What is your company's average production schedule? week to week, month to month, etc

Custom Drywall Svc.

I'll kick it off:

IF you have your own drywall business, i'd like to get an HONEST view of how your usual production schedule is....i.e., 'how busy is your company'

again, please be honest. we all know it SUCKS to be in the construction business at this very moment. and this post is not about 'whose company is busier/bigger, blah blah blah'

this is an HONEST look into how production is and varies from company to company. This post will defeat the purpose all together if people start lying and making up job starts, etc etc. This post is designed to be INFORMATIVE and a somewhat realistic indicator of how each region is doing -- so we can see if theres any growth OR more decline.

I decided to make this post after i saw one of Darren's posts where he mentioned something along the lines of "im averaging one house per week..."

that got me curious as to how everyone else is doing. again, this is not a bragging or boasting fest by any means. ill start by giving an example of the info you should be giving in your replies. thanks for listening guys!
cant wait for the input!
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As far as actual 'jobs' (not minor BS patchworks) my company is averaging about 1-2 houses a week.

to give you an idea of how slow it is, that number when things were good was at least 5-7 job starts a week.

and the bulk of that, i depend on the production home builder we have been working for for the past 25-30 years. They used to keep us amazingly steady at the number i said above, 5-7 a week.......now, its currently 1-2.

so, i would call that builder our 'bread and butter'....they keep the payroll going more or less......anything on top of that (custom homes, big remodles, small commercial) USED TO BE the 'icing on the cake'

NOW......that 'icing' has turned into a must, to make up for the lost job starts from my production builder.

bottomline, the best way i desribe how 'busy' we are to other ppl....is that its 'slow.....but SOMEWHAT steady'

i can depend on at LEAST 1 house (job start) per week.....and at THIS point in time, im VERY VERY fortunate for at least that, since i know how bad other companies are doing.

and similar to what Darren also said in that same post i saw, im moving a 'litte dough' as well.....but definitely nothing to brag about by any means.

overall, my company is fortunate enough to still be standing firmly, but theres just NOT a lot of growth at all going on.

muddymen

Well I'm making no money to speak of and the "BS" patch jobs are what's keeping the business running. It's down to me and one other guy the rest are subs.

I average 2-4 patches a week and a small basement once a month, keep in mind I'm a small company and have no debt and that's saving me.

I was told years ago to start my own company but never did, so things dried up and I launched Muddy Men Drywall. I thought that I might get lucky and get in at the beginning of the up swing and have an established name when things were moving again but so far work is slow and I hope I didn't waste my savings on a industry that's going to be dead for another 2 years.(I won't make it)

If things dont pick up I'll be living in the shop.

I need what you already have 2 new homes at 10,000 to 18,000 sq' a week to be doing "ok" I think I may have lost most my hangers and tapers to other industries(box stores and city work).

I bid 4 jobs this last week so I hope to get at lest one.

Sorry for the bad news.

Custom Drywall Svc.

Muddy,

by saying 'BS' patchjobs earlier, i didnt mean to offend anybody by the way, and should've been more careful on the wording i used.

actually, those 'BS' patchjobs are keeping me alive as well, so they aren't, well...."BS" haha.

for example, say a small one like 100 - 300 bucks.......hell, that'll pay for my secretary that week alone, so by no means are they "BS."

if you were offended, i apologize.

Yes muddy, i realize how fortunate i am to have what i have now, still.

technically, these production houses that are keeping me 'slow but steady' average anywhere from 6000 board sf - 15000 board sf. and right now, they are selling the bigger models more frequently, so im averaging more of the 12000 - 15000 board sf models, w/ 9' clngs.

and as far as 'custom homes' i try to average at LEAST 1-2 per month. and those avg usually 17000 - 30000 board sf per house.

another big plus i forgot to mention thats saved me (this is more on the topic of how quick builders pay) the production home builder i work for, for the past 30 years we've worked for them, they have available a check for me every single friday afternoon -- which these days, is gold.

every...single...friday for 30 years.

these days, you cant beat that. so FORTUNATELY, i dont have much of a problem with cash-flow.

'making money' is a different story of course. It's just trying to get well enough AHEAD (financially) thats killin ALL of us im sure.

good luck muddy. keep pluggin the #'s, and thanks for the info.

Whitey97

I actually have a fairly busy schedule for this year. We signed an actual contractor that is building houses, and many of them. We are told that from this contractor we should be doing 4 large houses (250+ sheets) per month. So far we've got 1 in the books for them, 1 full re-do remod paint, and 1 waiting on an inspection, and that's in 2 weeks. Otherwise it's a couple patch jobs a week. That's just fine for us, being there's only 3/4 of us. I do agree right along the lines of CDS, we're not loosing, but "back in the day" we were hustlin' all of it with at the very least, 3 per week

muddymen

Absolutely no offense on the BS patch's thing because that's exactly what they are(patches, burn outs, cracks, laminating over plaster..etc)it gets very old and I'm sick of it, but right now we have no choice.
Maybe I should move up to Arcata(Eureka is close to it), CA where were most of my family lives but then I'd have to learn logging or pot growing because I hear you can't wear stilts up there and there's no way in h*ll that I'm setting walk boards up for anything under 10 foot.

