TILT-UP · CONCRETE AND MASONRY · FIXED BY STEP 08

Panel joints leak years after you booked the profit

The building is three years old and water is coming through a joint. Yours is the first phone number they dial.

WHY IT'S A TILT-UP PROBLEM

Callbacks usually go to whoever installed the failing part. Here the failing part is the seam between two pieces you cast and set, so the panel contractor gets the first call no matter which sub bought the caulk. The gross profit on that job was recognized three fiscal years ago, and nothing was held back against a joint that was always going to age out.

WHAT IT COSTS

The size of it

Crew, lift rental, and material run for several days on a job that closed years ago, charged to no cost code, with no warranty reserve set aside back when the profit was booked.

OVERHEAD AT $1M–$5M

14%

Derived from Concrete, the nearest comparable trade. CFOS target 13%.

GROSS MARGIN AT $1M–$5M

21%

Derived from Concrete, the nearest comparable trade. CFOS target 23.5%.

NET PROFIT AT $1M–$5M

Derived from Concrete, the nearest comparable trade. CFOS target 10.5%.

The vertical and horizontal joints between panels are the weather barrier for the entire building. Sealant is a consumable with a service life measured in years, and it goes in at the very end of a job the tilt crew left months earlier. When water turns up inside, the trail runs straight back to the panel line whether you ran the gun or a waterproofing sub did, and remedial waterproofing of tilt-up joints is an industry of its own. By then access needs a lift and the building is occupied, so the work is slow and scheduled around a tenant.

WHAT TO DO

Three moves, in order

STEP 01

At closeout, hold a stated dollar amount per job as a warranty reserve on the balance sheet, tagged to the job it came from.

STEP 02

Write the sealant scope into the subcontract in plain terms covering who furnishes, who installs, whose warranty applies, and how long it lasts, then put the manufacturer's warranty paper in the closeout package.

STEP 03

Open a callback cost code for every completed job so the lift rental and the two days of crew get charged to the job that caused them.

THE FIX

Step 08: Standards and accountability

Five hours a month of owner time, spent projecting the work.

CFOS-08 · CHAPTER 8

Five hours a month, spent projecting the work

What this step changes, what it depends on, and how to tell it's installed.

BENCHMARKS

Tilt-up by revenue band

All 7 bands are published. The CFOS target is beside the figure up to $10M to $25M, and the 4 bands above that are labelled modeled.

ACROSS EVERY TRADE

PMs aren't accountable for margin

Your PMs are measured on schedule and on the client being happy. No role in the company is measured on the number at the bottom.

SAME TRADE

What else costs tilt-up contractors money

TILT-UP · CFOS-01

You bid the floor slab once and build on it twice

You pour the building's floor slab and then beat it up for weeks as a casting bed. The repair pass was never in the number, so you fix it on your own dime.

TILT-UP · CFOS-02

The longest lead item is a date on a crane calendar

The crane is booked for the 14th and the cylinder results decide whether you can use it. Standby costs are yours either way.

TILT-UP · CFOS-05

Nothing you buy for a panel comes in square feet

You know your price per square foot of panel cold. Ask for your cost per square foot and there's no answer, because every line you buy is measured in something else.

SAME MECHANISM, OTHER TRADES

The same mechanism in other trades

CIVIL

Trench dips appear inside the bond window

The parking lot settled over your sewer line eighteen months after acceptance, and who pays comes down to whether the density test for that station and that lift is in a file.

DEMOLITION

They Found A Tank A Year After You Demobilized

An old UST turns up under the pad twelve months after your last load left, and every finger points at the contractor who isn't on site anymore.

DRYWALL

The eleven-month callback hits this year's payroll

It's March, two of your best guys are in a truck all month fixing houses you finished last spring, and none of those hours bill.

QUESTIONS

What tilt-up owners ask

Tilt-up panel joint leaking years after completion who pays for the repair?

The building is three years old and water is coming through a joint. Yours is the first phone number they dial.

What does it cost?

Crew, lift rental, and material run for several days on a job that closed years ago, charged to no cost code, with no warranty reserve set aside back when the profit was booked.

What do I do first?

At closeout, hold a stated dollar amount per job as a warranty reserve on the balance sheet, tagged to the job it came from.

What are tilt-up contractors supposed to be making?

No survey separates tilt-up, so there is no figure of its own. The nearest comparable trade in the reference is Concrete, which runs 21% gross margin, 14% overhead and 7% net profit before taxes at $1M–$5M, with a CFOS target of 10.5% net. Those are derived figures, not tilt-up's own. Read them as the neighbourhood, and read your own job costing as the answer.

Which part of the system fixes it?

The step is number 08, standards and accountability. Five hours a month of owner time, spent projecting the work. It comes from chapter 8 of CONTROL: The Construction Financial Operating System.

OR HAVE IT HANDLED

Everything on this page is something you can install yourself, andCONTROL is the order to do it in. If you would rather buy the finished result, SPM The Construction CFO does this work for tilt-up contractors as a service. It is a separate firm, Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC, run by the same author.

What SPM The Construction CFO does, and what it costs

AUTHOR

JOSH LUEBKER

MASTER ELECTRICIAN · 150+ PROJECTS · $2.1B+ MANAGED

Wrote CONTROL, the 8 step system behind these figures. More about the author.