Field Notes
From the build site.
Plain writing on what we've learned putting up commercial buildings. Project updates, working drawings, and the trade-offs that look obvious only after you've made them.

By ryan
•
May 14, 2026
The single biggest reason commercial owners say their last build went sideways comes down to one thing: change orders. Specifically, the change orders a builder writes to cover what they should have priced at the start. Bad weather, labour shortages, picky inspectors all show up on a project. They almost never double the budget. Change-order creep does.
