Two of the biggest sources of stress in any person’s life are planning a wedding and home remodeling, advises Bryan Sebring. And he would know. As the owner of the residential remodeling business, Sebring Services, he has spent the past 15 years remodeling and rebuilding homes in the Illinois area, and has seen firsthand the anxiety it can cause.
If you don’t prepare yourself properly, the whole process can be one burden after another, right from the moment you first decide to pick up the phone. While Sebring and his team strive to meet the expectations of their clients, he offers advice on how you can make the remodeling process easier on yourself, starting with the bid.
For many homeowners, the only thing that they can see when they start to plan their remodel is dollar signs. It becomes all about the lowest price, and less about who they are letting into their home and how the final project will look. In all actuality, says Sebring, people spend more time planning a 10-day vacation than they do planning a remodel.
Getting the bid
Start by calling three contractors and setting up individual interviews with them. Instead of rushing through the process, take at least a half an hour to get to know each perspective contractor. You will be able to tell a lot about how he will treat your home by the way he treats you. And, don’t focus the conversation solely on your project. Ask about his experience, his favorite remodeling project what he would recommend for adding value to homes in the town, etc. His tone of voice and the amount of explanation he gives you can indicate how closely he values detail and how passionate he is about his profession.
After the interviews, narrow it to the two contractors you feel the most comfortable with and ask them each for a bid. A fair and honest contractor is going to be more valuable to you in the long run than price. While some contractors charge for bids, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should cancel them out. In fact, Sebring says he has found that when contractors charge for bids, it means that they value your time and theirs, and that they really want to dedicate themselves to the process. Sebring himself says he generally does not charge for bids. But he said as bids can take 1o to 30 hours to write up, he does charge for bids on larger projects.
Understanding the bid
Before you tear through the pages to see how many zeros are attached to the final cost, Sebring urges that the first thing you do when you receive bids from each contractor is compare the scopes of work that they have outlined. A number of things will change the price on the bid — you have to decide what is important to you. For instance, contractor one may include the cost of painting your walls in his bid, while contractor two is leaving the painting up to you. Is that something you really want to do yourself? Similarly, contractor two may have included the cost of adding granite countertops to his bid, while contractor one felt your home was better suited for wood.
Remember that planning is half of the remodeling project, so don’t hesitate to go back to each contractor and hash out more details. If you decide that maybe you don’t really need granite countertops, but you know that you definitely do not want to paint yourself, go back and tell that to contractor number two. In fact, Sebring urges you to. Oftentimes contractors never hear back from potential clients. By returning their phone calls and taking the time to talk with them, contractors will in turn value your role as a potential client and will work harder to get your business.
Once contractor two knows all of your revisions, then he can go back and rework the bid to fit your needs. Keep up this process until each bid includes all of the details and amenities you want in your home. Then, use the bid, your confidence in the contractor, and yes, the final price, to make your decision.
