Another Level
A thought leadership blog for F. Kenny Construction
Straight talk on commercial construction, from Frank Kenny
About the Author: A Life in Construction
During his childhood in West Norriton, he was always fascinated with how buildings went up. While other young ones chased fireflies across the Pennsylvania dusk, this one stood at the edge of a construction site, small hands gripping a chain-link fence, watching steel rise where there had been only sky. Here, in the quiet townships north of Philadelphia, we find our subject in his earliest form. Observe him closely. The fascination you see in those eyes will shape the rest of his days.
The young Frank Kenny did not yet know the words for what he was watching. Foundation. Framing. Load and span. But he understood, in the way only the truly curious do, that a building was a living thing. It began as an idea, took root in the ground, and grew upward beam by beam until it stood complete. To watch it happen was, for him, the greatest show on earth.
As the seasons turned, the fascination did not fade. It deepened. Where many drift from their childhood wonder, our subject moved toward it, drawn as surely as a river finds the sea. He came up in the trade the hard way, building custom homes, the most demanding habitat in all the construction world. Here, the finish work is measured in fractions of an inch. Here, the client lives inside the result every single day, and a crooked line or a rough edge cannot hide. It was in this unforgiving environment that the young builder learned his craft, and it was here that he grew his most important instinct: the work must hold up.
Watch now as he ventures into new territory. The lone craftsman becomes something larger. He founds his own company, F. Kenny Construction, and plants his flag in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania. From this modest home base, his range expands across greater Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley, a vast hunting ground of office fit-outs, commercial spaces, and buildings waiting to be born. The boy at the fence has become the one who builds.
But make no mistake. Frank has never left that fence behind. He carries it with him onto every jobsite. You can see it in the way he treats a space like it matters, in the way he builds with people and not just on projects. When he tells a property manager or a business owner that they will deal with one team and one schedule instead of a dozen scattered contractors, this is not a sales line. It is the promise of a creature who learned long ago that trust is the strongest material of all.
And there is one law he will not bend, not for schedule, not for budget. Safety. On his sites, every worker holds the right, and the responsibility, to stop the work when something is not safe. It is a rule written not in paperwork but in the way he runs every job. In the animal kingdom, the strongest leaders protect the herd. So it is with our subject.
Today he stands as owner and founder, a veteran of his field, plainspoken and hands-on, still explaining the craft to anyone who will listen. The fascination that first gripped a small boy in West Norriton has not dimmed with the years. It has simply built something. Look around the Delaware Valley and you will find it, standing there in steel and glass and honest work, holding up, exactly as he always promised it would.
Learning Centers and Schools: Safety, Sound, and Surfaces
School construction is different in four ways: the code treats children as a protected occupancy with stricter exiting and fire separation, the acoustics are held to a published performance standard rather than left to judgment, the finishes have to survive heavy abuse while staying non toxic and slip resistant, and the work almost always has to happen around a live building or inside a hard summer window. A commercial office buildout is judged on how it looks on opening day. A school is judged on how it performs on day one thousand.
Why do change orders happen? How do I keep them small?
a common construction hiccup that can be avoided with clear communication to the client. We already outlined how data can be your friend in laying out a case for a change order. But how and when that case is communicated might be your most important step in gaining the actual approval for the change order from your client.
Why the Lowest Bid Usually Costs You the Most
Sometimes the lowest bid is the right one. More often, it's simply the lowest number on the page.
A contractor may submit a lower price because they operate more efficiently, have long-standing supplier relationships, or understand the project well enough to avoid unnecessary costs.
But a bid can also come in low because important details were left out, allowances were underestimated, or the contractor plans to recover costs later through change orders.
The goal isn't to find the lowest bid. It's to find the most complete and realistic one.
What 'Doing It Right' Looks Like on a Jobsite
Construction is a team effort.
A framer depends on accurate layout. The glazier depends on properly framed openings. The painter depends on finished drywall. Every trade relies on the quality of the work that came before it.
That's why quality control isn't just about checking your own work. It's about making sure the next contractor can do theirs successfully.
Why Hiring Local Matters When You Build in Your Township
A local commercial contractor doesn't just know how to construct a building. They understand the townships, permitting processes, inspectors, and local requirements that keep a project moving from planning to completion.
How to Read a Construction Schedule Without a Hard Hat
Construction is a series of connected activities.
You can't install drywall before inspections are complete. Storefront can’t go in until openings are framed. Final inspections can't happen until the required work is complete.
These relationships are called dependencies, and they're one reason construction schedules shift from time to time. A delay early in the project can ripple into several later activities.
That doesn't always mean the final completion date changes—but it's something your contractor should be actively managing.
What Preconstruction Is, and Why It Saves You Money
People hear the word preconstruction and figure it is a fancy name for a delay before the real work starts. It is the opposite. Preconstruction is where the real money is saved, and I will tell you why.
What questions should I ask before hiring a commercial contractor? How do I vet a general contractor?
Before you sign, ask these questions. Frank Kenny shares the questions that separate a contractor who will finish your commercial project from one who will not.
General Contractor, Construction Manager, or Design-Build: Which One Do You Need?
When people start a commercial project, they run into three terms fast: general contractor, construction manager, and design-build. They sound like the same thing wearing different hats. They are not. The one you pick changes how the job is priced, who holds the risk, and who you call when something goes sideways. Here is the plain version.
What Does a Commercial General Contractor Actually Do?
Somebody asked me the other day what a general contractor actually does. Fair question. The title gets thrown around a lot, and if you have never run a construction project, it is not obvious where the GC fits in. So let me lay it out plain.