The Guy Who Orders The Trusses Is Also The Guy Who Installs Them

What actually happens when one company handles both supply and install

It's 6:47 AM on a Tuesday. Mike, one of our lead framers, is walking the fourth floor of a multi-family project in Madison. He's got his tape measure out, double checking wall layouts against the drawings. He pulls out his phone and texts our materials coordinator: "Bay 7 needs an extra header. 20-footer. Can you add it to Thursday's load?"

By 7:15, it's added to the order. By Thursday morning, it's on the truck. By Thursday afternoon, Mike's crew is setting it. Nobody made three phone calls. Nobody sent a formal change order. Nobody waited on a supplier who doesn't know the job.

That's the thing nobody talks about when they pitch "supply and install." It's not about saving money or simplifying paperwork, though those things happen. It's about the invisible coordination work that just gets done when everyone ordering, making, and installing materials works for the same company.

How This Actually Works

Most people think supply and install means one company writes the PO and another company fires the nailgun. That's not how it works at QBC.

• Our estimators spec the lumber, wall panels, and trusses.
• Our fulfillment team orders the materials and coordinates the logistics.
• Our framers, who've already built your project in several precon meetings, know what materials they need and where they need them.

Our framers also demand QBC source from only the best engineered lumber partners. They know the materials and your project like the back of their hands.

When something's wrong, they fix it before it becomes your problem. They don't call you to referee a fight between the lumber yard and the install crew. They call our fulfillment team, talk to someone who knows the job, and handle it.

The Cabinet Shop Knows The Install Crew

Here's a conversation that happened last month in our DeForest shop. Chris, one of our Trim foremen, is looking at a set of uppers for a 200-unit project. He pulls out his phone and calls Rossana, our cabinet fulfillment lead.

"These outlet openings in the cabinet backs for the microwave were cut too big. Do we have any matching skins at the shop that I can grab quick to cover up the hole?"

Chris hops in his truck, drives to the shop, and an hour later, the fix is done. No change order. No explaining the situation to someone who's never seen the job. Just a guy who knows what his crew needs because he installed the last 47 units himself.

That's not a feel-good story about teamwork. That's a Tuesday. That's how work gets done when the people making decisions have to live with the consequences.

The Templating Call That Never Happens

Standard countertop workflow looks like this: Cabinet installer finishes, calls the stone shop, schedules a template two weeks out, fabrication starts three days after template, install happens a week later. Total timeline? Three to four weeks from cabinet completion to countertops installed.

At QBC, our cabinet crew texts our stone shop when they're two units away from finishing a floor. Our templater knows because he was on the jobsite a week prior. He shows up the day after cabinets are done. Our fabrication shop starts cutting 48 hours later because they're not waiting on a template to get uploaded and reviewed and approved. Install happens within a week.

But here's the real difference. When that templater walks in, he's not just measuring for stone. He's looking at how the cabinets sit. If something's out of level, he knows before he templates. If a wall's out of square, he's already talking to the fabrication team about how to scribe it. If there's a problem, it gets solved before the stone gets cut, not after it shows up wrong.

Why? Because the guy doing the template works for the same company that set the cabinets. He's not showing up to point out someone else's mistakes. He's showing up to make sure the whole job goes smooth.

The Materials Order Nobody Argues About

Picture this. Your flooring crew shows up to a 75-unit project. They crack open the boxes and realize the luxury vinyl planks are a different batch than the first three floors. Color's slightly off. Not enough that most people would notice, but enough that units 301 and 101 don't match.

If you're working with separate companies, this turns into an ordeal. The installer blames the supplier. The supplier says they sent what was ordered. You're stuck in the middle trying to figure out who pays for replacement material and who pays for the crew's lost time, nevermind the delays in unit availability.

When QBC's flooring crew catches this, they call our materials desk. Same company. Same W-2. The conversation is three minutes long. "We need 18 more boxes from the original batch. Can you track down the lot number?" Our purchasing team makes two calls. Product shows up next day. Crew keeps moving.

No finger pointing. No he-said-she-said. Just people solving the problem because everyone's on the same team.

The FreePower Example

Last month we got certified to install FreePower wireless charging technology in countertops. It's legitimately cool tech. Charging spots built right into the quartz surface. No visible coils. No plug-in pads.

But here's what made it possible for us to offer this. Our fabrication shop is in the same building as our installation crews. When we learned how to integrate the charging modules during fabrication, our installers were literally walking through the shop watching the process. They asked questions. They learned the hookup. They figured out the installation details together.

Try coordinating that across three different companies. The stone shop needs to know exactly how the electrical rough-in should be done. The installer needs to know exactly how the modules sit in the cutout. The electrician needs to know what voltage to rough in. Everyone needs to talk to everyone. Or you just work with one company where everyone's already in the same room.

What This Means For Your Schedule

The stuff I just described doesn't sound revolutionary. That's the point. It's basic coordination work that should happen automatically but usually doesn't because everyone involved works for different companies with different priorities.

When your framing supplier doesn't know your framer's name, they're shipping material based on a PO and a delivery date. When they're short on something, they ship what they have and hope it works. When your cabinet shop doesn't talk to your installer, they build what's on the drawing and hope it fits. When your stone fabricator doesn't know the install crew, they cut what's on the template and hope it's right.

Hope is not a strategy. At QBC, we don't hope it works. We make it work because the people ordering materials, making materials, and installing materials all work for the same company. They text each other. They walk over to each other's work areas. They fix small problems before they become your big problems.

What We're Not Saying

This isn't a pitch about how much money you'll save. You might save money, you might not. That depends on the project. This isn't about how much faster we are. Sometimes we're faster because coordination is tighter. Sometimes we're the same speed as everyone else.

What we're saying is this: When you hire QBC, you're not managing a supplier relationship and an installer relationship and hoping they play nice. You're working with one company where all those people already talk to each other because they work together every day. That's it. That's the whole point.

How This Shows Up On Your Job

You probably won't notice most of this coordination work. That's kind of the idea. What you will notice is that when you call with a question, you get an answer from someone who actually knows the job. When something needs to change, it changes without a three-party conference call. When there's a problem, it gets fixed without finger pointing.

You won't get a separate invoice from the lumber yard and the framing crew. You won't coordinate between the cabinet shop and the installer. You won't play referee when the countertop doesn't fit. You'll just get one number to call, one team that shows up, and one company that owns the result.

When everyone ordering, making, and installing materials works for the same company, everything else follows from that.

Want to see how this works on your next project?

If you're planning a project in Wisconsin or Northern Illinois and you're tired of coordinating between suppliers and installers, let's talk. We handle rough carpentry, finish carpentry, cabinetry, countertops, and flooring as one integrated scope. Reach out at sales@questbuildingcorp.com or give us a call.

No sales pitch. Just a conversation about how we actually work.

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