Archive for the ‘Your Project’ Category
Did you know that when you are interviewing a contractor, they are often interviewing you too?
Monday, June 7th, 2010Written by Holly C. Bertsch.
Originally posted on Building Moxie… The Blog. What she has to say is just so important for customers to remember when looking for a contractor — whether for a new project or a remodel or repair — that I’ve reprinted it here with her permission.
Did you know that when you are interviewing a contractor, they are often interviewing you too?
It works both ways, much like a job interview should. Unless said contractor is desperate for work, they are often checking out your project and making a mental decision on whether they want to take it or not. By asking questions along with the usual first time formalities of an initial meeting, your contractor is drawing conclusions about your project, and how you, as a consumer, would be to work for. And believe me, I have turned down high paying jobs simply because a prospect did not seem as though they would be easy to work for (more on that later). I am not saying that I want a person to be a pushover, just accepting anything that we do, but I do want some understanding and flexibility — because without these things my job would be nearly impossible.
Another thing we look for in potential projects is: Is it even feasible? Are you thinking you can have champagne on a beer budget? Are you wanting to turn your only outdated 5′x8′ bathroom into a spa retreat (which we can do, if you are prepared for some serious inconveniences)? Are you wanting some HGTV miracle makeover to happen with no planning and in a very short time frame? Are you wanting to complete some of the project yourself, and are you capable of doing it in a skilled and timely manner? And . . . the most important, are you desperate to have this work done, now, no questions asked, no planning, no budget considerations? These all are big red flags to us. A good contractor works with time, planning, budget, and your dreams to make your project a complete success.
A well respected contractor also looks for problem customers. I am not talking about the type of customer who wants to stay informed and be really involved in the process. I am talking about the customer who wants to “run” a project, or considers themselves a general contractor. The one who wants to buy every single two by four and basically seems to think they know how to, well, run a project. These people usually have full time jobs, or are semi-retired, and fancy themselves as experts because they may have even “overseen” the building of their own home. They often demand a lower rate because they feel the “general contracting fees” should be waived.
We typically do not want to work with someone on a “contract basis” and/or someone who wants to be their own GC. This is usually because we end up wasting a lot of time doing their job as the General Contractor for them, in other words — scheduling deliveries, running to the store for materials, and dealing with otherwise poor planning on their part. We have been doing this a long time and we know what needs to be done, when and by whom. If you want our particular skill set, you can feel free to hire us at our company rate by the hour as sub-contractors for your project. Just know though that it may end up costing you even more, because we exactly know how to make a job run efficiently. After all, we do this every day. The amateur general contractor-type usually rubs a good renovation contractor the wrong way. (Remind me — I need to write a whole new entry about this alone, so forgive me for venting in this paragraph! –Holly)
What we look for usually is a customer who is genuinely interested in what will be going on during a project, has questions initially and along the way, and is willing to grant some type of confidence in us. It is a short-term partnership that is formed to reach your final goals, as well as ours. We want to see your project through to completion, to your full satisfaction, and with a full payment at the end because we stuck to your budget. Can you begin by relating your wishes and dreams to us, but still be willing to accept advice and realities?
A good general contractor will want to “feel out” an initial customer during a few meetings to determine if this is a customer they want to be working with. A not-so-good contractor may be all smiles, wanting to jump on whatever job you have – right away. This not-so-good contractor in general may also be a little too over-enthusiastic about your work. I am not saying that it is bad to have a person who is excited about your project, because we often get excited about certain types of work, but if they seem to be desperate, they may not be the contractor for you. A good contractor is usually booked at least a month to six weeks out or more. There may be extenuating circumstances when they are not, but remember, a good renovation takes planning and . . . time.
A good contractor will be looking at you, while you are looking at them. They will qualify you as a potential client. Sometimes, a contractor will not call you back or answer your emails. I have heard this complaint from customers of ours before. They call a few professionals, and never get a call back or they meet with said professionals and never hear from them again. Maybe the problem is your expectations or your attitude? Maybe they are just really bad contractors? Maybe you need to call more professional contractors. Or you can call us, no matter where you live, and we will give you our “always free advice” because we are good, honest, and receptive remodelers.
And this is my two cents.
