Buying Local Series: Window Dealers

Buying local: Window Dealers

Buying Local can save you time and money in the long run when building your custom home.

When you are building your custom home the more things that you choose from the local area where the house is being built can be better for you and better for the local economy.

If you are building a new home, second home or recreational property it’s better to buy the things you need from the local suppliers even if they are more expensive. Having all of the material for you build sent from different regions because you believe you can save a little bit of money can turn out to be the worst thing you do, if you look at the consequences of your actions you might change your mind.

If you are saving 10% on items you are buying in a different location and then having them shipped to your build site that might sound like a smart economic choice, except until you have a problem with anything. Problems could be as follows; damaged during shipping, warranty, parts missing, some assembly required with no instructions or you just want to return part or all of the order. Companies that ship things considerable distances usually will charge you a large fee to take part or all of your order back if you’re not happy with it. Also for warranty, if could take months or even years before you can get someone from the company up to your home to look at the issue and usually they will charge you to come and look, even if it’s a warranty issue.

This is going to be a series on all the different types of local contractors that you can buy from and why you should buy from them. This first one in this series will be about window dealers.

WINDOW DEALERS:

Products such as windows and doors are a prime example; you may think that buying direct from the manufacturer is a better way to go because it seems that you are saving money. In reality if you look at all the costs associated with buying from them it could cost you more in the long term. Your local window supplier is technically a middle man for window companies; this means that he puts a percentage on top of your order to make a profit. In the world of big box stores people have been trained to think that the middle man is a bad thing. Actually someone like a window dealer is a good thing; instead of selling one type of window he sells dozens of window types and manufacturers. So by your budget, taste, wants and needs they can help you choose the exact window that will suit your build. Also window dealers get discounts from the manufacturers that they are able to pass on to you, making them more competitive. These discounts are not available to a homeowner even if they go straight to the source.  Once you have selected your windows, the window supplier will go over the order with your builder before it is placed with the manufacturer to insure that the measurements are all correct. The window dealer then tracks the progress of the window order so that it can be delivered to the building site when the contractor requires them. Many times with window manufacturers they ship the order as soon as the order is complete and ready to ship, this is because they have no room to store the windows at the factory. This can cause some major problems on a build site. A house that is being framed is a dangerous place for glass windows; there a lot of people working with air powered nailers and lots of lumber being carried around. It doesn’t take much for a window to be damaged in that kind of environment. If your windows have wood cladding on the inside, they can be damaged from the weather, windows are not made to handle weather on the inside, there made to keep the weather out. The biggest concern about having windows delivered early before they are ready to be installed is that they could be stolen. Many windows have been stolen off construction sites because they were stored on site before being installed. Window dealers are equipped with storage space to safely and securely store you windows until your builder calls them for delivery.

Speaking of delivery, if you order your windows from the manufacturer, they will ship them to the site in a transport or cube van with a driver. The driver is usually under orders that they are not to get off the truck bed. That means that when the windows are delivered the builder has to supply enough men to unload the truck themselves and carry the windows inside. Window dealers on the other hand will have had the windows delivered to their building, will reload the windows on to trucks and trailers and supply labour to help unload the windows. They will then help carry the windows into the building. It might not sound like a big deal to have your windows delivered in pickup trucks towing trailers; but if you have ever been on a construction site you would know there is no grass and very little driveway. This usually means that it is extremely difficult for tractor trailers or cube vans to get in to a construction site and turn around. Four wheel drive pickup trucks pulling trailers can pretty much go anywhere you need them to go to drop the windows off. All of this saves time and man hours that the homeowner has to pay for in the end. So the deal that you got from the manufacturer starts to look less and less like a deal and more like a giant headache.

When talking about warranty, window dealers are in the ideal position to help you. Window dealers buy such large volume of product from manufacturers they have more influence with them. That means that they will come out and fix warranty issues even before calling the manufacturer. They know that they will get paid for the warranty at a later date and so there goal is to keep you and the builder happy by doing the repair. If you are building a second home or recreational property having the windows come from a local window dealer means that the dealer can stop by your house to assess or fix the problem without you having to come up to the house to meet them. If you ever have a window broken from animals or flying debris during a storm, a window dealer will have the ability to have the window repaired properly.

A couple of other things that window dealers do that help save you money, they take responsibility if an order is delivered either incomplete or incorrect. They supply technical assistance to the builder if he has questions about certain window installations or answers questions on how window and doors should be properly operated, cleaned and maintained.

A window dealer is able to stop by the location of your build and assess what they believe you require for windows. So if you are building in a location with high wind and extreme weather he may suggest a certain window, the same if you are building a house in a real sandy location he may recommend that you install an all vinyl window so the sand doesn’t damage anything on the window over time.

Sometimes when a house is designed the designer doesn’t take into consideration the cost of the windows because of the shape or size. When the home owner starts to look around for pricing they could find that the windows are too expensive. A window dealer can assess the plans and come up with alternatives for windows that fit in the same space but do not cost nearly as much.

One last thing about buying local, in a world that has decided to go green there is nothing more green then buying locally.

