We’re interested in understanding the specific challenges that contractors who work in large, densely populated cities like San Francisco or Manhattan have to face and how they deal with them.
ONE OF THE BIGGEST PROBLEMS WE FACE ARE NOT HAVING ROOM FOR DEBRI CONTAINERS.
Working in Manhattan poses several challenges:
Parking and storage: We incur an added expense by having to rent storage space for tools and construction materials. We also must be diligent about parking our trucks and vans when making deliveries at job sites.
Limited construction space: We do not have the luxury of setting up shop outside to make cuts and build on-site. It is very difficult to even have a portable table saw and are limited to the length of cuts that is dictated by the apartment we work in. Also the wet saw setup is problematic when working inside apartments.
City and coop board rules: We must adhere to strict city rules and rules of the building we are working in. This costs us time and money and limits out ability to get in an out of a job. Also we can generally only work from 9am to 4pm, Mo-Fri, making the job take much longer.
Demolition: There aren’t readily available dump sites for our construction derbis. It is also difficult taking garbage out of buildings, and the common floors must be protected. Also, most often we cannot just open the window and let the dust go out into the city. This requires negative air machines and other precautions.
All of the above pose problems to the city contractor and ultimately cost time and make jobs much more expensive. The other financial burden is the higher cost of liability insurance and worker’s comp.
Some of Challenges while doing remodeling in big dense cities are parking, contractors do not have enough space to park their trucks and vehicles. Storage, they also lack with the space to store the remodeling materials, Time, they have limited time period in a day when they can do remodeling. High expense.
we all have the same problem even in under populated areas I can understand that limited space can be a challenge.
Client must be open minded and informative to designer / contractor about job site conditions, tenants, residential / comercial. That allows construction team to evaluate, plan and set the tone to deal with all conditons. Schedule working hours, parking,look for on or off site storage and work shops, arrange with police details to help with deliveries, traffic and pedestrian safety. Completion of projects under these conditions requires the patience & understanding of Owner & Construction Team. At times Owner offers special incentives to achieve faster completion date.
Best of Luck
Aftrer building in NYC for a number of years, the largest hard costs that I found was hiring Union subcontractors versus non-Union. There are many skilled non-union shops that can get the job done at a lower rate but with Union, the level of professionalism is typically at a consistent rate. Make sure you hire a general contractor that has strong relationships with both and can find ways to save you money after you decide which route you will go. Now that I have relocated to CA, I would recommend JRM Construction for any office remodel in NYC. They have a proven track record around town.
Philadelphia has long been known as an growing metropolitan city. Working in center city poses unique challenges. Working in most of the high rise buildings requires us to schedule times for the freight elevator. This creates a scheduling challenge for removing debris and delivery of materials. Parking, even with a Contractor Parking Placard, can be a nightmare.
all relevant answers,
storage, material deliveries, debris removal, parking for work vehicles.
noise related issues with neighbors, shorter work days because of this.
special permiting for Saturday work, or no Saturday work for the crews.
it’s tough to work in the bigger cities.
but most contractors will reflect this in their pricing.