"The five most dangerous words in business may be 'Everyone else is doing it'" -Peter Drucker
The industry has changed, plain and simple. Good business and construction practices are many times thrown aside in order to offer the lowest bid to the General Contractor or Owner. While the prices of these bids are enticing, they are all too often misleading. The simplest of compromises by these contractors can have disastrous effects on the function and design intent of the feature.
Sour Grapes? Maybe. It can be very frustrating to lose out on a project because of price only to find out later the results of the project were not what was promised by the water feature contractor and/or expected by the General Contractor and Owner. Often it is due to inexperience or purposely deviating from plans and specifications to substitute lesser quality(but cheaper) items. These compromises and substitutions often would have more than made up for the price difference in the proposals. So, should we follow suit? Should we give the client a cheaper price, knowing it will not give the owner the desired results? Knowing it could cause major construction delays? Knowing it could cost the General Contractor or Owner more money later? Knowing the maintenance of the feature will be considerably more costly and time consuming? Knowing the longevity of the fountain will be considerably compromised? Simply put, No!
As frustrating as this is, and as harmful as this is to the commercial water feature industry in general, these practices are simply wrong. Southern Aquatics has maintained our excellent reputation by refusing to sacrifice quality while still offering competitive prices. Our entire team at Southern Aquatics holds the philosophy to do what is right, not what we can get away with. We try to make every decision based not only on what is good for us, but good for the entire industry. We feel that, while ours may only be a small part, we must sustain the industry in order to continue to grow. If Owners and Developers are fearful about incorporating water features into their designs, they will quickly be scrapped from the design table. In the end, this benefits no-one.
So how does a General Contractor choose a water feature contractor for their project? Most General Contractors know what to look for when they supervise subcontractors putting up drywall or laying a foundation. They are very skilled in common construction practices. However, fountains are a bit of an anomaly in construction. Most General Contractors will only be involved with a handful of projects at the most that have water features in them in their entire career. While we do not want the Owners and Developers to be fearful of adding water features into their designs, we do want the General Contractors to have a healthy trepidation towards choosing a water feature contractor. This trepidation will hopefully lead to education, and the more the General Contractors, Developers, and Owners know, the better we (Southern Aquatics) look.
My next blog will go through some of the criteria to look for in choosing a commercial water feature contractor, common pitfalls, what to look for while reviewing scope, common misconceptions and maybe I will even throw in a few “anonymous” examples of projects we were not awarded that went awry. Until then….
