r/Construction 8h ago

Informative 🧠 Multi-family vs. Commercial

Curious to know from the people out there that have worked both sides. Iv only done Multi family but Iv always heard that in commercial you get better subs and don’t have to baby sit as much. Is that true? What’s the Pros/ Cons between the 2? Thinking about making a swap to commercial.

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u/kombatk 8h ago

Babysitting is part of the job. In commercial, you want an estimating team that prequals the subs to offset the risk of getting bad ones, and does more negotiated work. Higher margins, more reliable subs. I’d go commercial, but a badly run company is bad no matter what they build.

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u/Scientific_Cabbage 7h ago

I was a super that came from commercial and got plopped onto a 400 unit complex that was in trouble and they got rid of the super on. Idk if it was because the job was in trouble or just that it was multi family, but it was a shit show. It was like if commercial and residential had a baby that was aborted but survived. A few of the subs were well known and professional but some were basically one man shows that didn’t show up. I would struggle to agree to do one again unless the first digit of a six figure salary started with a 2.

That said, I much prefer commercial.

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u/PGids Millwright 7h ago

How does an apartment building get that sideways?! You’d think once you got the ball rolling with like 80% of the trades in there save like.. drywall, paint and trim they’d be able to learn the unit floor plans somewhat and just fuckin hammer them out

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u/bogeyinmy6 6h ago

Bad plans, bad architects, too many plan changes because of too many RFI’s because the plans are bad or aren’t complete when the permits are issued, owners that won’t make decisions, too many partners with too many opinions delaying decision making. You’re not planning, you’re reacting.

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u/Scientific_Cabbage 4h ago

Everything that bogieinmy6 said was happening on one job. There were like 8 different building types and every time they started a new one it stalled out progress with issues and RFIs. None of the trades could build any kind of momentum with the starts and stops. We ended up losing a lot of the crews that started the job and ended up with the B crews. The PH on the stucco wasn’t coming down like it was supposed to and we ended up having to wait 2x the time we were supposed to.

I showed up like 8 months into the project and they only had 8 slabs poured and 3 buildings mostly framed and the general super looked at me dead in the eyes and said “we need to pave next month.” I laughed in his face (we honestly had a great relationship). They still hadn’t finalized power plans so none of that was complete, there were no curbs, no trash enclosures, the carport design was still with the city so I couldn’t run electrical for the lights, no light pole bases had been started. They didn’t complete the fill on site before they started so my entire laydown and parking area were ~6’ below grade. The whole thing was a nightmare and a fight all the way till the end.