Watch Heat Escaping Your House

HighCraft recently had its office evaluated for heat loss using an interesting new technology. A door with a built-in fan was temporarily installed and the fan was allowed to run for about an hour. This drew cold air from the outside into the building, especially where there are small cracks and holes (such as around certain windows and doors). A technician then walked through the building with an infrared camera that senses temperature differences thereby highlighting problem areas. A sample of one of the photos is above. As one might expect, our building (built in the 1920's) could greatly benefit from some basic insulating and caulking. The advantage for us is that we can now see precisely where to focus our efforts. For more information on this technology click here.

Remodelling
Success 101

Q: What should I consider when evaluating remodeling firms?

A: First, narrow your list of potential firms based on their direct experience with the type of project you envision, such as a kitchen or bath job or a room addition. Next, invite each potential candidate to a meeting or interview and be ready with questions that are important to you about their services, process, schedule, and past work. Then be sure to get satisfactory answers. Have a project budget ready and a reasonably good idea of what you want, and share that information with each candidate. Finally, look for remodelers that you like on a personal level: do your personalities seem compatible? Are you comfortable with the remodeler's communication style? It's okay to go with your gut, as long as the firm has the right skills and experience to do the work.

Home remodeling is a maturing industry. That means that truly professional firms that specialize in remodeling are becoming the norm. Now homeowners can draw from a greater pool of reliable remodeling contractors in whom they can have confidence.

The shift to more professional remodeling firms, however, necessitates a change in how homeowners should best select a contractor. Specifically, the old practice of collecting three bids for the work and using the low bid to select a contractor no longer makes much sense.

The three-bid rule appears to work because it assumes everything to be equal except the cost estimates (or bids) from the three competing contractors. In other words, the underlying premise is that the three bidders have assessed and calculated the scope of work, blueprints, and specifications in exactly the same way so that the owner can compare 'apples-to-apples.'

In reality, however, such assumptions are dangerous and rarely accurate. Every contractor, professional or not, analyzes a project and estimates costs differently. As a result, the three bids are not apples-to-apples comparisons. Some differences are subtle, but their existence means that bid comparison is deceptive regarding costs.

Even if all three contractors based their bids on precisely the same interpretation of the project, the three-bid rule still reduces each remodeler to a number, when the most relevant factors for the owner's satisfaction are the builder's skill, experience, personality, record of success, and ability to do the work. For this reason, an increasing number of the best remodeling companies simply refuse to bid competitively, opting out of such opportunities because they know they will be evaluated only in terms of cost, rather than whether they are the best firm for the job.

Such remodeling contractors prefer a different approach: the negotiated contract. In that scenario, a remodeling firm is selected based on its abilities and its personality fit with the homeowner. Considering how closely contractors interact with homeowners during a typical remodeling project, these criteria are the best predictors of client satisfaction.

The negotiated contract also takes the guesswork out of the project's cost. In this process, each of two or three contractors receives a budget from the homeowner based on what the homeowner wants to spend, not on what the remodeler thinks the project will cost. Sharing the homeowner's budget not only removes assumptions and misleading comparisons of cost, but also builds trust and facilitates honest communication about actual costs. If necessary, the builder and homeowner can then negotiate choices and prices in order to match the project's scope with the client's budget.

Not only does the negotiated contract process result in a more accurate estimate of cost, it is also far superior to the three-bid rule in matching the personalities of the client and the remodeler during the negotiation process. The process also reveals the best match between a particular project and a contractor's skills and experience. By first narrowing the field, and then by selecting one remodeling firm based on everything except the cost of the project, a homeowner can better ensure that the project will remain on budget and schedule. Both homeowner and contractor are on track for a finished project that meets or exceeds expectations.

As the remodeling industry continues to evolve into a recognized profession, it is adopting new and more effective methods of conducting that business. The negotiated contract reflects the new age of home remodeling to the benefit of every homeowner.

Warm regards,

info@highcraft.net
www.highcraft.net

c. 2006 All rights reserved.

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