Ever had an employee go and measure a job, and when he returns you find he forgot to put the tape up to the baseboard? Of course you have. Gary Potter, of Seattle-based Potter Construction, had, too — until he developed and implemented this “measure checklist.”
Potter's designers don't write the actual measurements on this sheet — they do that on the company-issued quarter-inch grid pads, which allow them to make sketches on site. (“It's a step up from a yellow pad,” Potter says.) This checklist is simply a reminder to measure all components of the job. If something on the list doesn't apply to a particular project, it's simply crossed off or left blank.
- That's the northeast corner of every room involved in the project.
- Potter's designers do the measuring, and because designers don't walk around with a toolbelt on all day, they're liable to forget the tape measure once in awhile if they're not reminded. Also, like many companies, Potter has the designers photograph the existing structure.
- Washington state requires that you have a legal description of the property — which the homeowner should have — before you can get a building permit. Having this little reminder on the checklist has saved Potter and his employees countless return trips over the three-plus years they have been using it.
- The extra boxes on the checklist are for notes or anything additional the designer noticed. As with almost all forms at remodeling companies, this one is a work in progress and from time to time there will be something to add.img xlink:alt="" src="tcm:15-57700" style="WIDTH: 300px">
