Foursquare Builders featured on Houzz.com

One of the consistent criticisms of the modern houses I often write about is that their large windows are bad for birds. Deaths of birds striking glass buildings is in the range of 100 million to 1 billion a year in the United States alone, so it is definitely a problem that needs to be addressed. Thankfully, groups like the Audubon Society are spreading the news about the concern, and many architects are starting to address the problem through their designs for exterior walls.

Foursquare Builders is featured in a Houzz.com article about this important issue.  Click here to read article.

New Lakeway Home Underway

Foursquare Builders is excited to announce another home start for a wonderful client in Lakeway, Texas. This is our first home to build within the City of Lakeway. This lake view home will include 4,200 square feet of air conditioned space with 3 bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms. This modern style will be a great addition to the neighborhood and was designed by David Jefferis Architecture of Houston, Texas.

Barton Hills Remodel / Addition

Master Suite addition, on the left side of photo, created an intimate courtyard for outdoor dining.

New Master Bathroom addition with walk-in shower.

Completely rebuilt kitchen and breakfast room.

New Master Bedroom Suite with connectivity to the outdoor living space.

 

Carswell promoted to Head of Construction Services

Foursquare Builders is pleased to announce that Matt Carswell has been promoted to Head of Construction Services.  Matt’s dedication to his craft and unrelenting pursuit of excellence in construction are just a few of the key characteristics he demonstrates at Foursquare Builders. As Head of Construction Services, Matt will take on full responsibility and accountability of all aspects of residential construction at Foursquare.  Matt will be responsible for day-to-day accountability of all field Project Managers.

According to Matt, “I find working at Foursquare Builders a challenging and exiting career. It is a place where our projects are dynamic, each day is never the same. At Foursquare we resolve issues and find better way to accomplish tasks and details through team coloration, communication and execution.  We do this by working close with our team of experienced project managers, architects, engineers and trades that understand our goals to provide products that are well built, meets and exceeds our clients expectations and done in a safe and timely manner.

Obviously I love the building part of my job but I also enjoy meeting our clients onsite and making their journey as enjoyable as I can. A typical day for me would be working close with our project managers, assisting in general organizing and coordination of trades, looking ahead to make sure materials are available onsite to enable our trades to carry out their scope of work. Corecon, a construction management software, is one of the tools we use to accomplish these goals. With the ability to estimate, document, build production schedules and perform our accounting through a web based program, we are able to review our daily activities, document correspondence and keep the daily accounting of each project up to date on a real time bases.

The most important part of my role is building relationships and trust with our clients through honesty, and integrity from the first time we meet to handing over the keys, though these relationships last much longer than that.”

 

Safety comes first at Foursquare Builders

Foursquare Builders safety culture is all about quality.  Our written safety & health program starts with a strong vision statement that demonstrates our desire to protect all persons that enter our job sites and to avoid construction site failures that cause losses of any kind.  This is followed by our mission statement, which is to complete each job right (quality), the first time (no rework), without losses (no incidents).  We go beyond safety compliance and have constructed a “best practice” approach by making safety a part of everything that we do.

 Our “0” loss history verifies our support, involvement, and dedication to safety excellence.  Furthermore, Foursquare Builders recognition as National 2011 Custom Builder Safety Program of the Year, 2011 Austin Custom Builder of the Year and 2011 Texas Custom Builder of the Year, plus other awards/recognition testifies to the professionalism of all our employees and speaks highly of our ability to select and manage contractors.

 Some key quality concepts of our safety culture are:

• Safety performance is focused on being “proactive” instead of “reactive”. One example of this is our aggressive review of near misses, a part of our formal Accident or Near Miss Investigation Form.
• Our written safety program has specific accountability activities for all management personnel.  The NAHB Home Builders Safety Program was used as a model for our written safety program and we adopted the NAHB Jobsite Safety Handbook as an addendum.
• Third party professional training is provided to Project Managers.  They receive certification as “Safety Coaches”, plus CPR, 1^st Aid, AED, and emergency management coordination.
• All meetings at Foursquare Builders include safety discussions and lessons learned.
• Project Managers present short training topics at weekly meetings in an effort to stay current with safety issues.
• Specific safety requirements are a part of all written contracts with contractors, and all are given a copy of the NAHB “Jobsite Safety Handbook” as a reference and addition to their own safety program, if needed.
• Our safety process is routinely reviewed and audited by an outside consultant.

Oohla Bean Bed & Breakfast Underway!!!

Glad to report we’ve started forming foundations for this 10,000 sq. ft. Hill Country Bed & Breakfast located in Driftwood, Texas.  Stay tuned for more photos. Glad to have Robin Moore on the job as our Project Manager.