October 2014 - Macuch Steel Products

Harrington Park Health & Rehabilitation – Augusta, Georgia

Currently under construction (since January 2015), the Harrington Park Health & Rehab Skilled Nursing Facility is comprised of 43,855 square feet. It has over 50 patient rooms, laundry facility, and kitchen/food service area. The center offers occupational and physical rehabilitation. Project is scheduled for March 2015.

Our contact for this job, Pat Etheridge, is the Senior Vice President and Director of Healthcare Construction for Pelicano Construction. Since 1995, Pat had concentrated on Healthcare projects including hospitals, medical office buildings, ambulatory surgical centers, medical equipment installations/replacements and doctor’s offices. Pat joined the Pelicano team in 2005 as the Director of Healthcare Construction. He has been recognized as a Certified Healthcare Constructor (CHC) and is an active member of the American Society of Healthcare Engineers (ASHE), Georgia Society for Healthcare Engineers (GASHE), and Georgia Society for Hospital Engineers (GSHE), and the American Hospital Association (AHA).

Due to the quality fabrication and expertise displayed during the erection process, Steling Nelson (President of the Health Systems Development, LLC – managing the development of Harrington Park) personally reached out to our CEP Bill Macuch. He requested a tour of our facility to learn more about our operation.

Macuch Steel Products, Inc. is AISC Certified Standard for Steel Building Structures and Simple Bridges.

General Contractor: Pellicano Construction

While there has been modest growth in the construction industry, it remains extremely competitive and deserves its reputation as a “dog-eat-dog” way to make a living. The continued practice of awarding contracts to low bidders reinforces this reputation but also, strangely enough, results in no long-term winners.

In our experience, it has become increasingly difficult to be the low bidder as a material supplier. Anyone can win a bid by submitting a low (but often unrealistic) price. The low bidder may not grasp the complete scope or may deliberately exclude scope from pricing to later increase the contract sum through change orders. Or, as a result of rough economic times, a su homeless bidder pplier in survival mode may desperately seek any work for their shop and intentionally drive the low bid.

Many general contractors have learned the hard way that selecting the supplier with the lowest price may get them the job but not necessarily add to their bottom line. Alternatively, the general contractor who selects a supplier with a proven track record of good quality and service ultimately discovers that the bid is truly “firm”, matches scope of work and, therefore, is less expensive.

A quality vendor protects their reputation and that of the general contractor by telling the truth. This vendor will tell the general contractor what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. The vendor may point out that the requested delivery schedule is problematic and overly optimistic due to site conditions (what the contractor needs to hear) versus the low bidder agreeing to an unfeasible delivery schedule (what the contractor wants to hear). Reputations and esteem go down while costs go up when the low bidder misses the agreed schedule. This directly impacts the other trades involved. If a low bidder is replaced mid-stream with a better performing supplier, overall costs are higher than if the General Contractor had selected the quality vendor in the first place.

For Macuch Steel Products, Inc. and our Family of Steel, low-bidding is not part of our strategy. Our strategy is long-term growth built on a practice of providing realistic prices for high quality services and products. Our diligence to protect our reputation will, in turn, protect yours.

Kelly May

Vice President

Macuch Steel Products, Inc.