Drive past any construction site, and in 30 seconds, you’ll know everything you need to about that contractor.

I learned this lesson the hard way on my first $40M highway project as a PM. Our EPC client had sky-high expectations, and we were struggling to hit production targets. To make matters worse, our newer crews weren’t used to our standards. One day, an owner’s rep called us out for an unbarricaded trench and a laydown yard that looked like a junkyard. That was it: I’d had enough.

My mistake? I’d been fixing the issues myself - adjusting barricades, marking drum locations, and picking up trash after crews had left. But cleaning up after others doesn’t solve the problem.

Instead of yelling, I took action. I drove our 2.5-mile job and made a list of every issue: trash piles, damaged barricades, uneven cones, scattered equipment. Then I showed our superintendents exactly what needed fixing. Within 24 hours, everything changed.

The owner’s rep, an old-school civil engineer, pulled me aside: “See what you’re capable of, Tristan?”

Why Clean Sites Matter

A clean jobsite tells three stories:

1. Pride - Your site is a billboard for your company. Every potential hire driving past is deciding if they want to work for you.

2. Professionalism – Like it or not, your site represents the entire industry. Owners, GC’s, Owners reps, inspectors, and the public are all watching.

3. Profit – I’ve never seen a messy site that made money, and I’ve never seen a clean site that was a complete dog. Site cleanliness predicts project success with startling accuracy.

What Excellence Looks Like

Top-tier contractors hold themselves to a higher standard. Their jobsites have:

✅ Traffic control that’s clean, undamaged, and properly spaced
✅ Zero trash piles (If the California crews I saw last month can keep a 3-mile project spotless, so can you!)
✅ No leftover “ant piles” from paving crews
✅ Turtlebacked dirt piles at day’s end
✅ Organized laydown yards
✅ Equipment parked together and kept clean
✅ Clear material storage zones
✅ Hard materials stacked on dunnage and barricaded

How to Make It Happen

The best contractors - whether it’s the big dogs we’ve all read about or the smaller outfit that just gets it - embed housekeeping into their DNA. Here’s how:

Give craft workers a voice. Let crews identify problems and propose solutions. They see things you don’t.

Use operation start cards. Review housekeeping expectations before work begins, not after.

Create visual standards. Show exactly what "clean" looks like with photos and clear guidelines.

Make cleanup continuous. Don’t leave it for the end of the shift—build it into the workflow.

Run systematic audits. Regular inspections keep accountability high and issues low.

Hold everyone accountable. No finger-pointing: each crew cleans their own work area.

The Power of Speaking Up

What you walk past, you accept. And what you accept, you encourage. That’s tacit approval.

I turned our site inspections into a challenge. Every Friday, I’d drive through making a list. The superintendents started competing to shrink my list—eventually daring me: “Bet you can’t find anything wrong today.”

Ever wish someone had lower expectations for you? Me neither.

You might be thinking: Easy for him to say from a keyboard. I hear you. But I lived this for nearly my entire career. Housekeeping is a daily effort - it takes constant attention, but it pays off.

Your site’s appearance reflects your standards, your team’s pride, and your project’s health. It starts with caring enough to speak up and never settling for “good enough.”

What’s the best housekeeping habit you’ve seen in the field? Drop a comment - let us hear what works.

When you look good, you feel good. Same goes for jobsites.

In Case You Missed It:

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The Hidden Cost of 'We'll Fix it Later'

Shawn Godwin's Journey from 25 to 1,000

Sam Walton's Playbook for Outpacing the Competition

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About the Author

Tristan Wilson is the CEO and Founder of Edgevanta. We make software that helps contractors win more work at the right price. He is a 4th Generation Contractor, construction enthusiast, ultra runner, and bidding nerd. He worked his way up the ladder at Allan Myers in the Mid-Atlantic and his family’s former business Barriere Construction before starting Edgevanta in Nashville, where the company is based. Reach out to him at [email protected]