What The Lead Law Means To You
Monday, April 19th, 2010On Thursday, April 22, 2010 the new Federal Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP) law became the law of the land. Much has been written about it, and most of what has been written is pointed at industry professionals. So, what does the RRP law mean to you, our customers and property owners.
It means a lot!
Are you affected?
If you own a building that was constructed prior to 1978, the law applies to you and will touch on almost everything you have done, from flooring to repainting to plumbing. Only jobs covering less than 6 SF (six square feet) on the interior and 20 SF (20 square feet) on the exterior are exempt.
Jobs that fall under RRP jurisdiction must be performed by a “registered company” and a “Certified Lead Renovator” (CLR), and you must be provided a copy of Renovate Right: Important Lead Hazard Information for Families, Child Care Providers, and Schools (PDF), and sign for receipt of the pamphlet. (The duties of the CLR are identified in 40 CFR 745.90(b). You can read the regulation here.)
What does this mean? Well, that’s a bit gray. It seems to mean that, unless your job site has been certified to be lead free, not only must the general contractor you hire be “registered” (with the EPA) and use a “Certified Lead Renovator”, it also seems that the firms s/he subcontracts with must be registered etc.—unless they’re not disturbing lead paint or dust. So for instance, if the general contractor clears away all contaminated dry wall, s/he could then hire a non-CLR plumber to come in and re-plumb that area. But if the plumber has to remove contaminated dry wall, then the plumber too must be a CLR. The difficulty is in the wording of the language. The square foot rule seems to be a trigger for the lead safe work practices, not the requirement that the firm be registered and the workers trained.
Owners of rentals should take special notice: Not only does the CLR have to keep certain records to prove they have complied with the law, you do too. You must provide your tenants with copies of the Renovate Right (PDF) pamphlet, and have them sign for it. I personally think you should also request copies of all lead practices compliance check lists and tests performed by your contractor for your own legal protection. Reputable firms should be more than willing cooperate as it’s in their best interests too!
Also, you cannot opt out! As originally written, Congress allowed property owners to opt out of complying with the RRP by signing a sworn statement that there were no children or pregnant women living in, or visiting, the building. But last year the EPA, the Sierra Club, the New York City Coalition to End Lead Poisoning, and others sued for stricter enforcement—and won. The EPA website says it has:
propose[ed] to expand lead-safe work practices and other protective requirements for renovation and painting work involving lead paint to cover most pre-1978 housing, and after certain renovation, repair, and painting preparation activities are performed to require renovation firms to perform quantitative dust testing to achieve dust-lead levels that comply with EPA’s regulatory standards. Renovations on the exteriors of public and commercial buildings will also be proposed to be covered and EPA will evaluate whether renovations in the interior of these buildings create lead-based paint hazards.
Whether the opt out rule is really gone or not seems to be something of a debate. However, you can get around the law by doing it yourself. Obviously the EPA highly recommends you follow the guidelines set forth in their Renovate Right (PDF) pamphlet. It is also recommended that you call the National Lead Information Center at 1-800-424-LEAD (5323) and ask for more information on how to work safely in a home with lead-based paint. (See 40 CFR 745.82. You can read it here.)
How will RRP compliance effect my job?
Obviously, it depends. If the site of a proposed job can be certified to be lead free, then there will be no impact at all. On some jobs the impact to those using the building will be minimal. This is especially true if there is easy direct access to the job site. On other jobs, however, the impact can be pretty dramatic. The EPA recommends, and your contractor may insist that:
- Alternative bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen arrangements be made if work is occurring in those areas of a home.
- Occupants use a different entrance to the building than that of the contractor. In fact, the entire work area and its communication with the outside should be kept separate from rest of the building as much as possible.
- You remove all furniture from the job site. Covering it up is likely not going to be acceptable—save perhaps for tables and other hard finished furniture with no drawers.
- Air ducts from HVAC equipment be disconnected from the system.
- For really invasive jobs where containment can’t be guaranteed: That you move out! (If you run a child care facility, it is highly recommended that you not only close the facility during construction, but that you implement all of the above in addition to closing.)
What’s this going to cost me?
The EPA claims all of this is only going to cost you between $8 and $167 per job. As usual, things out here in the real world look a lot different than they do inside those government cubicles. Little by little state General Contracting Associations are coming up with numbers and they’re not good. Estimates start at around $500 for a small kitchen remodel and go up to as high as 30% of the cost of a job. Which means RRP could add as much as $6,000 to a $20,000 job.
