Relativity

Well we just got over a big thunderstorm, plenty of rain, thunder and lightning. It's grey, wet and humid and that means that there'll be no work today. Mrs, BB and I are getting the front of the house redone. Before, the side walk was cracked and slowly sinking into the earth and the retaining wall, built of railroad ties, was disintegrating. (Hey the railroad ties were not my idea, the previous owners had put them in. They are a real problem because you just can't throw them into a land fill because of the creosote. ) But I am digressing, so this year we decided to have the sidewalk, driveway and retaining walls redone. So we got a bunch of contractors to submit for the job and finally chose one. We were told that it would take about three weeks, the last of June (finally started the first week of July) and the first two of July. Lo and behold we are now the first week of August and they are still not done. They are not even close to completing the job. Mind you the work that has been done, has been very well done.

Now comes my point, Albert Einstein stated in his Theory of Relativity, that time is relative. So it is between the time estimates of building contractors and real time. The contractor will give you an estimated time based on the optimistic assumption that

1. The weather will be perfect for the whole time.
2. Murphy's law will be suspended
3. There will be no other jobs to interfere with yours
4. There will be no statutory construction holidays in between. (In Québec they are obliged to give a "vacances de la construction" at the end of July.)
   

Now this is patently impossible. Based on the construction work we have had done in the last couple of years, I'd say that you must take the contractor's estimated time of completion (E.T.C.) and multiply by 2 to get the real time of completion (R.T.C.) so ETC x 2= RTC. Following this line of logic three weeks will become 6 weeks, which is about right. Another way might be to calculate using workdays. Three weeks is 21 days. 21 days / 3.5 days a week of work = 6 weeks. This can be called BB's Theory of Relative Construction Time.
So there we are. These R.T.C. estimates seem to be pretty much in line with what I have observed for all types of construction. If they say it'll take 2 hours, it'll be closer to 4 or 5. If they say a week, it'll be about 2-2.5 weeks. Having also done renovations, I would say that BB's Law of Relative Construction Time should also apply to whatever construction project you put your hand to. If you think it'll take a day to complete you can be pretty sure that it'll take about twice that. Now don't get me wrong I'd much rather they take their time to do the work and get it right, than rush a job and have to start over. It's just that if you are planning your summer it might be nice to have a timetable that is a little more exact. Since I'm a teacher it's not much of a problem since I can be home most of the time that they are working, but for someone with limited vacation time it must be rather complicated.