So remember, when building your home try and buy locally it’s not just good for the local economy it’s good for you as the homeowner as well.

Rob Abbott

Operations Manager

Village builders Inc.

Getting a proper budget on your custom home from your contractor is important

The importance of getting your contractor to give you a budget that is realistic.

The general contractor that you contract to build your dream home should be able to give you a proper budget. What I mean when I say a “proper budget” is a budget that is as accurate and as close to what the cost of your home will be when it is completed.

You want to hire a contractor that can give you this kind of budget because you don’t want to get into the situation where the house is 85% complete and you realize that you don’t have enough money to complete the finishing’s and are forced to stop. This could mean that you will not have enough done on the house for you to get an occupancy permit to move in and will be stuck with a house that you can’t afford to finish. This could force you to have to sell the house and start the process all over again. Usually custom homes that are sold only partly finished are sold at a loss.

The contractor should be able to give you an accurate budget with 5%. That leaves a little room for human error. Every time the contractor gives you a bill whether it is monthly or bi-monthly he should give you a copy of the budget that shows where you are in the budget and how each completed stage is coming in compared to the original budget. Because custom homes can take a year or more to build, you as the customer need to be informed as the build proceeds of the budget and your own spending. Home owners will make the biggest changes to the budget over a year and not even realize it. A normal custom home will have anywhere from 15 to 50 change orders. Change orders are changes to the original contract and budget when it comes to personal choices of the house. Some change orders can reduce the price of a house like down grading the type of windows that you want to install, but most change orders increase the cost of the house. These change orders are usually upgrades to the house that you never even thought of at the time that you asked the budget to be completed. If you have designers involved then the cost of certain things can increase greatly as they help you to see the vision of the spaces in the house that you are trying to create.

When securing financing for your home build, you should always acquire more money then you plan to spend. On average you should acquire 10% more money then you plan to spend. So if you plan to build a $500,000.00 house you should acquire at least $550,000.00. This will allow you to finish the house the way you want it without cutting corners and will help insure that you never run into the situation where you are out of money and can’t secure anymore to finish the project.

A good contractor after getting to know you will understand what your tastes are and where you stand financially. After a while he will know what to offer you in upgrades. The one piece of advice I would give you is not to endlessly tell your contractor that you don’t have any money and that you are at your budget when you are not. I have personally worried for a clients finances and helped them finish the house the cheapest way they could because they kept commenting that they were running out of money. But you get what you pay for and when I had to come back a couple of years later to do some repairs that they had to pay for because of the materials they choose, the comments I received from them where “well if I knew that this would happen, I would have gladly paid for the expensive finishes.”

Contractors are human and can only go on what you tell them, so if you tell your contractor that you don’t have a lot of money then he will not show you the high end finishes that will last longer. He will adjust your choices to the middle of the road or low end finishes because he doesn’t want to waste your time or his. He is also worried that you will run out of money and he won’t get paid. No contractor wants to have to wait for his money; he has employee’s and sub contractors to pay. What keeps a contractor up at nights is the thought of having to lien a job or sue a client just to get what is owed to him.

So remember to get a proper budget from your contractor before starting your project and try to stick to it!

Rob Abbott

Operations Manager

 Village Builders inc.

Why pricing your project is NOT about finding the lowest price!!!

Pricing your project. Here is a simple thing that a lot of people seem to screw up. The scary thing is that if you get this wrong then the rest of your planning for your project could all be for not. Pricing a project sounds like it would be a simple thing, but a lot of people don't understand the reason that you price a project out to multiple builders. There are several reasons to price a project out to multiple builders.

One of the main ones is to see what the cost of your project will be. Pricing the project is NOT for finding the lowest price. This might sound strange to people that are used to looking for the bargain, but in the construction industry there is no such thing as a bargain. Remember what I just said, there is no such thing as a bargain. It is more important to trust the builder and the quality of his work then it is to find the lowest price. Remember the old addigh “you get what you pay for”. I have talked about this before but people need to understand that is true.

If you were to price out to a house to 10 builders you could get prices from $800,000 to $500,000. Now your probably sitting there saying how is that possible? Why would I pay $800,000 when i can get the house built for $500,000! If you asked 10 builders to price it then there is no way that you did proper research on all 10 builders.

It should take you a long time to pick your builders, you should check out there website (if they have one).

Ask for references, call the references, make sure that the project that was done for them is relevant to your project. As in if all the references are for renovations and additions and your pricing a house then that is a red flag. You should disqualify this builder from the bidding process.

Have the builder take you on a tour of houses that he is already built so that you can see the quality of home he builds, what type of home he builds and were they are (city or rural). You see if the houses are small and your looking a large home then you should probably disqualify this builder. Also if the builder has only built in one setting like the country or city then you could have problems because each setting has different challenges that could arise. Also if a builder has problem getting permission to show you houses that he has built, then that should be a red flag that maybe the builder does not have a good relationship with his client after the project has been completed. A lot of new homes can take over a year to build,so if you can't get along with your builder that is a long time to have to put up with him. It also can create a lot of unneeded stress.

