A home is not a structure built from bricks. A home is a sanctuary to retreat to each day; a treasure chest full of countless memories, and a place that serves as a reflection of our lives.

As we grow, however, and as life changes, it is natural for our homes to change too. When personal style shifts or when families suddenly shrink, homeowner’s turn to renovators and designers for professional advice and assistance. It is their job to help homeowners realize their vision; to listen to their needs, be honest and transparent, and ultimately, convert their dream to reality.

For Carpe Domi, an interior design and renovation company in Paris, positive client relationships are the foundation for success. Through their high-quality work, complete transparency, and ability to stay on budget and schedule, Carpe Domi has fulfilled their ambition to reconcile homeowners with craftspeople. In order to meet their client’s needs, the company chose Fieldwire to manage its operations. Today, the platform is used across 100% of the company to nurture customer relations and improve productivity.

To learn how Carpe Domi use Fieldwire to work four-times faster and strengthen communication, check out our full customer story here. Or, continue reading to uncover three key benefits of using interior renovation software for construction projects:

Build lasting relationships with homeowners

As a home renovation architect, designer, or developer, client satisfaction is the key to your success. Thankfully, this is easily achieved or improved with the help of modern technology and interior renovation software.

Fieldwire’s construction management platform is used on interior renovation projects for real-time communication between homeowners and site teams (including architects, civil engineers, logistics managers, and construction workers). Any request from a homeowner – whether it comes during the initial walkthrough or during closeout – is recorded in Fieldwire and assigned to the appropriate field team. To ensure clients of Carpe Domi are kept in the loop, they share weekly progress reports with them, providing key insights into the renovation of their home. This level of transparency helps clients rest assured that their home is in good hands with Carpe Domi, in turn, helping them establish themselves as a trusted interior renovation contractor in Paris – sustaining a 40% annual growth over the last five years.

Communicate home design changes in real-time

Equipping your employees with the tools they need to collaborate is going to help your home renovation construction projects move forward each day. Having interior renovation software that unites and empowers your team – no matter where they’re located across multiple sites – will set you up for long-term success.

At Carpe Domi, there are 25 employees spread across various home renovation projects in Paris. To ensure each team collaborates efficiently, the company provided all staff with a smartphone – giving them full access to the Fieldwire platform on mobile. This decision to go paperless and work from iPhones loaded with field construction management software also translated into significant time savings. Long email threads and phone calls are no longer needed to get missing information or the latest plans. Everyone has access to the most updated information and can fully focus on the work they do best.

Stay organized and save time on home renovation projects

With so many ideas and projects to keep track of, it can become quite difficult to stay on schedule, and the longer a project takes to complete, the more dissatisfied your clients will be. It’s important you spend enough time planning at the start of a project — to ensure everyone knows what’s expected of them before the actual work begins. Carpe Domi use Fieldwire to plan and prioritize work across a multitude of interior renovation projects. Tasks are assigned to the appropriate worker and annotated with photos and time-stamped messages. This ensures the office and field staff are always on the same page and eliminates the need for unnecessary QA/QC visits to homes under construction. As a result, Carpe Domi spends far less time traveling between jobsites; time they can spend doing the real work.

To read more about Carpe Domi’s success with interior renovation software, you can read our full story here. To learn more about the Fieldwire platform and how it can work for you, request a demo today.

No matter whether you’re working with architects to refurbish a resort or collaborating with contractors on the world’s tallest tower, you, as a consulting engineer, have a set of rules to comply with. You know exactly what work needs to be done - inspections, reports, and the actual restoration work - the question is: how can you do it more efficiently?

For many consulting engineers, the answer lies with technology. Consulting engineers are turning to construction management software to simplify work, organize craftspeople, and ultimately, increase productivity.

Fuse Consulting Engineers, based in Miami, is using Fieldwire’s platform and mobile construction app to streamline job site productivity and eliminate manual, busy work. Fieldwire enables Fuse to conduct site inspections on mobile, assign tasks on-the-fly, and generate reports in minutes to dramatically reduce time spent in the office.

