Welcome to the blog
Home of our portfolio, press releases, and employee blogs
Here, you’ll find a library of blog posts dedicated to different aspects of the commercial construction industry -- news and updates, upcoming trends, and past projects built by us at The Douglas Company.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a complete and coordinated construction plan set worth? Arguably, the most critical components to any project are the construction documents. Plans, specifications, engineered calculations, supplemental instructions, requests for information, narratives, addendums, sketches; the list goes on. These documents are used by thousands of […]
March 21, 2024
Behind the critical milestones of building dry-in and completion of drywall hanging, the date of permanent power provides a key indicator of a project’s schedule trajectory towards completion. Unfortunately, the current construction industry is being severely impacted by major challenges within the electrical gear industry driven by demand, labor issues, and electrical component shortages. Critical […]
September 20, 2022
Inflation, fuel prices, material escalation, and material shortages are pushing construction prices to record highs. Already tight project budgets are being value engineered, tabled in hopes that pricing will come back to earth in the future, or just abandoned. Like everything else these days, the typical value engineering process is not as effective as it […]
September 8, 2022
“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it.” Famous quote by H.E. Luccock. Closing a job and seeing it to the finish is not easy. Most in our industry would tell you it can be the least favorite part of the project. Most would also tell you it is impossible […]
August 25, 2022
Wood structures seem to have gotten a bad rap the last few years. It’s not entirely their fault. The skyrocketing land costs have pushed projects to go to more stories than a conventional wood frame building allows to get the number of units needed. Massive price hikes and volatility of material costs have also made […]
August 11, 2022
It is easy to focus on the building cost per square foot in the preconstruction process, but the site costs can make or break a project. Too often we see scope creep on the project site after the initial site plan, and it takes asking the right questions and getting creative to bring these costs […]
July 14, 2022
As the world continues to evolve with technology, so too does the construction industry, albeit at a much slower rate. Looking back over the last 15 years, it is incredible to think about how much technology has changed in our daily lives. Smartphones weren’t very prevalent and the first generation of the iPhone had just […]
June 23, 2022
In today’s construction world, more and more time and resources are spent on scheduling, and with good reason, too. With the high cost of construction loans and general conditions, contractors and developers alike can agree that the sooner we hand over a building the better for all those involved. Project milestones, proper sequencing, and task […]
June 8, 2022
Remember when the pandemic hit, and everybody collected toilet paper? It’s happening today with subcontractors and vendors throughout the trades (not TP; material like rigid insulation, ductile iron pipe, copper pipe, drywall, lumber, metal studs, coiled steel, etc., etc.). Material price surges, a continuing supply chain roller coaster, and the omicron variant have us all […]
January 27, 2022
Reflecting on this year, it sure has been one of the more chaotic and challenging years that I can recall in my career. Just this year, the construction industry has battled everything from record-high lumber prices, rapidly changing material price increases, supply chain issues, increase in labor shortages, and many other challenges. The old adage […]
December 28, 2021
Quality control in today’s construction environment continues to be a daily challenge in our industry. Several factors that are contributing to this are lack of skilled labor, lack of subcontractor supervision, and incomplete construction documents. Quality is essential in the success of a project; when managed properly, it results in timely completion of our projects, […]
August 13, 2020
Last week I was sitting in a presentation with an experienced developer for a project we will be starting soon. This same developer is currently building a facility in Columbus, Ohio, with an institutional contractor, which is not going well. Over and over, he said, “how much of a pleasure it is to be working […]
