KB Home is one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, operating in 50 markets and having built more than 700,000 homes. In northeast Florida, its Jacksonville division manages single-family and townhome construction across multiple communities and stages of development.
Keeping that work moving takes more than managing schedules and quality. Each community has environmental and safety requirements that must be addressed without slowing construction or adding unnecessary work for field teams.
For more than 20 years, HB NEXT has helped KB Home stay ahead of those demands while giving its construction teams more time to focus on building.
The Challenge: Keeping Compliance From Competing With Construction
Production homebuilding creates a constantly changing compliance environment. Communities are often at different stages of construction, while trade partners move from site to site. Field teams are already managing schedules, quality and customer commitments, so compliance cannot become another disconnected process they have to chase.
Jacksonville’s heavy rains and changing site conditions add more challenges. Richard Riddle, Senior Director of Operations for KB Home’s Jacksonville division, explained that runoff conditions can change once homes go vertical and roof water becomes concentrated. Safety requires consistent attention as crews and trade partners move through active sites.
The challenge is not simply identifying problems; KB Home also needs a reliable way to catch issues early, get them corrected, and maintain the documentation behind the work without pulling construction teams away from their core responsibilities.
The Solution: A Partnership That Expanded With KB Home’s Needs
HB NEXT’s work with KB Home began primarily around environmental compliance and expanded as the Jacksonville division’s needs grew.
HB NEXT is often already involved during development through its relationships with KB Home’s development contractors, creating continuity as projects move into vertical construction. Roughly 30 to 40 days before vertical work begins, HB NEXT prepares a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) and then continues with weekly and rain-event inspections as construction progresses.
More importantly, the work does not stop when an issue is identified. HB NEXT also handles many maintenance items that come out of those inspections, from repairing erosion control Best Management Practices (BMPs) to street sweeping and concrete washout maintenance. For many issues, the work can move directly from identification to resolution without KB Home coordinating with another vendor.
After trust in that process grew, KB Home expanded the relationship into construction safety. HB NEXT now performs monthly safety audits, provides training, supports Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and incident response, and works directly with superintendents and trade partners.
Robbie Sawyer, who supports KB Home in the field, takes a coaching-first approach. Rather than avoiding the safety consultant, superintendents bring him problems and ask for help resolving them.
Sequence XT, HB NEXT’s compliance and safety software platform, gives KB Home full visibility into that work. Field personnel can review inspection reports, track and close out action items, and access records from any device (computer, tablet, smart phone). Photo documentation adds a clear visual record of site conditions, findings and follow-up, keeping everyone aligned in real time.
The Results: More Time to Focus on Building
For KB Home, the value is not tied to any one inspection or service. It comes from having a reliable process that reduces the amount of compliance coordination its construction team has to manage.
Issues have a clearer path from identification through follow-up. Inspection records and supporting documentation remain accessible to field personnel, while local HB NEXT management can generally respond to larger concerns the same day.
Most importantly, that support gives KB Home’s team more time for the work it was hired to do.
“It frees my team up to do what they actually are good at, which is building and checking quality and dealing with the vertical construction of the new homes and town home projects,” Riddle said.
The proactive approach also helps keep smaller issues from becoming larger disruptions. Riddle could not point to a recent major erosion problem because KB Home and HB NEXT continuously communicate, identify changing conditions and adjust the response when needed.
“Very proactive,” Riddle said. “A lot of communication with the HB NEXT team.”
Client Feedback
In an industry where service providers can change frequently, the length of the KB Home and HB NEXT relationship stands out.
Riddle said he has seen erosion-control providers work with builders for six months to a year before being replaced. KB Home’s relationship with HB NEXT has lasted more than two decades because both teams communicate openly and work through issues together.
“For us, it’s been about trust, communication and loyalty on both sides. When problem areas come up, we discuss them and work toward a resolution that satisfies both parties,” Riddle said.
That trust has been reinforced year after year through consistent field support, responsive local relationships and a willingness to adapt when conditions or needs change.
When asked whether he would recommend HB NEXT to another homebuilder, Riddle’s answer was direct: “I would, and I have — multiple times over the years.”
Conclusion
The KB Home Jacksonville relationship shows the value of making compliance part of the construction process instead of a separate system around which the field team has to manage.
For more than 20 years, HB NEXT has helped KB Home respond to changing environmental and safety needs with field support, technology and local expertise. The result is a compliance process that keeps moving without demanding constant attention from KB Home’s construction team. That gives the Jacksonville division more time to focus on construction quality, schedules and customers.
Next Step
Managing compliance across multiple projects should not require your construction team to coordinate separate providers, systems and records.
HB NEXT brings environmental services, safety support and Sequence XT together to help construction teams stay ahead of compliance while keeping projects moving.
Schedule a complimentary compliance assessment to learn how HB NEXT can help you focus on building.
LOCATION
Jacksonville, FL
FIRM TYPE
Homebuilder/General Contractor
INDUSTRY
Residential Construction
ON THE WEB
kbhome.com
HB NEXT Solution for KB Home Jacksonville
Stormwater & Erosion Control
- Stormwater management documentation
- Weekly and rain-event inspections
- Municipal inspection support
- Erosion-control
Construction Safety
- Monthly jobsite safety audits
- Field coaching and corrective-action support
- Safety and first-aid training
- OSHA and incident-response support
Sequence XT
- Digital inspection records
- Photographic documentation
- Corrective-action tracking
- Mobile access to reports and records
“For us, it’s been about trust, communication and loyalty on both sides. When problem areas come up, we discuss them and work toward a resolution that satisfies both parties.”
Richard Riddle,
Senior Director of Operations
KB Home Jacksonville