We have walked away from profitable work.
Not often, and never lightly, but it has happened. A package that priced well, with a builder we respected, on a project we would have been pleased to have on the list. We said no.
That decision usually comes down to one of three things.
The programme does not work. Not tight, which is normal, but genuinely undeliverable at the stated resourcing. If we cannot see how the cycle gets achieved, taking the job means either running over or cutting something, and the thing that gets cut is always quality or safety.
The risk allocation does not match the control. We are asked to carry a risk we cannot manage. Weather is one thing. Being liable for a design we have not seen, or a preceding trade we do not control, is another.
The specification and the budget do not describe the same building. Finish requirements written without a view on what they cost to achieve, priced against a number set eighteen months earlier. That gets resolved eventually. It just gets resolved painfully, and usually in a variation register.
Why this belongs in public
Saying no is not a virtue in itself. Plenty of contractors say no to work they simply cannot do.
The point is what it protects. A concrete subcontractor who takes everything will, at some stage, have too much on, and the jobs that suffer are the ones with the least commercial leverage. Every builder has been on the wrong end of that.
When we commit to a package, we have already decided we can deliver it at the standard we hold ourselves to. That is what the yes is worth, and it is only worth that because the no exists.
The place to have this conversation is at ECI. If we look at a project and see a problem, we would rather tell you while there is still room to move than price around it and let you find out later.
