Construction consulting for general contractors, specialty contractors, and developers in California
Rework, waiting on answers, and extra work that never gets billed usually trace back to how information moves on the job. I find where it's breaking down on your project and help your team fix it in the field.
Founded by Stephen Dostal after 10+ years on major California construction projects.
Industry research puts the time lost to rework, conflict, and searching for project information at about 14 hours per person, every week. On the job, it sounds like this.
What's usually behind it: a look-ahead that doesn't match the field, and crews waiting on answers, material, or another trade. With skilled labor this hard to find, every idle hour costs more than it used to.
Where I start: walk the job against the schedule, find what crews are actually waiting on, and build a three-week plan the foremen agree to.
What's usually behind it: conflicts between drawings and trades that nobody caught before rough-in or the pour, or a crew working off an old revision.
Where I start: review the next phase across trades before it's built, and flag conflicts while they're still cheap to fix.
What's usually behind it: field-directed changes done before the paperwork is signed, T&M tickets lost or never signed, and change orders submitted weeks late.
Where I start: trace extra work from the field direction to the invoice, find where it leaks, and set up a change process your field team will actually use.
What's usually behind it: RFIs and submittals with no owner and no due date, answers buried in texts and email, and a PM spending evenings chasing paperwork instead of running the job.
Where I start: map where questions get stuck, give every open item an owner and a date, and cut the admin that keeps your PM at a desk.
What's usually behind it: open items with no single owner, commitments between trades that nobody tracks, and issues that roll forward until they become closeout problems.
Where I start: turn the weekly meeting into a commitments log, with who, what, and by when, reviewed every week until it's closed.
Source: FMI and PlanGrid, Construction Disconnected, a 2018 survey of nearly 600 construction leaders.
For more than ten years I've worked on some of California's largest and most demanding projects. I've seen jobs lose weeks to a question nobody answered, and lose money on work nobody wrote up.
That's the perspective I bring: practical fixes that your superintendents, foremen, and PMs will actually use, because they're built around how the job really runs.
When a job is in trouble
You're behind, over budget, or both, and you need someone to find the cause fast. I review the schedule, RFI log, change order log, and daily reports, spend time with your PM and foremen, and pinpoint the few issues costing you the most.
Ask about thisBefore you build
The plans are out and you want conflicts found now, not during rough-in. I review drawings across trades for clashes, sequencing and access problems, long-lead items, and scope gaps that tend to turn into change orders.
Ask about thisWhen every job has the same headaches
Different project, same problems: late RFIs, lost T&M tickets, PMs buried in admin. I map how information moves between field and office, fix the workflows that keep breaking, and automate repetitive work like daily-report summaries and RFI follow-ups.
Ask about thisAI Automation: see it work
When you're up on a roof or under a house, you can't always answer the phone, and most callers won't leave a message. They just call the next company. Watch a real call come in and see what happens automatically.
The caller gets a text from your business number right away, so they wait for you instead of calling your competitor.
You get the caller's number and a link to their voicemail, wherever you are.
Missed calls and voicemails go into a simple spreadsheet automatically. No data entry, nothing forgotten.
Set up on your existing business line in about a day. See pricing
AI Automation plans
I set up and run simple automations on the phone, email, and spreadsheet tools you already use, whether that's Gmail and Google Sheets or Outlook and Excel. One monthly price covers setup support, monitoring, fixes, and changes as your business grows. Email replies are never sent until you approve them.
For contractors who can't grab the phone on a roof, under a house, or behind the wheel.
$50/month
+ $245 one-time setup
For trades and remodelers who lose jobs to slow follow-up.
$297/month
+ $500 one-time setup
For builders and GCs whose PMs are buried in admin.
$497/month
+ $500 one-time setup
Have a different task you're tired of doing by hand?
Quoted
Setup from $500
3-month minimum, then month to month. Cancel with 30 days' notice.
Everything runs in your own Google or Microsoft 365 account. You keep it all if you cancel.
Software costs, like AI usage or texting fees, are billed to you directly and listed before we start.
Missed Call Text Back works on its own or alongside any plan. It uses a dedicated texting number, and the phone carrier's number and text fees (usually under $15 a month for a small contractor) are billed to you directly.
Time on site with your superintendent and foremen, plus the documents that show what's really happening.
Each problem traced to where it starts, with an estimate of what it's costing you in days and dollars.
A short list of changes with owners and dates, put in place alongside your team.
I check back to confirm the fixes held, and adjust anything that didn't.
All three. General contractors bring me in to get a job back on track, specialty contractors to stop losing money on changes and coordination, and developers for an independent read on plans or a project in trouble. I work for whoever hires me, and I'll tell you up front if there's a conflict with another party on the job.
A construction manager runs your project; I don't. Software organizes information, but it doesn't fix why that information is late or wrong. I find the specific problems on your job, fix the process behind them with your team, and use the tools you already have unless something new would genuinely help.
No. I work around your schedule. Most of my time on site is walking and listening, and the people I need most, usually your PM and superintendent, I need an hour or two at a time.
No. The goal is to remove what's getting in their way. They know the job; I bring an outside view and time they don't have.
Yes. Smaller contractors often feel these problems the most, because there's less margin to absorb a bad job.
The Field Diagnostic starts at $2,500, a fixed fee agreed before any work starts. Larger or more complex projects are quoted up front. Anything beyond the diagnostic is scoped and priced in writing first, so there are no surprises.
Real quote, one to three sentences, about a specific thing Stephen did and what changed.
Stephen Dostal
Founder
I'm Stephen Dostal. I've spent more than ten years on construction projects across California, and I've seen how much time and money gets lost to problems that could have been caught early.
I started Dostal Consulting to bring that field experience to the contractors and developers who need it, without the overhead or the jargon. You work with me directly, from the first call to the final check.
A few lines is enough. Here's what happens next:
Stephen will reply personally. If it's urgent, call directly.
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