StreamHome Construction Podcast

The Construction Triangle: Balancing Quality, Cost, and Speed in Your Next Project

• Alex Kosley • Episode 6

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How Do You Balance Quality, Cost, And Speed In A Construction Project?

The construction triangle has been an industry staple for generations—quality, cost, speed: pick two. But is this rule as rigid as we've been led to believe? Alex Kosley challenges traditional thinking by revealing how StreamHome Construction navigates these competing priorities without sacrificing what matters most.

What truly sets StreamHome apart is its innovative approach to expanding what's possible within the traditional constraints. By investing in AI-powered tools and proprietary management systems, they're shrinking trade-offs that once seemed inevitable. Their upcoming pre-engineered ADU models represent a breakthrough—dramatically reducing permitting times, build durations, and costs without compromising craftsmanship. Alex shares a revealing case study where temporarily halting a project actually served everyone's best interests, demonstrating how sometimes the counterintuitive choice delivers the best outcome.

Whether you're planning an ADU, commercial renovation, or home addition in Colorado Springs, this episode provides invaluable insights into maximizing value in your construction project. Ready to experience the difference a forward-thinking contractor makes? Visit online or call to schedule your free consultation and discover how quality, affordability, and timeliness can coexist in your next building project.

To learn more about StreamHome Construction visit:
https://www.YourStreamHome.com
StreamHome Construction
719-644-6777

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Stream Home Construction Podcast, where we take your project from conception to completion. Hosted by Licensed General Contractor Alex Kozley, we cover everything from accessory dwelling units to commercial construction in the greater Colorado Springs area. Whether you're dreaming of a new ADU, planning an office upgrade or tackling a major renovation project, we've got the expertise to guide you through it. Let's get building.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back everyone. Tony Hill's co-host, slash producer, back in the studio with Alex Cosley. Alex, how's it going?

Speaker 3:

I'm doing great. How are you doing today, Tony?

Speaker 2:

It's good to see you again. So, alex, tell us, how do you balance quality, cost and speed in a construction project?

Speaker 3:

Well, yeah, that's a great question, tony. It's kind of the classic construction dilemma quality, cost or speed, pick two. I'll quickly explain this principle in case any of our listeners are unfamiliar. The idea is any project or decision must strike an appropriate balance between these three pillars quality, cost and speed. If you want a project to be done at a very high quality, it was going to cost a lot or take a long time. You have to sacrifice cost or speed. If you want high quality, if you want something done for the lowest possible price, you'll have to sacrifice quality and or speed. And if you want something done as quickly as possible, you'll either have to pay more or sacrifice quality. Essentially, the theory is you can't have all three of these things at the same time. You can't get something that's low price, done quickly and done quality. That's the theory anyway. So we'll dive in and unpack that a little bit and give you our two cents on how we operate within that with our clients.

Speaker 3:

So, as a custom AD builder and general contractor in Colorado Springs, we hear this all the time. The truth is, the triangle is real, but it's much more fluid than just pick two. I think there's some nuances that are worth discussing. For stream home construction, we won't compromise on quality period. It doesn't mean every project needs to have marble countertops or a gold toilet, but it does mean we won't cut corners, no matter the budget. Quality applies to everything, though, so it's not just the quality of construction, but in our mind, this is the quality of craftsmanship, materials, but also the client experience, something that we're not willing to sacrifice on. Of course, we know that every project, from small ADU to commercial renovation, has unique priorities. We do tailor each project based on what the client values most. Are they most concerned with time, most concerned with the cost, most concerned with the quality? And so we're really just working with each client to balance those and understand what their real priorities are On each project that we do. One way that we kind of address this is we provide clients with what we call an allowance for each material selection, which guides their decision-making process in regards to the price of their finished materials, which guides their decision-making process in regards to the price of their finished materials. Essentially, they can choose more expensive finished materials, which means higher quality but higher cost, or they can choose less expensive materials and pay less, so that we do leave the quality factor in the hands of our client to some degree. But, as mentioned, we have this kind of base level. We won't go below that. We'll cut any corners. But they can kind of decide between here and here. You know, do you want a really high end Taj Mahal project or are we going to keep this really efficient and cost effective?

Speaker 3:

We look at guiding clients through this process of decision making. We really believe in transparency and want to lay out all the options for our clients in a way that they can access and understand. So we might say something like, yes, we can speed up the build, but here's what that would require. That will require us to bring on an extra superintendent to increase the speed of this work getting done. Or we might have to hire some other subcontractors who can get it done faster, but they're going to cost more money. Or we might have to pay one of our subcontractors additional to work nights and weekends or something like that. So there's different ways that this can all play out.

