Construction Hot Takes

How do you lose $25 million on one job? By building exactly to the construction spec while a second engineering spec, signed off by your own leadership, sat unread until the systems were turned on. If you run design-build work, sit between an engineering department and an estimating department, or have ever assumed someone upstream read the owner's performance criteria, this is the failure that nobody catches on a walkthrough. In this episode, Adam Cooper walks through the job with Greg Gorman and Jeff Robertson, answers the comments it drew, including whether submittals should have caught it and whether the estimator deserves the blame, and gets into what it actually cost the people involved. Here is the TikTok video source for the comments: ‘$25M Spec Miss’: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakes/video/7657698121111129358  Build a business that runs without you: https://ascentconsults.com/build-it-better-ebook/Chapters: 00:00 – Cold Open and Episode Introduction00:24 – The Specification Mistake That Cost $25 Million02:02 – How Did the Error Escape the Submittal Process?04:33 – Why Didn’t the Owner Catch It Earlier?05:47 – Was It Really the Estimator’s Fault?5 Reasons Construction Projects Fail: https://blog.ascentconsults.com/5-reasons-construction-projects-fail For operational assessments and process review: https://ascentconsults.com/ops_assessment/ Adam Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcooper/ Greg Gorman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-gorman-hern%C3%A1ndez-mba-115ba34/ Jeff Robertson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrobertson72/ Check out all the Construction Hot Takes episodes on the Ascent website!: https://ascentconsults.com/construction-hot-takes-podcast/ Follow Ascent Consulting on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascent-consulting-inc-/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ascentconsult Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentconsults/ Follow the Construction Hot Takes Podcast on: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/constructionhottakespodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakes #Construction #DesignBuild #ConstructionManagement 

Will AI replace the superintendent who won't use it? Not completely, but it could help your most experienced employees perform better and share their knowledge. A superintendent who knows how to build keeps the job. The one who also uses these tools gets better information can make the same calls sooner. If you run the field and have been told AI is coming for the trailer, or you are deciding whether to put these tools in front of your supers at all, the hosts do not agree with each other here and that is the useful part. In this episode, Greg Gorman, Adam Cooper, and Jeff Robertson work through this issue, sort out where the tools genuinely help when expert judgment does not transfer, and get into what happens to institutional knowledge as the most experienced people age out. Here is the LinkedIn video source for the comments: ‘AI and the Superintendent’: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7483899974649409536/ Build a business that runs without you: https://ascentconsults.com/build-it-better-ebook/ Chapters: 00:00 – Cold Open and Episode Introduction00:45 – Will AI-Savvy Superintendents Replace Those Who Aren’t?02:54 – Balancing Human Expertise and AI07:50 – Judgment, Paperwork, and Better Decisions11:39 – Agentic AI vs. Basic Automation Procore Isn't Broken, It's Just Not Built Around You Yet: https://blog.ascentconsults.com/procore-isnt-broken-its-just-not-built-around-you-yet For AI in construction, in firms with clean data and disciplined process: https://ascentconsults.com/ai-for-construction-companies/ Greg Gorman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-gorman-hern%C3%A1ndez-mba-115ba34/ Adam Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcooper/ Jeff Robertson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrobertson72/ Check out all the Construction Hot Takes episodes on the Ascent website!: https://ascentconsults.com/construction-hot-takes-podcast/ Follow Ascent Consulting on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascent-consulting-inc-/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ascentconsult Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentconsults/ Follow the Construction Hot Takes Podcast on: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/constructionhottakespodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakes #Construction #AIinConstruction #Superintendents 

You can feel the money moving. You can't tell if any single job is making it. In this episode, Greg Gorman breaks down job cost management and why hidden jobs that quietly bleed can still occur in a profitable company. Plus the three fundamentals that make job costing work and why you can still save a job at 40 to 50 percent complete (but rarely at 75).Chapters:00:00 - Why job cost management is a top priority02:13 - How does company profit hide a bleeding job?03:45 - What actually counts as a job cost?09:54 - The three fundamentals of job costing15:51 - How do you catch profit fade in time?19:42 - Why acting at 40-50% beats a locked-in lossFor fractional CFO support: https://ascentconsults.com/fractional-cfo/The operator's playbook for scaling construction: https://ascentconsults.com/build-it-better-ebook/Greg Gorman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-gorman-mba-115ba34/Check out all the Construction Hot Takes episodes on the Ascent website! https://ascentconsults.com/construction-hot-takes-podcast/Follow Ascent Consulting on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascent-consulting-inc-/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ascentconsultInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentconsults/Follow the Construction Hot Takes Podcast on:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/constructionhottakespodcast/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakes#Construction #JobCosting #ConstructionFinance

In this episode, Adam Cooper and Jeff Robertson break down how contractors go from siloed systems to one source of truth for their data, why Procore is built for projects (not company management), and the three ways to actually connect your stack. Including: Off-the-shelf connectors, custom middleware, and a data lake, plus where AI is heading over the next 12 to 24 months. Chapters:00:00 - The 300-job treasure hunt03:35 - Why don't your systems talk to each other?05:54 - What is a data lake, really?08:03 - Connectors vs. custom middleware16:08 - Where is AI taking system integration?19:33 - How contractors end up with a messy tech stackSee if your data's ready for AI: https://ascentconsults.com/get-your-ai-score-cardA helping hand with AI in construction: https://ascentconsults.com/ai-for-construction-companies/Adam Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcooper/Jeff Robertson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrobertson72/Check out all the Construction Hot Takes episodes on the Ascent website! https://ascentconsults.com/construction-hot-takes-podcast/Follow Ascent Consulting on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascent-consulting-inc-/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ascentconsultInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentconsults/Follow the Construction Hot Takes Podcast on:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/constructionhottakespodcast/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakesThis week, try to build one company-level view of your active jobs. Where it breaks is where your systems aren't connected.#Construction #ConstructionTech #ConstructionAI

Holding your hot takes to the fire in this episode, Adam Cooper, Jeff Robertson, and Greg Gorman take on what our audience actually posted: Do we even need general contractors? Does safety paperwork do anything? Does one platform really fix the chaos? Plus the E-Myth, GCs with skin in the game, one big job versus ten small ones, and whether LEED earns its cost.Chapters:00:00 - We went ‘viral’ on TikTok01:18 - Should you pay yourself first?03:57 - Do we even need general contractors?12:39 - Does safety paperwork actually do anything?19:28 - How do GCs lose money on a bid?25:41 - Can you really force a jobsite to be safe?31:17 - One platform for everything, and is LEED worth it?For operational design and process help: https://ascentconsults.com/operational-design/The operator's playbook for scaling construction: https://ascentconsults.com/build-it-better-ebook/Adam Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcooper/Jeff Robertson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrobertson72/Greg Gorman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-gorman-mba-115ba34/Check out all the Construction Hot Takes episodes on the Ascent website! https://ascentconsults.com/construction-hot-takes-podcast/Follow Ascent Consulting on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascent-consulting-inc-/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ascentconsultInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentconsults/Follow the Construction Hot Takes Podcast on:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/constructionhottakespodcast/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakesDrop the take you disagree with in the comments. The sharpest ones become a future mailbag episode.#Construction #GeneralContractor #ConstructionManagement