Measure and Mark: Insights from a Field Engineer

Construction Brothers

Introduction
Our guest today is Noah Pritchett. Noah is a field engineer who shares a homeschool background with Tyler. He ended up getting his GED and meeting a chick at Chick Fil A. They also both had to be corralled by a dad into their work in construction. Then it just clicked.
His first job in field-engineering world was as a helper. Then the engineer he was helping was called away to another job. The rest is construction history. All of his training took place on the job.
The Hyundai plant
Part of the reason Eddie invited Noah to the show was because Noah had a hand in the gargantuan Hyundai plant near Savannah, Georgia.
Noah shares that this particular project was just go-go-go. He was laying out something new every 15 minutes, working with contact points that were up to 4,000 feet apart. He recognized that he needed some help, and he gave his helper a tossed-in-the-deep-end experience similar to his own.
Now everything seems small to him–except the son he had to leave at home when he left for the long stretches of work. Tyler points out that not many people understand about this travel component and how it affects workers and their families.
Eddie points out that the pay is what draws people in. Noah agrees. The pay and the per diems enable people to really rake it in.
Great Wolf Lodge
Eddie isn’t necessarily excited about everything he might see at indoor water parks, but the structures impress him. Noah shares that it was on his first Great Wolf project that he realized he was truly the responsible party for the layout of this thing.
It was on this job that Noah realized it’s not always best to use the robots. Layout out lazy-river curves sometimes requires an old-school tape. It was truly tedious–no laziness involved. Tyler asks about the reference points for this kind of project.
Tyler tees Noah up to dish on the frustrations that come with lackluster drawings. He said there are still times he feels dumb asking the questions, but when there’s a wall hanging out in the middle of nowhere, you have to ask.
Eddie recalls the first time he witnessed his dad notice that an engineer had screwed up, despite the fact that Eddie thought engineers were too smart to do that sort of thing. On every job, Tyler s
What we miss
Tyler asks Noah about the most common mess-ups, and Noah goes for the elevator. He said he checks those out right away and immediately sends the drawings back if they’re off. He recounts the communication challenges and the emphasis of pictures over words.
Eddie talks about the virtual certainty that there’ll be complications and confusion on multi-rise buildings. Throw in some operable partitions way up there? There’s going to be confusion.
The worst drawings Noah gets? Multi-family dwellings. Eddie shares his thoughts on why that’s the case. They often have surprisingly elaborate systems.
AutoCAD and finding help
Tyler asks Noah to share about his experience with AutoCAD. Noah explains that when the workflow puts design work in the hands of people earlier in the process, he sees greater quality. Eddie asks and Noah answers about integration of layout points in his models. Noah shares how integration of these elements have provided him with the opportunity to do some experimenting.
Noah shares about a job near Savannah where he was hoping to be impressive but ran quickly into screwy drawings. He thought the complications that resulted from this would lead to him getting targeted by some other members of the crew. Luckily the situation took a turn that directed blame away from him.
Many communication problems, Noah points out, can be avoided by being sure that you introduce yourself to as many people as possible. Simply meeting you gives them a level of confidence that you wouldn’t do stupid stuff.
Eddie asks Noah to share about the challenges of finding good help. It’s really hard, he says. He thinks the industry just needs to find people and train them.
Megaphone Message
Noah directs his megaphone message to young guys: Don’t stop learning. Be curious and inquisitive.
Find Noah on LinkedIn
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