Our framing crew finished walls 2 days ahead of schedule last week

I stopped by the lot on a Tuesday expecting studs maybe half done, but they had all the exterior walls up and were already sheathing. The difference from Monday morning to Tuesday evening was crazy - empty slab to full walls with windows set. What changed was we switched from a big national crew to a local guy who runs just 4 guys. He said his team stays on one house until it's dried in instead of juggling 3 jobs at once. Has anyone else seen faster results by going with a smaller framing crew?

2 comments

2 Comments

brooke711mo ago

My buddy in Nashville had the exact same thing happen on his build last fall. He went with this big box framing company that was supposed to be fast, but they kept disappearing to start other jobs (leaving his walls half framed for days). He finally fired them and found a crew of 3 guys from his church, and they had the whole house dried in within a week. The difference was night and day, like they actually cared about finishing what they started instead of juggling 5 things at once. It's just a totally different mindset with the small local crews, they live in your neighborhood so they have a reputation to protect.

aaron8961mo ago

Brooke, I hear you, but isn't that kind of a gamble too? Like, yeah, the church crew fixed it fast, but what if one of those guys has a family emergency or gets hurt on the next job? You're basically betting on three dudes who might not have insurance or a real plan B. I get the whole reputation thing, but big companies at least have contracts and liability stuff baked in. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I'd rather deal with a slow crew that has workers comp than a fast one where I'm holding the bag if something goes sideways.