Darren@Partners

From early Feb. thru early May, we were getting about one house per week plus those patch jobs and maybe a basement every other week. It's been real spotty. Some weeks we had three house going, the next one basement and 2 patches or resprays. Last week was nothin' but two patches plus a little demo. This week, two resprays and a handyman job (cracks and door adjustments). BTW, both those resprays came from Craig's List. Have probably one house a week coming over the next month or so. But have no single builder doing any consistent volume, just a dozen or so that are doing two or three(or less) per year at present. Several have build/customs under contract with contingency to sell existing home prior to a start.

And when things were good, I was averaging 4-5 houses per week, plus maybe two or three basements per month.

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Whitey97

I have not gotten much off of ol' craigslist lately, a did get a scammer this morning, that was fun.

Have popcorn removal and re-sprays been a hit around your area's as well? last year we were avg. 2 per month.

silverstilts

I usually average between 350-400 sheets per week not bad for a small company , but keeps us hopping , lately not even close to that , but work is starting to come around had one guy out of the blue call and say the church they are working on will be ready for me in a couple of weeks , didn't even know that they were working on it , nice to have someone schedule you without the hassle of estimating to get the job. Have about 9 homes lined up and a couple good commercial jobs hopefully it will pick up more but keeps the bill collectors off my back eh?

silverstilts

I forgot to mention we average about 1-1/2 - 2 homes a week plus maybe 10-15 commecial jobs that range in size average 6-15,000' and try to stay away from patch and match B.S ...

Whitey97

send em my way! lol

Darren@Partners

Yes on the popcorn removals, two this week. Someone on "call for Action" ran a sting on 12 or so contractors and baited them about asbestos. Every single one blew it off on camera, so beware.

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Whitey97

Good tip. Thanks!

Custom Drywall Svc.

yea, i know what u mean, WEIRD how that works sometimes.......

for me, theyre rare, but they DO happen every once in a while........one time, i had the most random call of an owner-builder that calls me and is like "uhhhh yea, i got this 2-story 6000 sf house needing drywall, hows your schedule? get me stocked next week please, i dont need an estimate"

....

being as easy as that was, i was of course super-suspicious and hesitant. but, after i looked at the job....it was nothin out of the ordinary, and all in all a great house to be doing. at the end everything turned out great, i thought i might get scammed or wahtever on payment, but nope......haha.

Custom Drywall Svc.

nahh, you can wear stilts. technically against the law, but man, nearly all my finishers do it, and never get caught (knock on wood).

Custom Drywall Svc.

I've actually had some decent success with Craigslist....

mostly a ton of 300-800 dollar patchworks, and actually 3-4 BIG custom homes from it.

the big custom homes surprised me the most.

you know what are the best right now, hahha...what i absolutely love?

doing garages.

the standard 20 x 20, 8' ht......25 sheet maximum garages.

I can price them nearly all the same, and they're fast and easy.

ive gotten a lot of those lately for some reason.

Custom Drywall Svc.

Damn, i know what you mean....thats odd when that happens.

same thing with me.....one week i had 5 job starts, all big jobs.....the next 2 weeks, zero job starts, with the exception of 1-3 $150 - 300 dollar patches, haha.

Mushin Drywall

My companies average production schedule. I'm a little embarrassed as of late. Its just me and a helper right now. Living off patchwork and small remodels and additions. I've been picking up some commercial tenant improvement work. Luckily my cost of living is pretty low. I was watching "Deadliest catch" a couple of nights ago. The fishing was terrible and I really liked what one of the captains said. "Sometimes you just have to grind it out, long hours, whatever it takes to make the quota". That's what we're doing now.

Whitey97

We've all been there, nothing to be ashamed of. I feel like 1/2 my life is at that point.

Darren@Partners

With starts down across the board, I signed up with thecontractor411.com yesterday. Anyone hear of it? Being pretty leary of lead services, but needing to generate another revenue stream, I dropped the $99 "background check" fee. I spend that an a monthly ad anyway.

The scoop is that once signed up you get pre-priced work (200-600 per address) to make foreclosures ready to sell. Mosty paint touch-up and lock changes. Get paid by the bank every two weeks (supposedly, we'll see). Pretty much stuff I (or my touch-up man) can do solo. Also supposed to be a few HO leads mixed in. The best part (I thought) was that the $99 is the end of the paying. If anybody else has any input about thecontractor411.com would appreciate it, can still dispute the CC charge Will post my results on another thread later.

BTW: Spoke to a couple of pretty successful, older guys yesterday about the "recovery" and whether this was a spike in between a double-dip. Both agreed that this is likely the beginning of the recovery and no double-dip will follow. I still have some reservations but respect both men's opinions very much -- so good news. Hope more to follow.

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www.partnersconstruction-drywall.com

Custom Drywall Svc.

yea, i just had a long discussion with my materials sales rep about this, who is all over the west coast.

he mentioned that hes seeing the same thing going on, as far as a recovery and how this seems like its the bottom........

we'll see of course.