Crew hours during renovation Cancel The title field is required!

1. Scott Sewell

   

   0 posts
   
   11/22/2013 7:11 AM

   My question for those that have been there/done that course renovations is what were your crew hours at the beginning of the renovation? We do have a big list of projects that we will need to complete before spring and having to somewhat care for areas not affected by renovations. We will be closing by March in the Florida panhandle and renovating all tees, bunkers and greens. I have a few part time guys and thinking about cutting them out at the start. Thanks in advance for any insight!
   
   Scott Sewell, CGCS
   Destin, FL

   
   
   
   
2. Anthony Nysse

   

   1 posts
   
   11/22/2013 8:11 AM

   Scott,
   We renovated the last 2 summers result in closing. We laid 50-60 truck loads on sod each summer. We budgeted for crew hours of 6am-5pm, Monday-Thursday, 6-3pm on Friday and 6am-noon Saturday. Sundays we just had selected staff members come in to water. We tailored our sod deliveries around our schedule.

   
   
   
   
3. Patrick Reinhardt

   

   0 posts
   
   11/22/2013 9:11 AM

   I think a lot of it depends on how your project is laid out, and how much of the work is being done by your staff. During the construction that we just did, we were part of the University, so I knew that I could not pay overtime. I structured the contract in a way where we really did minimal work, and what we were responsible for I would be able to accomplish with with our staff (approximately 12 guys at 40 hours/week).
   
   During the project before this one at another club, our crew was responsible for some of the sod work, as well as keeping the golf course functioning in out of construction areas (temporary greens, etc) as we were doing greens, bunkers, a couple of fairways, and a couple of tee complexes. We budgeted similar to Tony, except I split my crew on weekends and did half on Saturday and half on Sunday. We had a crew of approximately 18, that worked 50-60 hours a week.
   
   Don't think that because of construction you only need minimal staff. Take into account what you will need to do in house, any projects that you would like to complete while the construction is going on (we did a lot of tree limbing during the recent project), as well as needing a lot of water guys when the grass goes down.

   
   
   
   
4. Andy Jorgensen

   

   1 posts
   
   11/22/2013 11:11 AM

   Scott,
   
   I can tell you that for the first few weeks you will find that you'll be able to get all those "other" things done that always seem to get pushed on the back burner, without cutting staff. Tree trimming, brush removal, drainage install, etc.. As soon as construction gets in full swing, you'll wish you had all the help you could get as thing start getting turned over to your responsibility. After being in some sort of construction or another over the past 10 years, we've never cut staff. In fact, I always wish I had more crew members available, as it seemed most of my staff was off watering, topdressing, fertilizing and rolling the new stuff while the rest was maintaining the unaffected areas. If you are closed during this period, the only hours I would redirect is weekend hours. Move them to during the week, but be sure you have someone scheduled to come in and water Saturday and Sunday. You could also start later and end later, 7:00-3:30 versus 6:00-2:30.

   
   
   
   
5. Joe Wachter

   

   5 posts
   
   11/26/2013 11:11 AM

   I would be really nervous about cutting staff. Bunker project last fall we added 6 guys to our staff during the project. I kept 3-4 seasonal guys to maintain the course. Used all the experienced guys to help manage and work project. We kept our same arrival time so that if we need some of the project guys to do a job on the course, we were able to get them out on the course and did not lose too much time to the project. When that occurred, we shifted responsibilities around a little bit Normally worked about 9-10 hours depending upon what we needed to accomplish and some sod jobs extended us into 11-12 hours on occasion but did not do this all the time. Wear them out with too many long days and production does drop. Always tried to give them an approximate leave time around noon so they could see the light at the end of the tunnel.
   
   We did end up having 12 rain days in about 60 calendar days of work. As the project moved along and got into the last 1/3 or so, we would lose a contract guy and would end up not replacing them as time went by. Less work to be accomplished and we became more efficient. Basically lost through attrition which was fine by me. Once you get into the project, you can see where you are and then potentially cut or reduce staff as days go by.(I don't think you will want to cut anyone) Even though we lost days due to wet weather, it did reduce our need for hand watering new sod. Dry conditions would have been better but you have to adjust your schedule based on what is thrown at you. I assume that once areas get completed and your turf is growing, it will probably take longer to maintain the new turf areas since lighter equipment must be used and slowly lower height of cuts, fertilization and topdressing like was mentioned are going to increase.

   
   
   
   
6. Gary Carls

   

   19 posts
   
   11/26/2013 12:11 PM

   Similar to others,
   
   While not a large renovation where we shut down, when we did the two biggest projects we've done here, tee renovations and new cart paths I wish I had actually had extra staff to help out. Besides trying to do regular maintenance we had all the extra work on newly sodded areas or traffic control around construction zones. Like others mentioned lots of courses in our area used renovation times to catch up on trees or other small projects they never seemed to get to otherwise. Also helps because once the renovation is done they expect everything to be cleaned up and ready to enjoy. Nothing worse than doing a lot of work and having a product that looks unfinished.

   
   Gary K. Carls, CGCS, President - Oakland Turfgrass Education Initiative