Of all the reasons builders come up with for not paying their bills, there’s one I’ve heard a thousand times. You know the one. “The job got held up…the bank hasn’t released the progress payment yet.” Which, more often than not, translates into: “You’re going to have to wait a little longer to get your money.”
If you’ve been in this business long enough, you develop a pretty good internal radar for what’s real…and what’s not. And for years, I’ll admit, I had this one filed under “convenient excuse.” After all, it always seemed to come at just the right time—right when the invoice was due. But then something happened that changed my perspective.
Years ago, we decided to build a new warehouse due to increased business. Like most things in this industry, it started off with a lot of optimism—and a little bit of excitement. If you’ve ever been involved in designing a building, you know that part can actually be fun. Laying it out, thinking through workflow, figuring out how it’s all going to improve operations…that’s the easy part.
What I didn’t fully appreciate at the time was the planning was the ‘calm before the storm.’ Execution is where things get real.
Choosing Tom as our contractor was the easy part. He was a good customer, a solid builder, and one of only a handful of guys around who erected steel structures. That part? No problem.
Getting the plans approved by the town? That was a different story.
At our first meeting with the town fathers, we spent close to an hour going through restrictions: setbacks, height limitations, drainage requirements—you name it. In that town, the only thing without restrictions was restrictions. What I thought would be a relatively straightforward approval process turned into three separate meetings.
And just when we thought we were finally through it, they added one more condition. They wanted shrubs.
Now, I don’t pretend warehouses are architectural masterpieces. But I struggled to understand how a row of 24-inch shrubs was going to “beautify” a two-story, 30,000-square-foot corrugated steel building in the rear of a lumberyard. At that point, though, logic wasn’t part of the equation anymore. We said yes, smiled, and got out of there with our permit. Game on.
Excavation started on time. The building components showed up on time. Everything was lining up the way it should. And then, right on cue, three straight days of torrential rain. Tom had no choice but to shut things down. The site turned into a mud pit, and it took about a week before it dried out enough to even think about digging the foundation. Meanwhile, our brand new warehouse was sitting in pieces and parts in the parking lot, not doing us a whole lot of good.
Eventually, the weather broke and we got moving again…for about six hours. That’s when the crew hit an old fire hydrant line—one that, of course, didn’t show up on any of the property records. We had to bring in the water department, coordinated schedules, and waited for approvals…another week gone.
At this point, I started to realize something: delays don’t come one at a time. They come in waves.
Next up? Ledge. A lot more ledge than anyone anticipated. Tom wanted to blast it out. I wasn’t interested in going back to the town fathers asking for permission to bring in dynamite. That conversation wasn’t going to end well. So, we compromised…and by “compromised,” I mean we brought in numerous jackhammers and accepted the fact that it was going to take a lot longer. Eventually, we got the foundation in.
We were finally rolling…or so I thought.
The erecting crew showed up, and I swear they looked like they had just stepped off a highway department job. Three guys worked. Three guys supervised…or at least stood around long enough to make it look like they were supervising. Progress was slow, but at least it was progress.
Then they got to the roof…wrong screws. I’m not kidding. The manufacturer shipped the wrong fasteners. That little detail cost us another few days. And, if you’ve ever had a project just sitting idle, you know exactly how painful that is.
Then came the overhead doors. They arrived on time, which felt like a minor miracle, but there was just one problem. They were supposed to be 16 feet high. They were 15. I really began to think the job was cursed, and, appropriately, I was doing a lot of cursing. However, at that point, all I could do was shake my head.
No single issue was catastrophic, but the accumulation of all of them turned what should have been a straightforward project into a drawn-out exercise in patience.
You might think I’m exaggerating, but I’m not.
Somewhere in the middle of all this, something unexpected happened. I started to develop a little empathy for the contractors who had been telling me for years that their jobs were “held up.” Because, at that point, I was living it. Permit delays, weather delays, utility surprises, material issues, and labor inefficiencies. None of it was planned. None of it was intentional. But all of it was very real.
That doesn’t mean every story you hear from a contractor is 100% accurate. Let’s be honest, there are still plenty of guys who use “jobsite issues” as a convenient umbrella for poor planning or cash flow problems.
But here’s the takeaway. Not all delays are excuses. Some of them are reality. And until you’ve sat on the owner’s side of a project watching timelines slip for reasons completely outside your control, it’s easy to be skeptical.
I still believe in holding customers accountable. I still believe in managing receivables aggressively. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is my perspective.
So, the next time a contractor tells you, “The job got held up,” maybe don’t roll your eyes quite so fast. There’s actually a chance they’re telling the truth.
Mike McDole has 40+ years of actual LBM experience, including being SVP of a large regional pro-dealer, and is the principal of Firing Line LBM Advisors. He’s also partners with Greg Brooks of the Executive Council on Construction Supply and his LMS. Mike can be reached at 774.372.1367 or Mike@FiringLineLBM.com.
