Company
Homeowners see the price on their phone. Licensed crews do the work in proven steps, and each payment comes due only on proof. Pros, operators and software run on the same system.
We're lowering what a finished, checked job costs, so more of that work gets done.
Materials, skilled labor and permits are real costs. Most of the rest of a home project's price pays for coordination around the work, such as selling it, estimating it, scheduling it, buying for it one trip at a time and chasing payment. Software can carry that work, and every dollar it removes can go back into the price.
A typical home job passes through a salesperson, an estimator, suppliers, subcontractors and a collections process, each with its own records and its own margin.
4 Seasons puts the whole job on one record, the Work Spec, from the first photo to the final payment. The price, the parts, the crew, the checks and the money all hang off it. Homeowners order from it, crews work from it, operators run their companies on it and software orders work through it.
Markets open for work and markets opening, from the markets we run.
For a price on work at your home, start a request. For anything else, call or write.
Most construction projects depend on several independent systems. Customers find contractors, contractors source workers and materials, schedules are coordinated separately, and completed work is evaluated through processes that vary widely between companies. This creates substantial differences in cost, timing, and quality. 4 Seasons is developing a more integrated operating model, beginning with residential construction and home improvement.
This plan sets out five priorities. For each one it explains why it matters to the cost and reliability of construction work, what makes it difficult, and where it stands today. It contains no forecasts.
Two questions decide what we work on. The first is whether a change lowers the full cost of producing a finished, checked piece of work, counting coordination, rework and callbacks along with materials and labor. The second is whether it brings more work through 4 Seasons. More work means crews travel less between jobs, materials can be bought for many jobs together, and every job adds to what we know about the next one. When a change does neither, it is probably not a priority.
Make construction work easier to request, specify, estimate and manage.
Why it matters
Before any work starts, a customer usually has to find contractors, wait for site visits, compare estimates written in different ways and coordinate the schedule. That costs the customer time, and it costs contractors money as well, because unpaid estimates and lost bids are paid for in the prices of the jobs that are won.
A request that arrives with photos, a clear scope and a price the customer can accept reduces that cost on both sides. It also brings more work through 4 Seasons, because a customer who gets a clear answer quickly is more likely to go ahead.
Risks and constraints
Many jobs cannot be priced from photos. Hidden damage, older wiring and unclear scope need a person on site, and a price fixed too early will be wrong. A fast answer that later changes does more harm than a slower, accurate one.
Customers also have to trust a company they may never have met in person, with work on their own home.
Where it stands
Listed repairs have fixed prices and can be booked online. Many other repairs can be priced from a short video, with a visit when the video is not enough. Bathroom and deck projects are priced online and the price is fixed after measurement. Kitchens are priced at a design session.
Document repeatable jobs and develop methods that produce consistent results.
Why it matters
Most construction work is treated as custom even when it repeats. Two bathrooms of similar size need much the same steps, materials and checks. When those are written down, labor can be planned, materials can be ordered ahead of the job, training can follow the same method, and results can be compared from one job to the next.
Standard methods are what make it possible to measure the cost of a repeated outcome and then lower it. They also make quality easier to check, because the standard is written before the work begins.
Risks and constraints
Homes vary. Older houses hide problems, and a method written for one condition can fail in another. Standardizing too far limits what customers can choose, and standardizing too early fixes a method in place before it has been proven.
Building codes and inspection practices also differ between jurisdictions, so a method has to allow for local rules.
Where it stands
Our bathroom and deck packages have a written plan for each step, and procedure cards set the tolerances that crews and trainees work to. Each step is photographed and reviewed before it counts as done. Methods for other kinds of work are being written as we do more of it.
Train and qualify skilled workers, connected to real production demand.
Why it matters
Skilled labor is the main limit on how much construction work gets done, and becoming skilled takes years. Most of that learning happens informally, on the job, with little record of what a person has shown they can do.
Training tied to written standards and real production work can shorten the time it takes someone to become productive, and gives them a record of their work that others can check. Steady work matters as much as training. People stay in a trade when there is enough work to keep them busy and paid fairly for what they produce.
Risks and constraints
Training costs money before it produces anything, and trained people can leave. Licensing rules for plumbing, electrical and heating and air work set experience requirements that no training program can shorten on its own.
Recruiting more people than there is work for would be unfair to them, so training has to grow with real demand.
Where it stands
Independent professionals take work through our network in a closed beta. The Academy's training software, with procedure cards, practice tools and a skills record, is built. Classes, cohorts and supervised field placement are in development. Supervised hours on real jobs are recorded in a form an apprenticeship program could use, and registration of such a program is in progress.
Improve purchasing and logistics, and eventually make selected components through local manufacturing or prefabrication.
Why it matters
Materials are a large share of the cost of most projects, and getting them to the site at the right time matters as much as their price. Crews lose hours to supply-house trips, missing parts and returns.
Buying for many jobs together lowers unit cost. Standard selections reduce waste and ordering errors. Preparing each job's materials before it starts keeps skilled people working. Some components that repeat across many jobs may eventually be built off site, under controlled conditions, faster than they can be built on site.
Risks and constraints
Holding stock ties up money and space, and supplier relationships take time and volume to build. Manufacturing needs a great deal of capital, and companies that built factories before they had standardized products and steady demand have failed.
We will not build production capacity until the methods and the volume justify it.
Where it stands
Our software produces a materials list from each job's scope, and ordering from those lists through supplier accounts is being brought into use. Our packages use a defined set of material selections. Preparing materials for each job ahead of time is in development. Local manufacturing and prefabrication are long-term objectives, and no facility exists today.
Build software that supports the full workflow and makes future automation possible.
Why it matters
Each priority above depends on information moving reliably between people. What the customer asked for, the scope, the price, who is qualified to do the work, the materials, the schedule and whether the work passed review all have to travel with the job. When that information lives in separate systems or in people's heads, some of it is lost at each handoff.
Software that carries one record through the whole job reduces that loss and produces the data needed to see where time and money go. Automating any step depends on this. A step that is not recorded and measured cannot be automated responsibly.
Risks and constraints
Software built away from the work tends to describe the work wrongly. Systems that try to do everything at once are slow to build and hard to change. Field conditions are untidy, and people will keep making many of the decisions for a long time.
We build for the people who use the software every day, and we treat automated decisions as something each step has to earn, with people reviewing the results.
Where it stands
Our staff, customers and crews use software we built for requests, pricing, scheduling, materials, field documentation and review. The Work Protocol, a published format and API for describing physical work, is available to developers. Automated checks of completed work are being tested against people's decisions and are off unless switched on for a kind of step.
The priorities describe one system. A customer's request becomes a written scope and price, which determines the materials and the qualified people needed, which feed the schedule, the field work and the review of the finished work. What is learned from each job goes back into the next estimate.
01
Requests from homeowners, property managers and businesses, with photos, video and the property's details.
Available now
02
A request becomes a scope, a price, a materials list and a written procedure.
Available now
03
Qualified people are offered the work their credentials and record fit.
Available now
04
Materials are chosen from standard selections, ordered and prepared for the job.
In development
05
Crews do the work in steps, following the procedure, with photos at each step.
Available now
06
People review each step's evidence. Completion records and warranty follow.
Available now
07
Outcomes feed the next estimate, labor plan, materials choice and procedure.
In development
We will judge progress by the records the work produces. Each priority should, over time, lower the full cost of a finished and checked result, or bring more work through 4 Seasons, or both.
Where something we try does neither, we will change it. When there is verified progress to report, it will be published with the evidence behind it.