Building Update - October 26, 2018

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One word summarizes the biggest news for this building update—rain! Rain, rain and more rain! We have not seen the devastating rainfall that south central Texas has received, which resulted in terrible flooding, but the same series of weather systems has dumped extraordinary amounts on us here in north Texas. 

For example, the city of McKinney, where the new office is located, averages 3.15 inches of rain in September and 4.24 inches in October. This year we had 12.44 inches in September and, so far, 8.81 inches in October! Cumulatively, for the past two months we have had three times the normal amount of rainfall. This is already the second-wettest October ever in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, and we still have a week to go with more rain in the forecast. One weatherman noted on the local news that we had more rain in the six-week period from Sept. 1 to Oct. 14 than we had in the first eight months of the year! Another month like this, and we’ll be thinking about redesigning everything so we can work out of an ark!

While all this rain has not stopped progress on the building construction, it has certainly slowed it significantly. Major exterior work especially, such as masonry, stucco and exterior glass installation, has been impossible on many days. Most of the building is dried-in, thankfully, which has allowed a lot of interior work (electrical, for example) to proceed for the most part during the rainy days. But even some of that has been slowed. For instance, the drywall installation has slowed because all the moisture in the air makes it take longer for the joint compound to dry.

Our concern, of course, is how this impacts our move-in date. When builders create their construction timelines, they have formulas, based on historical averages, by which they calculate how many rain days they expect to lose in the process. We have now used up all of the projected rain days, which means they have had to recalculate our projected move-in date. The rain, plus some additional design changes, now makes our completion date look more like it will be in mid- to late-January.

That could all change, of course. There is an old saying here: “If you don’t like the weather in Texas, wait a minute!” We could just as easily see a shift to a streak of dry weather as we saw the unusual rain. As another saying goes, “You have to play the hand you’re dealt,” so that’s what we’re doing. But we’re also praying for a stretch of good weather that may allow us to catch up as much as possible. We’ll keep you informed!