Featured on this episode:

• Join The Designers Edge here
• Grab Your Free Script Guide here
• Access the full video interview with Elana Steele of Steele Appliance here

What you will learn from this episode:

• What experienced designers look for during each phase of construction
• Why arriving early and building relationships with trades makes you a better project manager
• How to spot potential issues and ask questions without putting anyone on the defensive

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Let’s go to a jobsite, because what I do when I’m there actually starts long before I walk through the door.

Every site visit has a reason, and that reason shapes how I prepare. Sometimes I’m heading to a weekly meeting with the contractor, trades, and client. Other times, there’s a specific issue to address or something the client needs to see in context, like stone or tile. I may also walk the project on my own to see what’s changed since my last visit and what needs to happen next.

Sometimes I’m simply walking the project on my own. I want to see what’s happened since my last visit and what needs to happen next.

Whatever the reason, I don’t just show up and see what happens. I prepare for what I’m walking into. Once I’m there, I’m paying attention to much more than what’s on the agenda that day. To me, that’s one of the biggest differences between visiting a construction project and actually managing one.

Your Jobsite Visit Starts Before You Get There

I bring my project binder—what I lovingly call my Bible—to every project. It has my specifications, contracts, drawings, inspiration images, estimates, and the communication I may need to reference while I’m there.

If it’s a weekly site meeting, I’ve reviewed the agenda before I arrive and I know which items require my input. If I’ve been called to address a particular problem and I’ve had even an hour’s notice, I’m going to do whatever homework I can before I get there.

That might mean calling a rep, looking something up, going back through my project documents, or grabbing a sample from the office. I want to walk in with something useful rather than walking in cold.

And yes, I am going to get on my soapbox about clothes again.

If there’s any chance I’m going to a construction site that day, I make sure I have what I need in my car. If I’m wearing sandals, I have closed-toed shoes with me. If I’m wearing a sundress, I may throw pants and a shirt in the car.

Construction sites are active work environments, and you need to be dressed to safely move through them.

This isn’t about looking like a contractor. It’s about respecting the environment you’re walking into and not unnecessarily creating a safety or liability issue because you weren’t prepared.

I Start Looking Before I Even Walk Through the Door

The driveway already tells me a lot. I’m already paying attention to which trucks are there, who I recognize, and whether anyone is on site who I wasn’t expecting.

Let’s say I see the plumber’s truck, but the plumber wasn’t supposed to be there that day. It could mean absolutely nothing, but it might also mean there’s an issue I haven’t heard about yet. Either way, it’s information I want to have before I walk through the door.

The condition of the site matters too. Is it safe to move through? If my client is joining me, is there a clear path for them to get where we’re meeting, or am I stepping over materials and dodging equipmcent just to get inside?

By the time I actually enter the project, I’m already gathering information about what’s happening there.

Give Yourself 15 Minutes Before the Meeting

If I have a meeting scheduled, I try to arrive 10 or 15 minutes early so I can walk the project before everyone sits down. Those extra few minutes give me time to see what’s changed, talk to whoever is working, and get a sense of what’s going on.

Some of that can look like small talk. Maybe we talk about someone’s weekend, their kids, or football.But I don’t consider that wasted time because construction runs on relationships.

I’ve said this before: a construction project isn’t dating. It’s a marriage. You’re going to be working alongside the GC, trades, and installers for weeks, months, and sometimes years. These people are your colleagues, and real relationships make the project better. Frankly, they also make it much more enjoyable.

That’s part of managing a project too—you find the avenue and build relationships with everyone on that jobsite, not only your client. You’re all working for the same person, and a team that actually likes and respects one another gets through difficult days very differently.

What I’m Looking for Changes With Every Phase

Once I’m actually walking the project, what I’m looking for depends entirely on where we are in construction. What gets my attention during demolition is very different from what I’m watching during rough-ins or finish work.

During Demo, I’m Looking at What We Didn’t Know

I work on a lot of renovations in older homes, and demolition is when you find out what you didn’t know. As the walls come down, we start to see the existing conditions. Suddenly, we have information we couldn’t have known when we were drawing the project.

Maybe a wall comes down, and there’s a vent stack we didn’t know was there. My mind immediately goes to everything around it. Can the electrician still rough in the sconce where we planned, or does something need to shift?

With the contractor there, we can immediately talk through what it affects on my end and what it changes on his. The goal is to figure it out while the wall is still open. A ten-minute fix during demo can become a much bigger and more expensive problem later.

That’s one of the biggest reasons I believe in being on a project consistently. You’re not there simply to observe progress. You’re finding things while they’re still easier to fix.

During Rough-In, I’m Thinking About What Comes Next

When electrical and plumbing rough-ins are happening, I’m looking at what’s going into the walls, but I’m also thinking ahead to everything that comes after them.

Where is that outlet landing relative to the furniture? Are the plumbing heights correct for what we’ve specified? Do these locations still make sense now that we’re seeing everything in the actual space?

In a perfect world, we’ve already coordinated all of this through the plans, and we’re verifying rather than deciding. But sometimes things shift, or a designer comes into a project later than we’d like. Either way, I want to verify everything before the walls close.

Here’s one little trick I use with electrical. If I’m unsure about an outlet location, I’ll ask the electrician to leave some slack in the line. If possible, that may give us enough flexibility to move the box a few inches within the bay later. Obviously, you can’t rely on that everywhere, which is exactly why I want a furniture plan completed before rough-in whenever humanly possible.

