Contractors unbalance unit prices in their bids to take advantage of anticipated quantity overruns and underruns. An intelligent unbalancing of the unit prices can result in higher profits. Of course, that's the contractors' goal. Review the example provided to see how it's done...  Read More >  

A Washington concrete contractor, Salinas Construction, Inc. (SCI), was awarded $404,000 of its requested $425,000 for a job at U.S. Army Joint Base Lewis-McChord only to see this decision  reversed in district court. The problem was that SCI did not offer expert testimony, despite warnings ...  Read More >  

Just a quickie on formwork pressures.  One of my foremen once asked me if we needed more form ties in a 24" thick wall versus a 12" thick wall.  That answer is "no".   Concrete, when being placed, is liquid.  Just like water.  And as all carpenters know, form ties are used to resist pressure pushing against the forms.  The difference in pressure is only a function of two variables:  the density of the liquid ...  Read More >  

I just learned this one a couple months ago from a fantastic superintendent - Mike. One of his foremen called to him to say that he was having a confrontation with a homeowner - we cut down a tree that was shown on our plans to remove, but the homeowner thought for years that he owned the tree. He didn't. It was owned by the City and was just outside of the homeowner's property.

As the homeowner was in Mike's foreman's face yelling and threatening ...  Read More >