About eight out of ten entrepreneurs in the construction sector experienced more problems than in previous years. Their schedule goes haywire. Work was delayed by an average of three to four weeks, with peaks of up to eight weeks or more, says Bouwunie. In addition, business managers had to put their workers on temporary unemployment for more days, and they saw their turnover fall.
Last winter there were also more frost days than in previous years, according to the sector federation. “More precisely, fifteen days in Flanders. In the 2021-2022 we counted only two, the winter before eight and in the winter of 2019-2020 five”.
“The construction companies are doing everything they can to make up for the delays as soon as things get better (…) but there are only 24 hours in a day. Customers will therefore have to be a little more patient,” says Bouwunie. At the same time, the organization qualifies that there were much wetter and harsher winters in a more distant past. “So we shouldn’t dramatize.”