09/23/2026
An entire industry run by text messages. HOME
Why a "Simple" Change Order Takes a Week — And What We're Doing About It
Here's a story every builder knows by heart.
You're near the finish line — this is supposed to be the easy part. Siding tomorrow, paint after that, electrician's final trim-out, landscaper and inspection queued right behind. Everything's dialed in, and the super's already eyeing the next job.
Then the homeowner tells him: "Hey, we want to change the siding."
Reasonable request. But here's what actually happens next.
The super notes it. Next morning, as he does every day, he texts the PM: "They want to change the siding. Looks easy — two extra days for install, materials probably up 20%."
Day 1
Now the PM has to price it. Change orders need approval before anyone touches the work, and materials have to be ordered today to arrive on time. A text goes to the siding sub for real numbers. Two days later, it comes back.
Day 3
The quote goes to the homeowner. They're stretched on budget, so they sit on it. One day turns into two.
Day 5
By the time it's approved, the sider's on another job and can't return for two more days.
Day 7
Now the whole back half of the schedule reshuffles — painter's slot gone, electrician bumped, landscaper moves, inspection slides right along with it.
Day 15.
Two full weeks, for one decision — and only 2 of those days were anyone actually working on siding. The other 13 were spent waiting on a text.
Nobody did anything wrong. Everyone followed the industry's normal routine. The problem is a decision passing through different people at different companies, and every handoff costs a day, because everyone else's day was already planned before your text arrived.
That's the real math behind change orders — not contractors padding time, but a decision that genuinely needs four people to weigh in, each adding a full day of latency, minimum. A change that should take an afternoon takes a week. Every time.
So we're building around that math instead of accepting it.
Our objective on every project is locking in every decision before construction starts — full stop. But things change. So when they do: what if the homeowner could see live pricing, labor rates, and schedule impact in an app, right then? What if approval wasn't a text chain waiting on five people, but one DocuSign notification, signed from a phone, hitting the whole team the same day?
That's not a fantasy — it's removing handoffs from a process that was never complicated, just slow.
That's the system we're building we are not there yet but we are looking for homeowners who are frustrated with what everyone is telling them and want a different way becuase the industry needs it.
