Planning Through Shortages
For property developers, keeping a project moving is important. Construction timelines, trade scheduling and budgets are closely connected, so when one stage is delayed, it can have a flow-on effect across the rest of the build.
One of the challenges currently affecting WA’s building industry is brick availability, with supply pressures being felt across a range of brick types.
For development builds, this is particularly important because brickwork is a major stage of the construction program. If the required bricks aren’t available when they’re needed, it can affect bricklayer scheduling and potentially impact the trades and stages that follow.
For multi-unit developments, this can become an even bigger consideration simply because of the volume of bricks required across the project.
While material shortages are an industry-wide challenge, how they are managed can make a difference.
Our focus is on planning ahead and doing what we can to minimise the impact on our development projects. This includes staying in regular communication with suppliers, keeping an eye on availability and factoring material lead times into construction scheduling wherever possible.
Having these conversations early gives us more opportunity to work through practical solutions before brickwork is due to begin.
Material selections can also play a part. On a development, selections need to balance the overall design, durability, budget and suitability for the target market. In the current environment, availability may also need to be considered. Where appropriate, having some flexibility around selections can help avoid unnecessary delays if a particular product becomes difficult to source.
As a custom builder, we also understand that every development is different. A two-unit project has different requirements to a larger multi-unit development, and factors such as brick quantities, selections and timing can all influence how supply pressures affect an individual site.
We can’t control industry-wide shortages, but we can plan for them.
By communicating early, working closely with our suppliers and taking a proactive approach to scheduling and selections, our goal is to limit disruptions wherever possible and keep each development progressing.
