Have we Seen the End of the Golden Age of Construction?

As the year “creeps” closer to its end on December 31, Flannery is fortunate enough to say that Gross Sales are up from last year’s numbers. This is despite a customer base that continues to be pessimistic about the future of the construction industry. We all continue to wonder if 2012 will be something special or will we continue to be in “slow-motion” as we try to crawl back from the brink of an industry collapse?

Many construction insiders are concerned that without any improvement in residential construction, the rest of the industry may continue to be stagnant. It would be great if someone would do a survey of construction professionals, similar to a “consumer confidence” survey, which asks industry insiders about their view of the current and future state of the building industry. Publicly, I think that most contractors are optimistic because they are bidding on a lot of work, but privately they are concerned about the New Year.

I love to talk with the veterans of the construction industry. It is almost like talking to a World War II veteran in that they have great stories of the sacrifice and triumphs in our industry from years gone by. Many of them talk of the good times of “building without limits” and “two years of backlogged work”. Every job was a winner back then, unless you screwed up royally on the estimating side of the job.

Those days are long gone now. These veterans now turn away possible work, not because they are too busy, but because they cannot risk having a loser on their hands. The jobs they do take have been bid three to four times and they get them out of loyalty from the builder as much as they did on their numbers. It is an age where things may improve, but as one veteran likes to say, “It will never be like it was”. Has the Golden Age of Construction passed us by?