WHY CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS LOSE MONEY: The Hidden Decisions, Cost Leaks, Rework, Delays, and Commercial Mistakes That Destroy Project Margin (THE CONSTRUCTION REALITY SERIES, Band 4) - Softcover

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Nobody walks into a final account meeting and suddenly loses the project margin. By then, the damage has already been done. It happened four months ago when a crew waited three hours for access and nobody recorded why. It happened when a subcontract package was awarded with two unresolved exclusions because the programme couldn't wait. It happened when a material approval came late and you paid premium airfreight to hit an installation date. It happened when an informal change was built immediately and left sitting unpriced until the site was closed.

Projects don't lose money in one sudden catastrophe. They bleed margin quietly—a hundred small, unchecked operational decisions at a time. If you have ever felt the sickening dread of watching a healthy profit margin slowly dissolve into a breakeven job, the frustration of a cost report that says "everything is fine" while the site is burning cash, or the gut-wrenching pressure of explaining to executive directors where the profit went, this book was written for you. Written by Marcus R. Halden, a veteran contractor-side leader with over two decades of senior project leadership, Why Construction Projects Lose Money is the definitive, field-tested operating manual for margin protection. It is not an abstract cost-accounting textbook—it is a raw, practical guide to where site execution and commercial reality meet.

Inside this essential field guide, you will master the controls to stop the bleeding:

• Where the Money Really Goes & Scope Gaps (Parts I–II): Expose the early signals of margin decay, uncover unbudgeted temporary works, and bridge tender assumptions with delivery reality.
• Procurement & Productivity Leaks (Parts III–IV): Eliminate the hidden costs of cheap subcontracts, stop paid idle hours, and align headcount with accepted output rather than visible movement.
• The Burn Rate of Delay & Rework Costs (Parts V–VI): Calculate the exact weekly cost of time, prevent trade stacking, and stop repeat defects from turning quality failures into profit drains.
• Unpriced Variations & Forecasting Truth (Parts VII–VIII): Stop doing extra work without contemporaneous records, dismantle optimistic "cost to complete" assumptions, and build an honest margin bridge.
• Cash Pressure & Margin Recovery (Parts IX–X): Prevent cash timing issues from triggering bad site decisions, execute a 30-day margin recovery plan, and finish the job without giving away the last profit.

• 15 Margin-Control Tools: Practical forms including the Project Margin Baseline Sheet, Cost Leakage Tracker, Delay Cost Burn-Rate Sheet, Variation Aging Register, and Cost-to-Complete Challenge Sheet.
• The 20 Unbending Rules of Construction Margin to keep your commercial position bulletproof.
• The Quick Margin Diagnostic to identify your project's exact cost leaks in under five minutes.

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