Check the Tarion warranty website, this is the new home warranty program website. If a builder has had a problem with a house in the first 7 years of it being built and never came back to fix it then Tarion will come in and fix it and post it on there website. The more times that the builder is listed on the website the more problems the houses that he has built have had and he hasn't warrantied them. Most good builders will not have even one, because they stand by there warranty.

Find out what other services the builder provides. A lot of time a good builder will include in there price the designing of bathrooms and kitchens so that you don't have to go out and hire an interior designer.

Check where the builder is from, you should always hire a builder that lives within about an hour drive of you, the reason for this is that then the builder will usually use local trades. This allows having any problems that arise in the future to be fixed quickly.

How legitimate is the business the builder is running? Is he working out of the back of his truck, does he show up to meet you and is dirty or un kept? These are clues to the kind of product that puts forward. You are spending a lot of money, you want someone that is going to give you a professional job, not just the building of the house but the estimate as well.

So after going through all of that background information and detective work you should be able to get down to just a couple of builders.

If you after all of that are still at 4 or 5 builders then let me give you a couple of things to think about.

A professional builder will give you a professional estimate. That means that it will be a very large document and will list everything that you get. It will explain everything you get in simple to understand terms. If the guy hands you a single sheet of paper with the amount on it, walk away. You are spending a lot of money and you need to know everything that you get for that price. Think of it like buying a car. You can go to a dealer and ask for a price on a car and the dealer doesn't just tell you the price, he gives you a list of everything that is in the car, the options and the warranties. This should be the same as your house quote.

The way some builders keep there quotes low to win the bid is that they under value a lot of the higher ticket items in your home. What builders do in estimates is that they give you a allowances for certain parts of the house. For example one builder will give you a quote of $500,000 and will not give you a lot of detail, then he has given you low allowances for things as kitchens, bathrooms, flooring, lighting and plumbing fixtures. These are the things that can really add up in a house, good builders in a estimate will give you a proper value for these things while others will under value them to get the job. Then when you get your kitchen designed fully he tells you that he only gave you a $10,000 kitchen allowance and your kitchen you want is $40,000. That is one room of the house and you are already over budget $30,000. Pricing flooring at $1.00 a sq ft and you picking $6.00 a sq ft, in a 3000 sq ft home adds up to a $15,000 add on. So it doesn't take long to add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So if you have more then two builders bidding on a house, how can you possibly figure out what you are being getting?

If you have to have 4 bidders and you get the quotes, they should all be close to the same price if you did your background checking on them. If there is a builder that is a lot lower then the rest, I would discard this builder right away.

To put this in perspective I have bid on a 1.4 million dollar house and me and another builder were only $10,000 apart. The other 2 bidders where $200,000 cheaper. We were awarded the house because we had a opening in are schedule that aloud us to start immediately.

The only other thing you do need to find out from the bidders is when can they start? So builders will be so busy that you could wait up to a year for them.

Remember that builders do not charge for estimates, it costs builders money to give you a proper quote, so don't think that your being nice when you allow a builder to bid on a house when you know that you will not award the house to them regardless of there bid.

A good builder will ask you how many bidders there and usually will refuse to bid on it if there are already 3 bidders. They understand that they will be one of the higher bidders because they are giving you a superior product and that with so many bidders you wouldn't be able to figure out the great from the poor. So they will choose to focus there time and energy on a bid that they believe they can win.

If you have questions about getting estimates, or you want an estimate on a project call me at 877 866 3202, or email me at robabbott@villagebuilders.ca

Rob Abbott

Operations Manager

Village Builders Inc.

Do you really need to prime before you paint?

For most people priming the walls before painting is an afterthought.  Since this is usually close to the finish of your renovation or addition project, the feeling generally is, ‘let’s just get it done’.  But the proper application of a primer coat before painting is a key step that will ensure your enjoy years of satisfaction. 

Primers provide a foundation for paint. Ordinary paint is formulated to provide rich, beautiful color in your home-but don't expect paint to do a primer's job. High-quality primers are much richer in resin than ordinary paint and stick to the surface to provide a firm base for paint. In fact, research shows that one coat of tinted primer and one coat of paint will give you a better-looking, longer-lasting paint job than two coats of paint.

Gregory Roe of Superior Painting in Collingwood, one of our trusted trades puts it this way, “Primers make your colors look better...they create a sealed, stain-free surface for paint, primers make your colors look vibrant and beautiful”. 

Primers prevent common problems. Because primers are formulated to prevent problems such as cracking, peeling and blistering, they'll make any painted surface more durable, washable-and last much longer!  Roe adds, “They hide previous colors-even dark blues and reds-and prevent them from showing through your new paint job”.

Primers also save you money. One gallon of high-quality paint costs more than one gallon of high-quality primer. Tinting your primer towards your paint colour uses less paint and provides all the benefits of priming, without adding an extra step.

Give me a call before your next renovation or addition.

Rob Abbott. 877-866-3202  robabbott@villagebuilders.ca