To learn how Fuse saves 10+ hours each week with construction management software, register for our webinar here. If you’re looking for some quick takeaways, here are three key tips for structural engineers on how to save time and money on your next project.

Annotate plans on mobile

Digitizing plans to annotate changes in the field is a surefire way to increase productivity. Going paperless in the field and having access to plans on mobile means far less time is spent organizing documents and manually updating plans. Having all versions of drawings stored in one place will specifically help consulting engineers who are forever jumping between sites and projects.

Fuse, for example, uses Fieldwire’s iPhone app to store and update all of their plans, which can be accessed in the field even without an internet connection. Having this kind of information at their fingertips has allowed Fuse to operate efficiently, confidently, and without a need for expensive hard copy materials. They can fly through a site, take photos of defects and pin them to an exact location on a plan, add notes for context, and assign it to the right subcontractor - all from the convenience of their iPhones.

Streamline and simplify reporting

Once defects are annotated on plans, the next thing to do is generate a report. For many engineers, this involves hours of busy work back in the office. And while busywork might be inevitable, it is also avoidable with the help of technology. With the right construction management software, Engineers can dramatically reduce the time they spend on manual data entry for reporting.

Fuse, which knows all too well about the negative impacts of busywork, are using Fieldwire to recover more than a day each week that’s lost on reporting. Because before using Fieldwire, building one inspection report per week could take 10+ hours in the office. Now, from a smartphone or tablet, Fuse engineers record site observations on-the-fly, and have the ability to generate a fully timestamped CSV or PDF report in the click of a button. Just imagine how much time this streamlined process could save you!

Have a single source of truth

Recording observations and issues onsite is a critical part of your day-to-day operations, but if not done correctly, could cost you more than time. When documenting deficiencies, it’s important you supply as much context as possible to ensure every issue gets addressed correctly. That’s why, when Fuse conduct site inspections, they use Fieldwire tasks to highlight defects, add searchable hashtags, checklists, categories, and assign it to the right person to resolve. This makes issues easier to find, and important information rarely slips through the cracks.

Having an organized history of all deficiencies is especially important for Engineers when it comes to due diligence audits. If at any point, post-project completion, Fuse is asked to explain a construction defect, they can access their Fieldwire tasks to see exactly when the issue was reported, who it was assigned it too, and what work had been done (or not done). So no more taking the blame for mistakes you’re not accountable for.

Documenting work in one, easy to view place has undoubtedly saved Fuse a great deal of time and trouble. Please register for our webinar Repair, Restore, Repeat: Consulting Engineering Best Practices From Fuse CE on December 13th. We look forward to seeing you there!

To learn how to harness field management software for increased job site efficiency, take a look at our full coverage of Fuse’s success.

And just like that, another month has passed, but not without any major achievements! Fieldwire received some honorable press mentions, this time from four prominent publications — The Globe and Mail, ENR, BIM+, and Construction News — to all of whom we are truly thankful.

In case you missed it and would like to catch up, here is a quick recap of each story’s highlights:

The Globe and Mail: App-based technology comes to the construction site

The Globe and Mail (the largest newspaper in Canada) further explain how EllisDon uses Fieldwire as part of their series on innovative decision-makers in Canada.

In this article, Chief Technology Officer at EllisDon, Tom Strong, explains why he chose Fieldwire in such a competitive tech market, and why he will continue to use the platform going forward on every project. He said:

To learn more about Strong’s perspective on app-based technology in construction, read the full article online today.

ENR: Construction Productivity: Why It Matters

How can we move the productivity needle if we don’t have any boots on the ground? Yves Frinault, Fieldwire’s CEO, weighs in on this debate to give ENR (the largest construction trade publication) readers some food for thought when it comes to construction productivity, or lack thereof.

Frinault speaks to the high turnover rate in construction — 13% higher than in oil and gas — as a reason for a labor shortage and explains why with supporting evidence:

How do competing industries afford to pay employees so much more? They’re much more productive and therefore generate more revenue per employee. To learn more about the pay and productivity gap, and why it matters in construction, read the full article on ENR here.