But that’s just the direct cost the contractor must add to the job. Then there are the indirect costs to you, such as: temporary lodgings, meals out, storage fees for furniture, down time to your business, and so on.
So, what do you think?
Thanks for asking. For those who don’t know: I’m a green design/builder. I’ve been around for thirty years, and I’ve spent more than my share of time in D.C. I could give tours through the underground tunnels beneath the capital.
I’ve been pretty vocal about my belief that this law is bad, bad, bad, and should be repealed. Not because it’s intent is wrong. Not because we should ignore lead paint and its related health issues, but because:
A) It probably won’t be enforced. The EPA has no funding for enforcement. It is my understanding that they are currently lobbying Congress for the necessary funding to open enforcement offices around the country. Given that the deficit is rapidly becoming the crisis de jour, I doubt they’ll get it. So in the end, responsible builders will follow the rules; the hacks will continue to be hacks and get away with it. Therefore, nothing will change; we’re no safer than we were. We’ve just spent more money and forced responsible contractors to take on more liability.
B) If the EPA does manage to get funding for enforcement it will probably make things worse rather than better. Like all Federal agencies, it’s a huge, top (management) heavy agency with no experience in construction, and no stake in local communities and their businesses. Its relationship with contractors will be adversarial, rather than solution oriented like that of the local building inspectors. (If you’ve ever had to deal with the IRS or the SSA then you know what I’m talking about.) Over time, EPA harassment can only drive up the cost of doing business and guess what: You, the customer, will be picking up the tab.
C) The States already have hazardous material mitigation and containment programs in place. Rolling a lead program into those systems would cost us (as taxpayers) almost nothing. And for that “nothing” we would have gotten a real mitigation and containment program with meaningful involvement and real enforcement through the contractors and agencies already doing that very work.
Now it’s time for you to tell me what you think. Have I forgotten something? Leave a comment and let me know. Agree? Disagree? Let me hear!
Warning! Bids Gone Wild!
Monday, December 28th, 2009When the quote range on your job runs from $3,000 to $75,000 you’re in trouble. I actually got an email from an individual with that big of a spread for one, single job. He was using the spread to justify his amusement at how architects price jobs based on a percentage of the cost of construction.
He saw the spread of the bids he had received for his job as making his point. I saw something completely different in his example.
First, I saw a bid spread of 400%, which means total chaos. Either there were no construction documents what-so-ever, or they were little better than napkin drawings. Often the cause of such chaotic bidding is a complete lack of construction documents. The customer walks each bidder around the job site pointing here and there, explaining “exactly what they want.” Unfortunately, those explanations often vary wildly from one bidder to the next, so each bidder leaves with a different idea about the scope of work.
Second, I saw a customer who wanted to appear more knowledgeable about the building industry than they really were, which blinded them to the warning flags the bid spread should have sent up.
If all bidders are getting the exact same information about the scope of work, the normal spread in a group of bids should be around 25%. Most of this spread represents differences in each company’s overhead costs, and an assessment of risk involved in doing the job, which the estimator builds into the price. A smaller fraction will be made up of differences in the desired profit margin and crew efficiency. The actual underlying costs remain pretty much the same for all bidders. Pay scales run within the same range, and in most communities the bidders will all be buying their materials from the same suppliers.
So what do you do if you have your job bid and the results are wild? Take a good look at your job. Ask yourself these three questions and consider the solutions:
- Do you have as set of construction documents? If not, this may be a sign that you need to spend the extra money to have some drawn up by a professional. Depending on the size and complexity of the job, you might also consider hiring a professional to manage your job and advocate for you. A construction manager can sometimes save you far more than they cost.
- Did everyone get the same information? If you didn’t have a set of drawings and specifications to hand all your bidders, did you work off of an outline? Unstructured “walk around tours” are nice and all, but you have to make sure you show the same things, and make the same points, to each bidder.
- Did you use the bidding process as an opportunity to gain information about your job? This is a really common practice. And it’s a mistake! Collect information first. Decide exactly what you want done. Pay to have construction documents drawn up if need be. Then get bids on those documents.
