How to start the new year right!

Welcome to our first 2021 20/20 Insights newsletter.   From our newest office location in downtown Miami, we see exciting new projects on the horizon. Below are images of the Miami skyline from our office.

Looking back over 2020, we grew in breadth and depth, managing new COVID-19 risks, in addition to standard construction risks—always stepping up to the challenges, embracing the changes needed and putting our best foot forward. The risk milestones may vary somewhat by project type, but the overall timelines remain constant.

Below are two fun graphic videos that we created to illuminate the construction risks from beginning to end and what tools clients can use to help reduce those risks. We also contributed new articles for the industry on what goes wrong, what to look for and how to manage those construction risks. As we like to say, “What’s in Your Toolbox”?

Looking Forward Finding Solutions By Osvaldo Joya, Director of Pre Construction Services

What a challenging year 2020 has been, our professional and personal daily lives have been upended, and continue to be so… However, professionally, these difficulties may have brought a silver lining. The challenges that we were forced to face this year, allowed us to question if the way we conducted our business was the most efficient. If our attitude towards our work product had become stale and overly complacent about what we do and how we do it.

This year allowed us to experiment with new technology as well as technology we had been sitting on for a while and were too afraid to try and kept pushing it for another time. Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype… all these forms of communication had been around for years; however, we never had relied on them so much as we did this past year, it forced us to truly learn and lean into their capacity and test their limits. Remote work, screen sharing, and live cloud storing has been challenging, at the beginning it seemed near impossible, but once we realized our situation was not going to end (at least not quickly enough), it cleared the way for us to take full advantage of any method, no matter how crazy it had sounded in the past, to find new ways to make it work. Hopefully, this is something positive that we can all carry out of 2020. Looking forward to this new year, I am grateful we made it, and that 2020 will be left behind, but what I will not leave behind is that newfound knowledge that 2020 made us aware of, that we have a great capacity to adapt to change, and that although technology can be perilous if left unrestrained, if used properly, it can be an excellent tool to help us reach our goals, fulfill our obligations to our clients, our projects, and ourselves. I hope we do not have to wait much longer to return to some normalcy, but when we do, we should try and avoid returning to our old patterns and habits that we now realize were holding us back.

Curbside Takeaways Lessons and Opportunities By Debb Long, Senior Director of QA Education

Who knew, these phrases ‘curbside pick-up or to go only’ would become such a part of our everyday activities… Retail parking lots across the country converted into drive-up stations for meals to go, virus testing, or even lumber and building material pick-up!!!  Our industry has weathered many a storm and yet we continue to find the resiliency to forge ahead even in this most challenging of times. We have learned new ways to work together while simultaneously staying apart. Construction has long been at the helm of the ship, driving economic growth, providing built environments for numerous types of occupancies and leading the way in product research & development.  Building science continues to garner an ever-widening audience with product manufacturers focusing in on molecular interactions and lifespan performance.  Tech advances too, have improved so many of our day to day efforts, including our proprietary CaptureQA® platform, reporting real time findings and tracking data on project performance across a variety of categories. Our teams’ focal point remains risk mitigation for our clients and trade partners from cradle to grave, utilizing both ‘long view optics’ as well as an ‘in this very moment’ approach. So please stay tuned, stay safe, and know that we will always endeavor to be your resource in Quality Assurance Services.

New Year, New Focus, New Possibilities Planning for the Future By Toni Fetchel, Director of Post Construction Services

A new year provides an opportunity to organize, evaluate and reassess our priorities. We can acknowledge that there are some unknowns in our world, but we can head into this new year prepared to take care of ourselves, each other and our surroundings. Our homes and communities became our safe places this past year along with serving as offices, classrooms, playgrounds and entertainment hubs, and exercise and wellness retreats. With more time spent in our homes and communities, these areas may require maintenance and repairs to ensure the safety of our families and neighbors as well as preparing for the colder weather. Being proactive with regular and preventative maintenance is more efficient, helps protect assets, and saves costs. Improved efficiency, sustainability and wellness will be integrated into maintenance practices and a focus in the homebuilding process going forward. These factors will be part of the design for all sectors and project types - residential, commercial, industrial and hospitality alike. Now is the time to review the maintenance needs and improvement plans for our homes and communities.  HOA Boards should have an approved plan for maintenance and improvements for the year, and homeowners should have a maintenance schedule of tasks for the year.  In addition to the maintenance needs and financial health of the Association, below are a few important items HOA Boards should focus on as part of the community plan for 2021: New Laws - Homeowners Associations nationwide should be aware of any new or changing laws and governing regulations that could impact the residents, homeowners, and the community. Review of Amenities and Common Areas – Review of the amenities and common areas will help ensure the plans for maintaining, repairing and managing these areas is complete and comprehensive. Community Safety – Homeowner Associations should review their emergency preparedness policies, and particularly in California, fire safety policies and check local and state regulations about fire safety. Community policies and regulations should be updated as needed for the protection and safety of the residents and community. Homeowner Complaints - Review homeowner complaints and policies relating to conflict resolution practices. Identify trends and reoccurring issues and develop ways to improve on current practices and to reduce or eliminate certain complaints. Protecting Property Values - Planning for an unpredictable market. Homeowners and Associations staying current with maintenance and making needed repairs to their homes and the common areas is critical to ensure the best property valuation and maintain high resident satisfaction. This can help protect the community in the event of a market downturn or another recession.

Please call or email for further information   Don Neff, President (949) 336-8911 don@ljpltd.com

We needed to rethink how we did business, how we made decisions, and how we need to manage risk going forward. Sadly, all businesses, big and small, and all industries felt the COVID-19 impact during 2020--some more than others. However, the construction industry is resilient and has continued, with new protocols, requirements, and safety measures. Schedules and costs increased, environments and plans changed, and projects were delayed or cancelled. But most of our clients are still here and so is LJP! Looking forward we will continue to innovate to benefit our clients. In fact, our overriding goal at LJP Construction Services is to help our clients develop and implement risk management and quality assurance programs which are unique and responsive to their cultures, keeping their operations and projects moving forward, and contributing to their continued success. CaptureQA® is one of our leading tools which helps clients-- eliminating uncertainty in field operations by identifying and correcting deficiencies before construction assemblies are covered.   Stay tuned for further updates throughout the year.   Wishing you all the very best for 2021!   Don Neff, President

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