BIM+: Can construction quality be boosted by collaboration software?

The short answer is yes.

While quality control is an issue plaguing the construction industry in the UK, it can be resolved with field management software.

This article in BIM+ (a respected digital construction resource in the UK) explains how Fieldwire is used by global construction giants – like EllisDon – to improve efficiency all while boosting quality. In fact, leveraging collaboration software for QC could result in significant savings. The article notes that:

Learn how to leverage technology to improve quality on your next project! Read the full article here.

Construction News: Warwick’s 1,000-year-old school gets a new site

A UK-based construction company with a passion for innovation, Speller Metcalfe, has been contracted to expand and relocate one of England’s oldest institutions; King’s High School in Warwick.

The three-year project will be managed on Fieldwire to ensure the project stays on track and critical information doesn’t get overlooked. Speller Metcalfe Project Lead, Michael Quinney, said:

For more details, please read the full story in Construction News, the UK’s leading source of construction industry news, market intelligence, and forecast and trend data.

At Fieldwire, we’re always shipping new features and improving our platforms functionality. With Fall in full swing, we want to give you an overview of every product update that was made over the past couple of months. Just a few of the highlights include:

New digital forms

The biggest release of the Fall comes with Forms! This a is a new way of using Fieldwire, allowing business and enterprise users to consolidate disparate paper forms onto our platform. Forms save huge amounts of time and work now that all of your Daily Reports, Inspection Requests, RFIs, and Timesheets can be completed on Fieldwire. You can link forms to tasks or plans and assign them to anyone on your team to complete. Check out our full support page or read our launch blog post.

New mobile notification center

Ever missed a notification on your mobile device? No problem! You can now find all of the notifications you were tagged in on our new notification center on mobile. All of the updates on your tasks and plans are now consolidated in one place across all of your projects. Staying on top of your projects has never been easier! Check out our full support page.

Gantt calendar view

There is now a new “Gantt” view in the tasks tab to accompany our kanban and calendar views. This view is a great and simple way to visualize the flow between your tasks, especially if you are using tasks to schedule activities. Simply add start and end dates to your tasks or drop-and-drag them directly on the Gantt chart to set durations. Check out our full support page.

Drag-and-drop tasks on plans

Improve your Fieldwire workflow with the drag-and-drop feature for tasks. You can now add a task to a particular position on the plan by simply dragging and dropping it from the task list on the web. In fact, you can even drag-and-drop multiple tasks onto the plan at once. This can be particularly useful when you create multiple tasks for inspections or punch walks and need to associate them with a plan later on. Check out our full support page.

And lots more including. . .

Quickly build structure into your site inspections and workflows by adding checklists in bulk, and automating weather on daily reports. Fieldwire will auto-fill weather conditions based on your location, saving you more time at the end of the day. We’re also making life easier for iOS users who can now upload files from the iCloud/Files app.

To stay on top of new product releases, check out our support page for Fieldwire feature updates.

Residential contractors need a single source of truth; reliable residential construction software that connects each player and helps them adapt to change — especially in a field of this size! According to the U.S. Census and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, contractors are building more homes than ever; in fact, 1.2 million new homes broke ground in September. While this is great for the economy and exciting for builders, there is one looming concern: the increase in construction costs and availability of labor. Last year, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) the cost and availability of labor remained the number one concern for builders, who are embracing technology to meet housing demands and enable craftspeople to do more with less. In this post and related free webinar, we explore how Level Homes is innovating with residential construction software to keep up with demand.

Being more efficient in the field has helped residential construction companies and contractors, like Level Homes in Baton Rogue, operate successfully amid affordability concerns. New home prices are at an all-time high, 27% above 2005 after adjusting for inflation. Using Fieldwire’s platform and mobile construction app, Level Homes can conduct digital QA/QC and inspections on-the-fly, collaborate with trades and specialty contractors and communicate on-site in real-time. In part due to the efficiencies gained with Fieldwire, Level Homes will complete almost 300 new homes by the end of 2018, and they say they’re prepared to do it all again next year.

