FieldNotes | Issue 01

Weekly tales from the edge of the slab. What cracked, what held, and the kind of wisdom you only get after screwing it up the first time.

July 18, 2025

The Jobsite Is the Last Place in America Where Reality Still Wins

You can fake a spreadsheet. You can Photoshop a rendering. But you can’t fake a beam that doesn’t fit.
Construction doesn’t care about your credentials, your margins, or your optimism.
It’s the last honest trade. The last place where gravity is still undefeated.
And that’s why I love it.

Field Lesson of the Week:

The Slab Edge That Screwed the Façade

We modeled it clean. The field poured it like a drunk tracing a straight line.
Now the curtain wall guy’s on the roof, chain-smoking and threatening to walk.

All it took was one bad stringline. One rushed edge.
And now a perfect Revit export’s a $40,000 headache.

This week’s FieldManual breaks it all down:
✅ The slab-edge preflight checklist
✅ Our embed tolerance log
✅ And the mistakes we’ll never make twice

Don’t let this happen to your job.

Industry Radar

Tariff Roulette: Steel’s About to Get Bloody Again

The trade guys are rolling dice in a marble room while we’re out here trying to price beams. July 9 is the deadline. No deals and we’re staring down 50 percent hikes on the stuff that holds up buildings.
We bid the job in April. Now we’re praying the joist shop doesn’t ghost us.
This isn’t forecasting. It’s hostage negotiation.

Gavin Newsom GIF by GIPHY News

California Cuts CEQA. Permits Will Move. So Will the Lawsuits

California just gutted parts of CEQA. Wildfire breaks, water lines, and high-speed rail are getting a green light whether the neighbors like it or not. They jammed it through in a $320 billion budget deal while no one was watching.
Faster permits? Sure. Cleaner builds? Don’t count on it.
This isn't reform. It’s a speed run. And when the lawsuits hit, you better hope you’re not holding the bag.

This Months FieldSignal

What ICE raids are doing to the hands that build America, and what it reveals about us all. 

The framing crew showed up at dawn.
Sawdust in the air. Radios on.
By 8:15, the jobsite was a ghost town.

This isn’t just immigration.
It’s the paradox no one wants to say out loud.
America wants buildings. It just doesn’t want the people who build them.

In this months FieldSignal, we track the raids, the ripple effects, and the gut punch that hits when you realize the labor holding up your project is the same labor this country keeps trying to disappear.

Think this doesn’t touch you?
Take a walk through your site.
Ask yourself who’s really holding the line on your schedule, your budget, your bottom line.

Got a story, mistake, or tip?

Reply to this email. If it’s solid, I’ll feature it. With credit or without. Your call.

Until next time,

Bryan O’Donoghue

Never Unprepared