The excitement of remodeling a room in your home can easily be diminished by factors beyond your control. Instead of dreaming about soaking in your new tub, you’re left wondering if it will ever arrive. And when the tiles you chose to match the vanity that looked grey in that catalog arrive an awful shade of blue, it takes all your strength not to give up on the redesign altogether.
As owner of Sebring Services, a residential remodeling company in Illinois, Bryan Sebring knows how stressful the renovation process can be, and how frustrating the situation can get when things don’t go exactly the way you planned. And while he doesn’t doubt the craftsmanship of a contractor who does all the work himself, he does question their business practices. A lot of benefits, he says, come with working with a larger remodeling company.
Common sense would suggest that for a remodeling company to become large enough to undertake multiple jobs at a time, and employ numerous employees, that they are backed by experience. Unfortunately, in the remodeling business, explains Sebring, 80% of companies are out of business within the first five years and 90% are out of business by their 10th anniversary. Proving that you have staying power lends a lot to the company’s name.
It is also typical for larger companies to have stronger relationships with the vendors they do business with. For the client, this translates to better quality products at a lower cost. This also helps assure you that if all of your fixtures are bought from the same vendors that they will all match. For example, if you buy a bone white toilet from one vendor, but then order a bone white vanity from another, you can almost guarantee that you will be receiving two noticeably different shades of white.
There is also a matter of flexibility when you hire a larger company as opposed to a business that is run by just one person. If it is only one guy doing all of the work, Sebring says, then what happens if he gets hurt, sick or goes on vacation? Your entire project will come to a indefinite halt since nothing can be completed without him.
A company with numerous employees and that is run efficiently will have the ability to replace absent workers. They will also be able to be more lenient when it comes to meeting your needs. If something happens on your end, and you need to halt the work for a day or two, it won’t ruin the company’s schedule the way it would if one person was trying to juggle numerous home projects at once.
But no matter what kind of company you opt to go with, Sebring stresses the importance of building a positive and trusting relationship between yourself and your contractor. Hiring a company with the proper experience, and who you are confident can complete the project will mean more to you in the end then saving a couple of dollars.
