News < Back To NEWS

Hi Team,

My favourite building saying and one that I have used countless times over the last 30 years of running a building company is
 "Building is not an exact science".

Last week I wrote about how to successfully tackle complex tasks like building or renovating a house, but two things that make building so challenging are the thousands of variables that are involved and the unpredictability of each stage of the building process. That is precisely why building is not an exact science.

Exact science is defined as "testing a hypothesis that results are a predictable and consistent result"

"In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before." Paul A.M. Dirac (Clear as mud, another favourite saying, and hence why I'm a builder!)

One of the biggest challenges of being a residential builder is juggling the clients’ expectations. Most clients are not very good at reading plans or specifications, but they always have firm ideas about what things should look like in their own minds. Also, designing and building a home is a long unfolding journey for the clients and their ideas and expectations change and evolve along the way. Keeping up with and meeting these ever-changing expectations is a huge ask for any builder or tradesman and this greatly adds to the unpredictable nature of what we do.

There are numerous people involved in a building project, each with different backgrounds, areas of expertise and vastly different levels of experience. The decisions they make each day directly affect the quality and accuracy of the built product. All tradesman, no matter how skilled or experienced can make poor decisions and can try to cover up their mistakes. In fact, no one can make perfect decisions all the time. Add to this the fact that architects like to push the boundaries by using new and sometimes untested materials and design details, and you can see why building is far from an exact science. 

"Creativity is notoriously unpredictable" unknown.

So the only way to make building a more exact science is for everyone involved to consistently make better decisions. Easier said than done!

I have previously written about making better decisions in email # 116 & # 117, so now would be a good time to revisit these past emails, so you are well-prepared for my next email when I will dive right into "improving building by making better decisions".

"The only real exact science is hindsight."  Guy Bellamy

Thanks again for reading,
Stay safe and be decisive,
David