pretty fortunate despite the overall impact of COVID-19 in Australia. Unlike many countries around the world, our government has decided to classify the construction industry as an essential service for its vital role in our economy. They even extended our workdays to seven days a week, including public holidays, as long as we practice social distancing on our jobsites. This is designed for us to still be able to complete the work on time, but simultaneously spread out trades. We have been fortunate in the sense of having quite a full pipeline of work ranging up to 12-18 months before COVID-19 came onto the scene. We were also fortunate in the timing of commencing our current projects.

I would say that COVID-19 had a huge impact on our business structure. It forced us to think outside of the box in terms of marketing and procedures and to get rid of things that no longer served us. We knew we had to act quickly to stay afloat during these difficult times. All in all, I believe it’s a learning curve for us, we are still navigating our way through and hopefully we will come out stronger and better on the other side.

How are you using Buildertrend in our current environment?

Buildertrend helped us adapt rapidly to the current climate. We were able to maintain our client relations by granting them online access to their project. Usually, we schedule a weekly on-site construction meeting for them to see the progress of the build, but with Buildertrend we were able to manage everything from our screen. Our clients were able to see photos, choose selections online and communicate directly with us. This feature made us realize we spent a lot of time driving around the city for a quick face-to-face meeting when we could easily use Buildertrend for our decision making and interaction. This definitely helped us boost our productivity, efficiency and allowed us to focus our energy where it was needed. Our schedules have also shifted to adhere to social distancing rules and minimizing traffic onsite, made easy by Buildertrend.

Buildertrend has helped us run our projects more smoothly than ever. From organizing our teams on site, to tracking our pipelines, I have been able to monitor our sites via Daily Logs. I think that COVID-19 will change the way we all do business in the future and having software like Buildertrend puts us ahead of the game.

Name: Ryan Jenkins

Company: Tass Construction Group

Location: New South Wales, Australia

Project Status: Halted construction on all new projects

Can you tell us a little bit about your company?

Tass Construction Group is a small residential building company that specializes in high-end, large-scale renovations and custom new builds.

How has COVID-19 impacted the way you do business?

COVID-19 had a fast, dramatic effect on our company as we were in the transition of finishing and starting new projects. The new projects all canceled until further notice, until the end of the outbreak was clear, and the economy was back on track.

How are you using Buildertrend in our current environment?

We still have a couple projects being completed, which are highly dependent on Buildertrend. We are now taking on a lot of smaller jobs than usual to keep cash flow continuing, and Buildertrend is allowing us to stay in control, document and run all relevant information we need to complete these jobs efficiently. The diversity of Buildertrend and the mobile app allows us to be connected anywhere, anytime.

We’re here for you

Like these construction pros, we want to ensure you’re equipped for success both now and in the future. Never hesitate to reach out if we can help in any way.

And if you’re looking for a better way to manage your projects, now is the best time to take advantage of Buildertrend’s top-notch platform. Use this time and schedule a demo today!