Once you’ve identified and corrected the problem(s), you’ll have to go through another round of bidding. Responses from the first set of contractors is likely to be mixed. Working up a bid is a lot of work. It therefore costs money for the contractor to do each and every one. So some will happily come and re-bid the job, others will decline. Be prepared. (This is one instance where a construction manager can be a big help.)
But I can guarantee, if you utilize the tools above, the results will be well worth the time, effort, and money in the quality of bids you receive, and therefore in the quality of building professionals you end up working with.
Soliciting Bids During The Recession
Thursday, November 13th, 2008Back a couple of years ago, during the housing bubble, I heard a lot of complaints about how hard it was to get a contractor to even return a phone call, never mind scheduling the work. And, with that much work around, there were also lots of complaints about the high prices.
During the boom, understanding the difference between (self) employment and running a business was optional. If you knew how to estimate materials correctly and had an idea of what “everyone else” was charging for “similar jobs”, you were golden. That’s really all it took. Demand kept prices high, so even the least business savvy contractor was almost guaranteed to make money.
And believe it or not, that helped you, the customer. The contractor was making enough money to pay all the bills associated with the job. So even if the contractor you hired was a terrible business person, the chance that you’d get slapped with a mechanics lien by some subcontractor or supplier because your contractor didn’t pay them was reasonably low.
Not so today. Now that the bubble has burst, jobs are not so plentiful. Competition for those that remain is much higher. And while you may think that’s a good thing because it means you’ll get your job done cheaper, keep in mind that beyond a certain point, “cheaper” also means riskier. Sometimes, much riskier.
Back in February I told the story of a career carpenter, now self-employed, who was working for the same hourly wage he’d been paid as an employee.
Now you might think: “Wow! I can get this job done really cheap with this guy.” And, if all goes well, you might be right. Or, you might find out the hard way just how expensive this guy really is — not because he doesn’t know his trade, and not because he’s dishonest. Rather, because not being a business person, and therefore not knowing how to correctly price himself and his job, he leaves both himself and you vulnerable.
For an example, let’s suppose Mr. Carpenter here owes some back child support he hasn’t been able to pay (probably because he’s not really making any money on these jobs he’s doing). So, while he’s working for you the State decides to exercise its right to drain his bank account to collect. Well, Mr. Carpenter owes the Home Depot money for the materials he’s bought for your job. And the State just took the money and gave it to his ex-wife! They not only took that money, they also took the money he needs to live for the next month.
So now he has no money to pay for installed materials, no money to by food, no money to put gas in his truck to get to work (your job), and no money to fix any of his tools that might break on the job.
But all of that’s his problem, right? Yup — until it becomes yours!
Because in most states, Home Depot has the legal right to place a mechanics lien on your house for the materials Mr. Carpenter bought and installed in your home — whether he was a licensed contractor or not; whether the job was finished or not.
Now, I’ll admit that this is an extreme example. But in this economic climate, as contractors (and their former employees) get more and more desperate for work, you’re going to see more and more bid that are not just low-ball, they’re down right ridiculous.
In my article on how to choose a remodeling bid I provide some common sense ideas on how to at least winnow down the bids to those that make sense. Those same techniques will also eliminate individuals and contractors like Mr. Carpenter. Because this information is so important, especially now, let me repeat it here:
- If you have a bid that’s disproportionately low, throw it out. “Low balling” is a bidding tactic that some contractors use to get jobs that is, in my opinion, dishonest. Basically the contractor deliberately under bids the real price of the job in the hope of being the lowest bidder. Then, after s/he’s gotten the job and the work has started, s/he finds reasons to get you to sign Change Orders that progressively raise the price up to what the bid should have been in the first place. In some states, I understand a contractor can be disciplined for using this type of bidding tactic.
Another reason a contractor might submit a low ball bid is because they have no intention of doing the work! They take your money and disappear with it. This year was a particularly nasty one for transient operators.
In either case, this isn’t the kind of person you want to hire.
- If you have a bid that’s disproportionately high, throw it out unless you can find a darned good reason for the high bid — or you and this person just really hit it off.
- That leaves you with a pile of middle bids that are all worth your consideration. All other factor’s being equal, I recommend picking the contractor you get along with best, not the lowest bidder — though the two may be the same. Because remember, this individual and his or her crew is going to be around five or six days a week for months on end! You don’t want the industrial version of your mother-in-law!
Good luck evaluating the bids for your project!
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