Once fall weather sets in, finishing exterior work on your projects can feel like a race against the first winter freeze. Even when you have a clear deadline and plan in place, it can be stressful managing your crew, materials, and equipment without something unexpected throwing off the schedule.

A delay early in your project can create problems for everything that follows. If framing runs late, exterior sheathing, weatherproofing, siding, roofing, or other work may have to happen in a smaller window. That’s why smart fall planning requires having the next phase ready before the current one is finished.

Plan the Exterior Work Backward From the Freeze

Managing a fall build means working backwards and deciding what needs to be completely finished before the weather changes. It helps to build a little weather-related leeway in your schedule and avoid treating every day as available for work so a few bad-weather days don’t throw the whole plan off. Not every fall day will be productive, whether that’s because of a materials delay, poor weather, or another reason. The goal is to give yourself enough room to keep a few lost days from turning into a bigger schedule problem.

Material and equipment planning is big here. A shipment delay or not being able to rent a piece of equipment on schedule can put off a lot of important exterior work. Even if you have enough workers on site to do the work, they can’t do it with the right equipment or materials. Each stage of the build may require different machines, so part of your planning stage will be to identify what dates you’ll need access to specific pieces of equipment. The equipment needs to be there when the phase starts, not when the crew is already waiting for it.

Keep Equipment and Materials From Becoming the Bottleneck

Depending on your project and the amount of work you need to do on the exterior, you’ll need many types of machines on site throughout the process. Telehandlers help move lumber and materials, while lifts provide access for siding, sheathing, and exterior installation. UTVs can help save you time by moving people and materials around the jobsite more quickly. Keep in mind that when you rent, you want to be able to trust the machines you get have been properly inspected and are capable of doing the job at hand.

It helps to rent or buy everything from the same supplier so that you don’t have to manage shipments and communication with multiple companies while you’re trying to keep your project on track.

Need help choosing a rental partner for a busy project? Our guide explains how to choose the best vendor for rental equipment.

Build a Plan for the Days You Lose

Even the most experienced contractors worry about what to do when they lose valuable project days, especially when time is limited to complete the exterior. There are a few things you can do to keep forward momentum going even when you can’t do everything you’d planned for that day.

Start by knowing which tasks can still be worked on even when exterior work is delayed, so you can still get use from the crew you have on site. This only works, though, when your team has already identified what tasks can move up the schedule and what equipment and materials they require. It is also worth knowing which materials need to be covered or moved if weather arrives before they can be installed.

Very importantly, consider if your equipment reservations need to change at all when your schedule changes. If you realize you need to rent a lift and skid steer on different days than originally planned, reach out to your supplier as soon as possible to work out a new rental schedule.

Give Your Fall Schedule Some Room to Move

Fall work gets a lot harder when the schedule has no room left to move. Contractors need a realistic schedule, enough room for weather delays, and the equipment and materials lined up for each phase of the work. Having those needs lined up early gives crews more flexibility when fall conditions change.

365 Equipment & Supply helps contractors prepare for the work ahead. We give you access to heavy equipment, rental equipment, tools, and construction supplies. If your fall schedule is getting busy, talk with the 365 team about what you have coming up and what you’ll need to keep the work moving.

Talk With 365 About Your Fall Project