Why You Should Choose A Full Service Contractor Before Your Architect
The basic rule of thumb is if your project costs more than 5% of the value of your house, or if you are making structural changes to the interior or exterior of your home, or if you are making significant changes to the floor plan of your home, you need an architect for your project.
This is the part of the project where the design build approach will add significant value and save you a lot of money over the life of your project. Its best to find a contractor that will work with the architects and have long term relationships with many very good architects. This can get you better pricing for their services for your project than you can by contacting them directly. They will pass that savings on to you.
Once you select the architect you want to use for your project, the contractor will work with them throughout the design process to make sure they are designing a project that fits into your budget. We cannot understate how important this is for the success of your project and we have seen many projects never get off the ground because this step was not followed. Your architect is not paid to tell you no. If you tell him you want something, he assumes you can afford it. The time to determine how much your project is going to cost is during design, not after design is complete.
Once the architect finishes the design it is time to pull permits and build your dream. Proper planning and constant communication are the keys to success.
Before the work is started, you should sit down with the contractor and have a project kickoff meeting. At this meeting you will go over the construction estimate with you in detail as well as present you with a construction schedule so you can make plans to minimize the effect of the project on your day to day life. You will also be provided with a list of items you need to select, the budget for those items (with the contractor discount), and the schedule of when those items need to be selected to meet the construction schedule.
Once we begin construction we will communicate with you about the status of the project however often you like, but we recommend status meetings weekly at a minimum. If something comes up of major importance we will contact you immediately. We will never proceed with work that is different than the original estimate before we have approval from you in writing.…
Should You Always Go With the Lowest Quote for Your Kitchen Renovations?
As consumers we often use the price of a product or service to determine its relative worth, by judging a highly priced item to be luxurious and decadent, as well as reliable and durable. It makes sense, then, to stop and think before you choose the lowest quote for your kitchen renovations. While getting a home improvement project finished way under budget is always an exciting prospect, you also need to consider the extended life of your kitchen renovation, and the impact it will have on your daily cooking habits and lifestyle.
Cheap contractors and designers need to cut costs somewhere, after all, and that might mean that your budget kitchen renovation is completed using weak and unstable materials and dodgy time saving techniques. To properly judge the price estimates given to you by prospective contractors, you need to have a good idea of the costs involved in an average kitchen renovation and a firm set of requirements for your perfect space.
You should also ask your kitchen renovation professionals about the techniques, processes and materials they plan to use, which make up the quote given to you. You can then evaluate these methods instead of just making a blind judgement based on monetary costs. The price of a kitchen renovation can be significantly cut, for example, by re-finishing and reusing elements and materials from your existing space. In this case a low price estimate could still indicate a high quality construction project.
You also need to weigh up the different pros and cons offered to you in each quote given to you by a home interiors designer. While a ‘green’ or environmentally friendly builder might give you a very high quote in comparison to other contractors, the price might be worth the budgetary compromise as the construction of your kitchen renovation will have less of an impact on the environment and will consume less energy in the future.
To make sure that your contractors and designers aren’t adding in hidden costs anywhere in your quote, you can use an online building costs calculator to find an unbiased estimate for the entire project. These automated estimators can include the cost of contractor services, of various materials and include product prices such as appliances or a particular cabinetry system in the final figure given to you.
Remember that the cost of your kitchen renovation will largely depend on the style you prefer for your home, so it is important to use a consistent design brief to find a contractor that offers the best value for money service.…
Should You Install a Shower Stall?
Most homes in America have a bathtub that doubles as a shower. Not that many homes have a separate shower stall and a separate bathtub. You may be remodeling your bathroom and feel that it would be a nice option to have a separate shower stall rather than a combined shower/bath.
Your first consideration when thinking of installing a separate shower stall in addition to your bathtub is whether you have enough room. If you are doing a major bathroom remodel then you can plan it down on paper, all the measurements of the various items like the shower, bath, toilet and cabinets so that you can fit these items in your bathroom.
If you’re not doing a major bathroom remodel, you’ll have to evaluate any spare space you have in the bathroom, measure it up, and do some research to find a shower stall with those dimensions that will fit easily into the bathroom.
Once you have your measurements for your new shower stall it’s time to go shopping. You can find complete shower stalls at most home improvement stores. These usually come with a molded shower floor and walls and the shower door. These all in one shower stalls are quite easy to install as everything you need is built into it.
However you may want to make use of the tiles you’ve already got laid on your bathroom floor and use those as the shower floor. You’d obviously have to put in a drain and build up the sides of the area to create the base of the shower, and then buy some sliding doors to finish it off.
This entails a lot more work than just buying the all in one shower stall, so it comes down to weighing up the amount of money you have to spend versus the amount of time you have to build a shower from the ground up yourself, or have it done for the professionally.…