Friday, August 17, 2012

When renovating your contractor must balance customization and the budget


The Choice is Yours

The professional remodeler walks a fine line. It is our job to balance a remodeling project's cost and construction efficiencies while customizing our design and specifications to meet our client's desires.

It is critical that our clients fully participate in the remodeling process to make sure the end result meets their lifestyle needs and expectations.

To that end, we encourage and enable our remodeling clients to select from an increasingly diverse list of products and finishes before we begin construction. Most often, these selections are from the catalogs or websites of our trusted suppliers and feature familiar brand names with rock-solid warranties. This allows us to do our work efficiently while keeping the budget in check.

Whenever necessary, we accommodate a special request from a client, assuming the product or system is available and within the agreed budget ... or the budget is revised to include it.

This "customization" process is a two-way street of responsibility and respect. We rely on our clients to make their selections on time to avoid delays in delivery and construction.

We do our part by establishing deadlines and milestones as part of the construction agreement. We identify when materials and finishes need to be ordered so they are on the job site to maintain our construction schedule. Our schedule also confirms "lead times" -- the time between when a product is ordered and when the supplier can deliver it -- so that we can coordinate its installation with the proper contractor.

Every missed deadline almost always results in a delay in construction ... which invariably translates to additional costs. Worse, it can trigger a domino effect, affecting not just its point in the schedule, but also several others that follow. Remodeling is a linear process, often requiring one step to be finished before another can start; a glitch can therefore ripple through the schedule, affecting tasks and deadlines that might appear unrelated.

Over the years, we've not only come to expand the choices we allow our homeowners to make -- from minor structural changes to any number of finishes -- but also how to accommodate those choices in the overall scheme and schedule of the project. We leave plenty of leeway for lead times (especially for new or unfamiliar selections) and use technology to find reliable sources for special orders.

Our ultimate goal is to deliver a satisfying experience and exceed our clients' expectations. We coach our clients to understand the remodeling process and the critical role they play in it, and leave ample time to enable comfortable, unrushed decisions. We are here to advise, offer choices, and ultimately fulfill dreams -- as well as complete projects that will stand the test of time and evoke memories that span generations.

Warm Regards,

Doug Abbott
Village Builders

 This is an exert from a newsletter that is distributed to all former, current and future clients of Village Builders Inc. It is written by the President Doug Abbott. If you would like to receive this newsletter feel free to email me at www.robabbott@villagebuilders.ca

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

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