Justin Williams — Construction ID: fixing the 13% rework tax in building
Construction ID — capturing building information from design to post-construction in one central platform
Construction ID by Wiseworking is a SaaS platform that manages project documentation, quality forms, and reporting across every phase of a building's lifespan. In this episode, I chat with founder Justin Williams about why building a property is so bewilderingly expensive and inefficient.
According to research by Deakin University, at least 13% of the total cost of a building over its lifespan is burnt on rework—fixing defects, re-attending issues, or fixing bad fixes from years prior. Justin explains how centralising communication and data from design through to operations helps tier-one developers like Cbus Property avoid information silos, spot delays before they blow out, and finally bring some sanity to construction costs.
What’s in this episode
(02:58): Justin Williams gives us the Construction ID elevator pitch for managing the built environment across a building's entire lifespan.
(04:04): The actual problem: information silos, disparate apps, and hunting through emails for golden information.
(06:12): Justin drops the Deakin University statistic: rework accounts for 10% to 13% of a building's total cost over its lifespan.
(08:59): Where Construction ID starts: from design and tendering all the way through construction to post-building operations.
(11:37): Why construction data stays dark and sits in people's heads instead of being digitised.
(13:26): Going from a 2011 consultancy to building Construction ID during COVID lockdowns as a bootstrapped team of seven.
(14:35): Justin names some of their clients, including Cbus Property and Burbank Australia.
(17:42): Kylie's aha moment: maybe proptech needs to sell the value to the money—financiers and insurers—rather than builders.
(23:51): How a small Victorian team handles offshore development while keeping quality management strictly onshore.
(25:06): Three hard lessons from bootstrapping: underpromise and overdeliver, never rely on good faith without a contract, and build systems over single solutions.
(29:52): Bringing on co-founder Craig Broadbent to handle commercials and contracts after learning the hard way about personnel turnover.
(34:16): Why tech isn't here to replace people—it's time to stop viewing digitalisation as a threat and start collaborating.
(37:30): The next five years: how AI and machine learning will interrogate data to predict and prevent rework before it happens.
(40:00): The roadmap ahead: augmented reality, AI data analysis, and exploring partnerships in robotic building.
In their words
“Software currently services a single phase of the building. For example, tendering or construction. Construction ID services all the phases of the entire lifespan of the building with detailed project and document management forms and reporting.” — Justin Williams
“And what Construction ID does with that visibility is avoids surprises. And it's not like someone isn't there to clap you on the hand and penalise you. It's so that it's seen early, and then you can approach it as a team, so you can make the decisions before the problems actually occur.” — Justin Williams
“People see technology as something that will replace you or make you redundant. They don't actually see it as something that's there to actually assist you, and assist you in a positive way.” — Justin Williams
About the guest
Justin Williams is the founder of Construction ID by Wiseworking, a Victorian-based SaaS platform for the built environment that manages documentation, quality forms and reporting across a building's whole life cycle. Having previously worked in property and construction including at tier-one builder Probuild, Justin brings deep industry experience to solving construction inefficiencies. He bootstrapped the company alongside co-founder Craig Broadbent, winning recognition in the Proptech Awards.
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