We live in a small community just outside Portland, Oregon. Every day we drive by a new home under construction. It’s right on the main road that runs north out of town. I don’t know how many people pass this new home every day but I would guess it’s in the thousands; the road is always busy.
Every day, I’m amazed at the growing pile of trash in front of the home. For some reason, this builder must believe that having a big trash pile right out in front of God and everyone for weeks is a sign of success.
Are you keeping your jobs clean? I don’t mean a once-a-week sweep, I mean clean. A messy job site doesn’t make you look good, and it doesn’t make your clients happy. They equate a pile of trash with a lack of consideration for them, their neighbors, and the environment.
Here are a few things you can do to make sure you don’t alienate your clients and their neighbors with a messy job site.
- Place a minimum 30-gallon trash can at every entry door. Stencil your company name on the trash can; take every opportunity to get your name out there.
- Dumpsters are ugly but necessary. Beautify the dumpster by putting a banner on it with your company name.
- The floor should be swept at least once each day. Make an exception when doing the electrical and plumbing drill outs; the mechanic doing the drill outs should stop and sweep as soon as they finish drilling. Don’t leave those shavings hanging around all day.
- Tell everyone working on the job to take their debris with them when they leave.
- Siding installers, roofers, painters, and anyone else working outside should do a trash pickup at noon and at the end of the day. Nothing looks worse to someone passing by your job than paper and trash strewn all over the yard.
- If roofers are doing a tear off, they should stop as soon as the tear off is complete and clean up the mess first before doing anything else.
A dirty job makes it look like you don’t care. And it’s true; you don’t care enough about the mess to clean it up. It’s a lot easier to wait until the project is done and clean up just once.
The problem is that it makes you and your company look bad. Cleaning up the job site daily is a habit; if you aren’t doing it already, take the time to develop the habit.
The knowledge and experience Michael Stone gained in his 60+ years in construction has helped thousands of contractors improve their businesses and their lives. He is the author of the books Markup & Profit Revisited, Profitable Sales, and Estimating Construction Profitably, and is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.
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