To see how Level Homes boosts productivity with residential construction software, please register for our free webinar on-demand. In the meantime, here are four key tips for residential construction companies, with examples from Level Homes, on how to work smarter, faster, and save time and money on projects.

Connect your dispersed teams

When it comes to building a home, there are many players to consider: the concrete sub, electrician, plumber, tiler, carpenter, painter. . . The list goes on. Keeping all of these people on the same page is critical to the success of your project. If one player makes a mistake or causes a delay, the whole team fails, and the game runs overtime at a significant cost. That’s why it’s important to use residential field management software that connects all of your trades in one place with a single residential construction communication platform. With Fieldwire, residential construction managers at Level Homes no longer need to be on-site at all times to communicate with trade technicians.

Beyond communication, a field construction app that automatically updates blueprints whenever a change is made ensures each tradesperson works from the right set of drawings. Furthermore, being able to communicate from the field in real-time with contractors in the office helps projects progress quickly — shaving hours off your building process and moving homeowners into their new houses on-time.

Conduct punch on mobile

As you know, the sooner a residential construction punch list reaches zero, the sooner your client moves into their home. That’s why it’s important to have an efficient residential construction software-based punch process and one that can be conducted on-the-fly. We’ve seen many residential contractors use their smartphone or tablet onsite to dramatically reduce time spent on punch. Contractors at Level Homes, for example, use Fieldwire tasks on their iPhones to pin a deficiency directly to a plan, add relevant context or photos, and assign it to the right contractor in the field. Then, as building progresses, all communication related to this issue is linked back to the task, which prevents important information from falling through the cracks. Even more, Level Homes creates a template for each type of common deficiencies and duplicate the templates across locations that need a QA/QC review — ultimately boosting productivity and delivering homes on schedule.

Go paperless on the job site

Paper blueprints or plans are not only bulky and expensive to produce, but keeping track of incremental changes from multiple sources — including the architect and the engineers on the project — is a big headache. To avoid this problem entirely, Level Homes rarely enter a job site with a residential architectural paper plan at all, or with a pen, notepad, or spreadsheet. The only tool they need to operate efficiently in the field is located in their pocket. From any smartphone or tablet, they can add markups, annotations, and attachments to floor plans, and collaborate more effectively with residential contractors — even when they’re working offline!

This level of collaboration, achieved with Fieldwire’s residential construction technology, translates into significant cost and time savings for Level Homes. Money is no longer wasted on printing revised drawing sets, and lengthy email threads or phone calls are no longer needed to get missing information or the latest plans. Everyone can focus entirely on their operational mission, which increases the general productivity.

Communicate in real-time

It’s not enough to use a residential construction app or software to manage your plans or punch lists. As a home builder, you must also find a way to communicate and collaborate in real-time across not just a single job site, but many different sites, simultaneously. In contrast to high-rise construction, where a team often works on a single building at a time, in residential construction, you might be working on dozens of different houses in a new subdivision, all at once.

To help with the communication challenges that ensue, Level Homes use Fieldwire tasks to communicate in real-time with trades or vendors instead of sending an email or making a call. This ensures everyone is always on the same page when it comes to the status of a certain issue, and no work gets delayed by costly miscommunication. With real-time alerts and instant messaging, construction managers can finally focus on the work they need to do; coordinating projects, delegating tasks, and, ultimately, driving productivity. With Fieldwire’s construction management software storing all communication in one place, Level Homes can see who is doing what and when, to not only understand the building process but to hold all construction contractors accountable for their work.

Documenting all work in one, easy to view place has saved Level Homes a great deal of trouble, but more importantly, it has saved them time and money. Please join Fieldwire and Level Homes for an on-demand free webinar on Building the Future of Residential Home Construction. To learn more about residential construction technology and how to operate smarter and faster today, using any device in the field, read our full coverage on Level Homes’ success.