Welcome to the remodeling world. Unlike in building a new home, constructing the skeleton of the home through all of the final finishes, where the home is unoccupied except during working hours, the remodeler moves in and lives with you to perform the project and changes probably five days a week. He may use your garage and driveway for storage of materials, staging, and a work place. He may or may not use your facilities depending upon the agreement in your contract, and parking can sometimes be a challenge as well. Care must be taken and discussed for children and pets. Protection for both the interior and exterior areas of the home must be provided to create minimal dust, debris, and damage as work progresses. It can be a very personal relationship. Maintaining a constant line of communication with your remodeler is of utmost importance. Having a point of communication, a location, or even a small file box is needed to communicate, ask questions, etc… when your paths don’t cross on a daily basis due to timing of jobs, careers, and schedules. Use of the location then is important to leave a message as needed to change or answer questions to keep the project moving. It could be change order left by the remodeler that needs to be signed to prevent delays. One delay by one craft delays all other scheduled days thereafter, as difficult as it is to make the initial schedule, your cooperation and communication is as important as any of the subcontractors being used on your project. Be sure to share all phone numbers and contacts, best time to call, as well as the worst time. Keep the lines of communication open and the job will be finished on time or maybe even sooner.
Be involved and have fun in what you will be living in and with for years to come. If an additional idea comes along, discuss it with your remodeler without delay. Have a plans and specification changes made with additional costs to determine if it fits within your budget. The timing of the change could be considerably less early verses days later when change of costs could be much more. The change order typically changes the schedule as well as the price and the schedule must be adjusted. Also take a close look at each days work after the work crews have left for the night. Then your daily or weekly meetings will be more productive when meeting with the remodeler.
In a perfect world you would go to the remodeler with ideas, sketches, product selections, etc… and most important a budget range for your project. Rarely will you go to the remodeler with a full set of plans and specifications prepared for bidding purposes. Depending on the size of your project, you may have been planning and thinking for months on a larger project or possibly a couple days on a small project. Either way the remodeler needs as much information as you can give. With this information, jobsite review and investigation, the remodeler may be able to determine if your project can be done within your budget range. If over budget the remodeler may discuss with you ideas, design, and possibly delaying some details of the project, which could be added later. Be prepared to meet with the remodeler as many as a half a dozen times as well as interim phone conversations to iron out design details.
Once the final design is completed suppliers, subcontractors, and the remodeler must bid the prices. The timeline for the remodelers bid depends on the size and design of the remodel project. Some subcontractors are small companies and do the paperwork other than during the workday and depending on their workload can also slow the bidding process.
Once a bid has been completed and a contract signed, the remodeler makes a schedule to start the project to the target completion date. The remodelers schedule depends on existing jobs, ordering of materials and length of time for delivery, sometimes taking 4-6 weeks depending on the product. The permit also must be applied for, with plans and specifications checked by the various departments within the building and inspections departments, whether the city or the county jurisdiction. The permit process timeline is out of control of the remodeler. The inspection department’s workload as well as other items needing to be checked and approved as per zoning and engineering may lengthen the permit timeline process.
The length of time for the construction process has it variables. A rough rule of thumb is that most jobs take a week for every $5,000.00 to $7,000.00 of work. A good schedule and control can and does expedite and shorten the work schedule.
Once the job has started don’t expect to see a full crew of workers at your home every hour of every day. The activity during demolition, framing, and the rough-in areas happens at the beginning. Then the workers wait for the drywall compound, paint, and other finishes to dry. Thus the work proceeds at a much slower pace.
Remodelers want you to be involved in the total process. Have fun starting your remodel wish list, and take time to find a professional remodeler (licensed, insured, experienced), and interview thoroughly. Educate yourself as much as possible by window shopping materials, watching and looking at ongoing projects, talk to your friends who have also performed a remodel project, and use the Internet for information. You will have plenty of decisions to make in the whole process, and enjoy it and do it a step at a time, like stacking building blocks. There are 28,000 to 30,000 details in building a new home and some remodels can equal the same. Plan ahead with a positive attitude and enjoy the process step by step.
Gil Paben is President of Aspen Construction, Inc., which was founded 33 years ago. The company is a full-service remodeling and custom home building company. Mr. Paben was the Home Builders Association of Northern Colorado Builder of the Year in 2000 and Northern Colorado Remodeler of the Year in 2006.