Speaker 3:

Ultimately, this is a collaborative process. We engage with our clients, we provide them a best cost benefit analysis as we encounter each of these decisions, as well as our recommendation. What would we do if we were in your shoes? Talk of advice that helped to make the decisions best for them and their personal situation, which we can't fully understand.

Speaker 3:

So here's one way that we're kind of challenging this rule. We can maximize the value that a client's getting while still having to operate within the constraints of this triangle. So one way we're doing that we're investing in systems and AI powered tools that help us kind of shrink these trade-offs. We're actively working with an AI consultant to streamline our processes, automate repetitive tasks and improve our timelines, and that will not compromise our service, our level of quality. So we can do that to reduce prices and costs but maintain quality. So we're still having to balance those things, but what we can do is provide a bigger value inside of that triangle for the client by finding innovative ways to increase timelines while also decreasing costs. We'll talk about that more in a moment. Combine that with our proprietary project management systems and we're consistently finding ways to deliver more for less, especially on our line of up-and-coming pre-engineered ADU models, which will drastically reduce permitting and build times, as well as pricing, as they're designed to be the most efficient stick build structures that we can develop.

Speaker 3:

This allows our clients to get more value while still having to confront the reality of the triangle of competing needs Regarding client expectations and education. A lot of times we run into clients that don't really realize how long things take. They don't understand how much construction really costs, especially nowadays, and so, with that being said, we really learn that upfront communication about all these things is paramount. And you know, of course, a client really needs to have a good understanding of the total cost of a project before diving in. But those costs are, you know, in terms of their own time, but also money and then duration. If we're on their product preview working, that has some cost to them as well. We really want to get all these things on the client's plate before we begin a project, so they really have the ability to count the cost before deciding to move forward.

Speaker 3:

But again, one way that we're actively combating this and providing more value is through these enhanced systems, including AI automation, as well as our EU models, which we're really thinking are going to be a really popular option, that still provide our high level of quality but can get it done for a lower price than custom stick build options we offer, and in a shorter timeline, because the models will be pre-approved with the building department, permits will be very fast, and then they're just designed in a way to be less costly to construct versus most of the custom projects that we're building. So hopefully that all kind of makes sense. And the question can you have all three quality, cost and speed? Well, usually you need to prioritize, but with the right systems and the right contractor and a forward-thinking approach you can get closer than you think. That's what we're building at Stream Home Construction Smart, scalable, high-quality construction for ADUs, home additions and commercial car remodels in Colorado Springs and beyond.

Speaker 2:

Okay, how do you handle situations where a project starts to fall behind schedule without compromising quality?

Speaker 3:

Yes, it's not compromised quality. So you get in a situation where your schedule is falling behind, it's going to lead to higher costs and because we're not going to sacrifice quality and say, oh, just forget putting the subfloor or whatever it is, and so. But like I described earlier, when we have fixed price contracts we eat those overages and so that doesn't roll back to our clients. But we definitely do everything we can to address those proactively. We try to see them in advance and figure out long lead items, potential obstacles, identify those up front, so we minimize those type of things. But when they do come up, it's all about figuring out exactly why that's happened and then addressing that issue at its root and getting everything back on track as quickly as possible.

Speaker 2:

Okay, can you give an example of a project where you had to make a tough decision between quality, costs or speed?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I think I have a pretty good example. So we have a project, a commercial project, on the north side of Colorado Springs. We moved forward. The bank had given us an authorization to move forward but hadn't approved some additional expenses. We just kept moving forward with the project under the impression that the bank was going to get this approval completed quickly. We wanted to continue to serve our clients, so we kept working to keep the ball rolling.

Speaker 3:

Then the bank ended up taking a lot longer to process the change order application than what anyone was anticipating. We let the project go on and on, but eventually we had to stop the project, and partly it was. If we keep going on like this, the costs are going to continue to balloon. What we really have to do for everybody's interest we have to halt the project now so we can get all this stuff figured out and we can come back to the table with a new, clean schedule and plan that we can execute efficiently. We're working a little bit inefficiently waiting for the bank to make this decision, as it was holding up some other decisions, and this is just one of those examples where sometimes we need to come to a client and have a conversation that sounds like you know this. Halting your project for right now, it's probably the best choice for everyone in this type of situation, at least with that example.

Speaker 2:

Okay, thanks for joining us today, alex. Hey, we look forward to hearing more from you in the next episode.

Speaker 1:

Have a great day. That's a wrap for this episode of the Stream Home Construction Podcast. Ready to bring your vision to life, snag a free on-site consultation by visiting our website at wwwyourstreamhomecom, or call or text us at 719-644-6777. Until next time, let's keep building your residential and commercial dream in the greater Colorado Springs area.