The same thinking applies to plumbing. Heights and locations should be predetermined whenever possible. If they aren’t, we need a plan to determine them before the walls close. You can still change things later; they’re just going to become more expensive and more time-consuming to change.

Finish Work Is Where Paper Meets Reality

Finish work requires a completely different eye because this is where everything you’ve drawn, specified and envisioned starts being installed in real life. Sometimes everything can technically be correct on paper and still not look the way you intended once the actual material is in front of you.

Natural stone is a perfect example. I can provide a detailed drawing showing the tile pattern, niche locations, edges, and dimensions. But once the boxes are opened, the natural variation can change everything. Maybe all the heavy veining is clustered together. There may also be a couple of dog tiles I wouldn’t have used at all, and somehow they’re about to end up smack dab in the middle of the wall.

If I leave that decision entirely to the installer, I need to be willing to live with his discretion. That’s why I dry lay natural stone before it’s installed.

At minimum, I’ll lay out one wall so the installer can hear what I’m looking at and understand my thought process as I make those decisions. In a perfect world, I’ll lay out all of it. Then I can bring the client in to see it or photograph the layout and send it to them for approval.

Yes, that may add another half hour or hour to the project, but it can prevent an enormous amount of conflict later. It protects the creative vision, gives the installer clarity, and allows the client to approve what they’re actually going to see. And that time needs to be included in your fee because it is real work with real value.

A Good Site Visit Isn’t Just About What You See

One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that you also have to listen. When I’m talking to a contractor or a trade, I’m paying attention to how they’re answering me just as much as what they’re actually saying.

Maybe I ask about something and get, “Well… yeah, I did notice that.”

That gets my attention, but it doesn’t automatically mean something is wrong. They may have already discussed it with the GC and aren’t sure whether they’re supposed to bring it to me. Trades don’t always understand exactly what my role is on a project, particularly if I haven’t clearly established it yet.

If I sense that hesitation, I’m going to follow it without immediately assuming there’s a problem. I might say, “It sounds like there might be something we need to talk about. Should we grab the GC and have a bigger conversation?”

That opens the door without putting anyone on the defensive, which is exactly where I want to keep the conversation.

Curiosity Will Get You Further Than Accusation

More often than not, I am the only woman on the construction site. Over the years, I’ve learned how to ask questions and raise concerns without making someone feel like I’m accusing them of doing something wrong.

My overarching approach is genuine curiosity and the reminder that we’re all on the same team. I’m not there to audit the electrician or prove that I know more about plumbing than the plumber. I’m there to help all of us deliver a successful project to the client.

When the people on the job understand that, they almost always open up to me, and when they open up, I learn things.

I love learning from my trades and think of those relationships as being an equal and an apprentice at the same time. After more than 30 years in this business, I still don’t know as much about plumbing as a plumber or electrical as an electrician.

They have expertise I don’t have, and I have expertise they don’t have. That makes us equals in one sense while still allowing me to be their student in another.

A Well-Managed Project Has a Different Energy

I don’t want this entire conversation to sound like walking a jobsite is about hunting for problems. Some projects really do hum along. You can feel it almost immediately when you walk in and someone says, “Oh good, Renee, you’re here. I want to show you something.”

That’s the energy of a team that’s communicating well.

A well-managed project isn’t a perfect project because there is no such thing. Even the best-managed jobs have intense days, annoying days and genuinely bad days. The difference is how the team responds when those days come.

When information is flowing the way it should between me, the GC, the trades, and the client, we solve problems together. No one feels like they have to protect themselves when something goes wrong. That’s when I actually look forward to pulling into the driveway. I want to see the progress and how our solutions actually worked.

The Next Time You Walk Onto a Jobsite, Try This

The next time you have a site meeting, get there 10 or 15 minutes early and resist the urge to walk directly into the meeting. Give yourself time to wander through the project first.

Before you go inside, look at the trucks and notice who’s there. Take time to talk to the people working and find some common ground. Then step back and look at the project as a whole. What’s changed since your last visit? What’s been completed, and what should be there that isn’t?

And if something catches your eye for a reason you can’t quite articulate yet, don’t ignore it. Stop and look closer.

The more often you do this, the more you’ll begin to see. That’s not magic, and you don’t need my 30-plus years of experience before you can start developing it. It’s attention repeated over and over until it becomes automatic.

That’s really what The Designer’s Edge is built around. It isn’t simply a checklist of things to inspect. It’s learning how an experienced interior designer thinks and moves through a construction project, from before you pull into the driveway through the final punch list.

The Studio gives designers a place to bring the things no curriculum could possibly anticipate. Maybe it’s a new situation or a question specific to your contractor, trade, scope, or client.

Enrollment for The Designer’s Edge is open through midnight Eastern on October 5th, and this is the final enrollment period of the year.

The Bottom Line

You aren’t going to a jobsite simply to manage an agenda. You’re there to understand the project as a whole, which means preparing before you arrive, giving yourself time to walk the site, building relationships with the people doing the work and knowing what deserves your attention during each phase.

You also need to listen. Pay attention to what people tell you, how they tell you and the things that make you want to ask another question. Approach the people around you with genuine curiosity and continue learning from the expertise they bring to the project.

Because the more you see, the better you manage. And the better you manage, the more comfortable and confident you become every time you walk through that door.

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Like this Episode?

Be sure to check out Episode #298: “I Have to Look Into That” — What Confident Designers Actually Say on a Jobsite

Be sure to check out Episode #294: The One Hour a Week That Keeps a Construction Project From Falling Apart

Be sure to check out Episode #287: What Interior Designers Get Wrong About the People Who Build Their Projects