Nobody needs to tell the construction industry about a housing slowdown.

One Colorado Springs general contractor that typically builds up to four custom homes a year has just one on the drawing board in 2007.

A floor-covering company laid off two work crews because they specialized in home tile installation.

And a manufacturer of steel floor supports and ornamental railings has accelerated an earlier push toward more commercial work because of the housing slump.

The housing slowdown means some contractors, and particularly subcontractors — such as electricians, plumbers and drywallers — are following the money.

They’re adopting new business strategies, trimming their residential workers and stepping up efforts to get out into the community — all with the hope of landing more commercial work and offsetting the housing slump that’s costing them money.

It’s not always a smooth transition. Some commercial subcontractors question whether their residential counterparts are as qualified, and not every general contractor will take on residential subs. Still, local building regulators say residential workers doing commercial projects hasn’t been a problem.

But more commercial work is what some subs are after, and the numbers explain why.

Spending on the construction of homes, town houses, condominiums and the like has plummeted $155.1 million — or nearly 28 percent — during the first seven months of 2007 in El Paso County compared with the same period last year, according to Pikes Peak Regional Building Department building-permit figures.

By contrast, spending so far this year on construction of shopping centers, banks, restaurants, government buildings and hospitals has soared by more than $76 million, or 36 percent, from the same time in 2006.

Big-ticket office buildings for FedEx, T. Rowe Price and a couple of defense contractors are helping to drive the increase.

“Up until last year, my largest customer was a home builder in town,” said Kevin Craft, president and owner of Rocky Mountain Metalcraft in the Springs.

“This year, I’m not sure he’d be in the lower part of the top 10 of my whole customer base.”

Craft’s company makes steel floor supports, railings, gates, balconies and other items.

A few years ago, Craft said he learned it required more people and administrative work — ordering materials, tracking them and scheduling work — for residential projects than commercial work. That’s why he began shifting to commercial work, where he could use fewer people and realize bigger profits.

But the housing slowdown “just reinforced the decision,” Craft said, and the yearlong slump is another reason he’s pursuing more commercial work. His workload is now 60 percent to 70 percent commercial; a few years ago, the percentages favored residential.

Art C. Klein Construction Inc., a Colorado Springs general contractor for 37 years, is building one custom home this year instead of the three to four it usually does, said vice president Rick Cihak.

The company hasn’t abandoned residential work and has several remodeling projects, he said. Its current commercial projects include construction of a downtown city parking garage and Colorado Springs Airport parking lot canopies that are part of a new terminal entrance.

“But as far as new residential, it’s pretty much stopped,” Cihak said of his company’s custom-home building.

Even so, Cihak said, he receives maybe 15 to 20 resumes a week, and two or three phone calls a day from construction workers with residential backgrounds. He tells them the company has no work for them.

To offset lost residential work, company officials make a point of getting out into the community — attending social and charity functions, contacting developers to ask what projects they’ve got coming up and keeping in touch with past clients, Cihak said. A contact made at an American Heart Association event by Joan Klein, coowner and wife of Art Klein, helped the company snag a contract to build a bank in northern Colorado Springs, he said.

Over the past year, D & J Quality Electric laid off 12 of its 40 electricians because they specialized in residential work, said owner and vice president Dennis Hathcock.

The company has since hired six electricians, all with commercial backgrounds, he said. D & J’s workload, which used to be split between residential and commercial, now is about 60 percent commercial.

“You have to have well-rounded guys,” Hathcock said.

At Stan’s Floor Covering LLC, the company’s work was typically split between commercial and residential, which included custom homes. Now, the company does about 70 percent of its work — installing carpeting, vinyl and floor tiles — in commercial buildings, said manager Teresa Clemans. That’s why it let go two work crews, totaling six to seven people, who did only residential tile work.

Many of the projects now coming across her desk are from contractors for commercial jobs, Clemans said.

“I need the guys who know how to do everything,” she said.

But some residential subcontractors who want to do more commercial projects can’t just knock on the door of a giant contractor and expect to get work.

Denver-based Gerald H. Phipps Inc. requires subcontractors meet tough standards on liability insurance, safety and other items that are part of a 13-page agreement, said Chris White, special projects manager in Phipps’ Colorado Springs office and vice president of the El Paso County Contractors Association.

“There are general contractors who hire subs on a handshake,” White said. “We do everything with a subcontractor agreement.”

As more contractors and subcontractors seek commercial projects, some subcontractors worry about unqualified workers wiring buildings or trying to install plumbing.

Restaurant plumbing, for example, requires a strong knowledge of commercial building codes, said Landmark Plumbing owner Dave Trepasso, whose company does only commercial work.

Kitchen equipment and appliances don’t all use the same sinks and drains, and plumbers who don’t know the difference will flunk their Pikes Peak Regional Building Department inspections and spend more money to do the work again, he said.

“There’s a lot more work involved in the commercial applications,” Trepasso said.

Brad Foster, president of Foster Electric, said safety is his biggest concern; he suspects some residential electricians violate federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules, such as failing to conduct meetings to go over on-site safety precautions.

“You get on some of these bigger commercial projects, and they’re not wearing hard hats and not having having safety meetings,” Foster said. “Not only do they not bear the financial burden, they’re putting their workers in harm’s way.”

Hathcock of D & J Quality Electric said his company follows OSHA and other rules, but small companies — those with maybe one to five electricians — probably don’t.

“They can’t afford a safety coordinator,” Hathcock said. “They’re busy running the day-to-day operations. I would almost bet 100 percent of them don’t have any safety meetings.”

State regulations require at least one journeyman — a veteran electrician with commercial experience — to oversee three apprentices who don’t have the same level of training, said Dan Wilson, executive director of the southern Colorado chapter of the Independent Electrical Contractors Inc., a trade association and electricians’ school.

His organization has heard occasionally about some electrical subs that don’t have the correct ratio of veterans to apprentices, Wilson said. If so, however, they typically get caught by Pikes Peak Regional Building or they’re reported by competitors to state regulators, he said.

Residential subcontractors doing more commercial work hasn’t posed problems when it comes to safety or quality of work, Regional Building Department officials say.

In looking at how often it rejects work done by contractors, subcontractors and homeowners, the Regional Building Department has tossed out 3 percent fewer jobs this year than last year, said Bob Croft, Regional Building’s operations manager.

Mechanical contractors and subcontractors who hold only residential licenses are barred from doing commercial work. Electricians and plumbers, meanwhile, are regulated by the state, and their state licenses allow them to do both types of work, Croft said.

But as long as residential contractors and subcontractors follow plans prepared by design professionals, their commercial work should be fine, he said.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0228 or rich.laden@gazette.com