It can be really easy to build your construction schedule in August or September and completely neglect how much of an obstacle the Christmas / New Year’s holiday season can be.  It’s wise to account for extra time in your schedule to be realistic about the following three things that inevitably come along with this jolly time of year:

1) Labor Slow Downs: This is the obvious one, but we must remember that it isn’t just about contractors not working on Christmas, New Years, and Black Fridays (i.e. the day before / after the holidays).  Just like those of us who spent most of the time in the office, it can be common for extra PTO days be taken during the holidays from one of the sprinkler-fitters or painters (for example) on your job.  A smaller crew leads to limited field production.

2) Manufacturing Shut Downs: It is the norm for anything from carpet to furniture systems to close their manufacturing facilities from Christmas to New Years.  A smart schedule will consider the seasonal stall of material lead-times.

3) Vacations from Key Project Team Members & Decision Makers: It is also important to think about how the holiday season will likely mean that some of the people “off-site” will be taking extra time off.  I did a project a few years ago in which half of our team was absent at the last two project meetings in December.  A lot of decisions and information transfer was delayed and we were playing catch up until the end of the job.  Keep in mind that even when people are still in town, they are often not working at 100% capacity with the flood of holiday parties and distractions to make year-end deadlines.

The next time you are putting together a schedule for the holiday season, remember that simply adding a few days off for when the actual holidays occur is not enough!  Best wishes on a fabulous 2015!