How Much Will It Cost #1
Fitzpatrick—After you know what you want to remodel, you want to know how much it costs. For building improvements, this is a chicken-or-egg question; you won’t know your costs until you know your “Scope of Work,” to borrow a term from commercial construction. And if you’re like most folks, you won’t know the scope of your project until you know how much it costs.
As an example, my husband’s cousin’s best friend (how’s that for distant relation association) is an eyewear designer. When someone approaches him for a design, they first arrive at the price at which the frames will be sold, then work from that point on the design and manufacturing process.
This method saves time and, as we all know, money. When I worked for a small remodeling contractor a few years ago, I was sent to a job and told to measure it. This took an hour, plus travel time, roughly 30 minutes. After I finished, the homeowner asked how much I thought his proposed project, a room addition, would be. Based on a square footage calculation I estimated a minimum of $40,000 for our company to do it. His budget was $20,000; not an impossible sum, but not likely to be undertaken by a licensed contractor who pulled a permit on the job. He wasted a total of two hours of his time—to book the appointment, baby-sit the measurer and finally talk about money. If he had merely told our office his square footage and budget, or if the person answering the phones had been trained to ask this question, we would all have known within minutes that we were not unsuited for each other. I’m sure this man had better things to do with those two hours. The remodeling contractor, who lost about $100 of staff overhead to deal with an unsuitable client, certainly did.
A remodeling project isn’t a car sale and you shouldn’t do business with anyone who treats it as such. Be realistic and forthcoming about your budget. You’ll be taken more seriously by the kind of people you want to work with.
As an example, my husband’s cousin’s best friend (how’s that for distant relation association) is an eyewear designer. When someone approaches him for a design, they first arrive at the price at which the frames will be sold, then work from that point on the design and manufacturing process.
This method saves time and, as we all know, money. When I worked for a small remodeling contractor a few years ago, I was sent to a job and told to measure it. This took an hour, plus travel time, roughly 30 minutes. After I finished, the homeowner asked how much I thought his proposed project, a room addition, would be. Based on a square footage calculation I estimated a minimum of $40,000 for our company to do it. His budget was $20,000; not an impossible sum, but not likely to be undertaken by a licensed contractor who pulled a permit on the job. He wasted a total of two hours of his time—to book the appointment, baby-sit the measurer and finally talk about money. If he had merely told our office his square footage and budget, or if the person answering the phones had been trained to ask this question, we would all have known within minutes that we were not unsuited for each other. I’m sure this man had better things to do with those two hours. The remodeling contractor, who lost about $100 of staff overhead to deal with an unsuitable client, certainly did.
A remodeling project isn’t a car sale and you shouldn’t do business with anyone who treats it as such. Be realistic and forthcoming about your budget. You’ll be taken more seriously by the kind of people you want to work with.
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