How To Get A Real Estimate for Your Remodel Plans.

The first step alone will make you seem like a genius to your friends, and earn you the deserved respect of your architect and contractor. But believe it or not, 90% of everyone I have ever known who began with a set of plans looking for a bid, has already created most of their issues... even before they hire their contractor.

Here’s how to start your remodel project in the same way you want that project to continue.

1. Start with a complete set of plans.
To find out if your plans are complete, just ask a contractor and/or a building engineer. Unfortunately, (and I say with great affection and respect for the wonderful architects I know personally and love), architects are not always the best judge of whether or not their plans are absolutely complete. If there is ANYTHING they aren’t certain about, consider their plans incomplete.
This seems like a no-brainer I know, but this is the most crazy-making mistake most everyone makes. We think to ourselves, “Well, how much more can that little detail cost after all?”
In a vacuum, perhaps not much, but if its connected to the house… then who knows! Remember this next sentence and write it down: Everything affects everything else.

Ok, so back to estimating the plans: Let’s face it most of us homeowner's are not architects, so we often don’t know whether or not our set of plans is actually complete. Many architects will tell us it is complete, but unless they have spent time building their designs, they have never learned to get this done -absolutely- before the plans go out for a cost estimate.
As sensible homeowners, we can’t sanely expect to get an accurate number from a builder without complete plans. Whatever we are told will not, and cannot, possibly reflect the final cost.

2. Establish a realistic budget for your surface finishes up front. This means you must have a complete set of interior design plans as well. These are the items we will see and touch every day. Our friends will ooh and ah over them, and we will smile (or frown) every time we see them… for years and years to come. So, it seems prudent to make sure you have a finish budget that will afford you and your family some real pleasure.

3. If we do not know what slab we want to use in the kitchen then an estimate will likely say TBD (to be determined).What that means is that there is NO allowance in the estimate for it, so when we do pick our slab, we will need to add that figure on top of the final estimate. We cannot, in good conscience, ask our contractor to absorb the cost simply because we forgot it wasn’t included, and we’ve already spent most of our finish-budget.

4. If you have included a true design/build firm in your band of traditional contractors, then be aware that you are comparing apples to oranges. Based on my own experience and simple logic, I believe that a true design build firm will tend to offer the best value for our money. It’s a good bet that they can build what they design. And they can do it without redundant drawings (unless, of course, we simply cannot make up our mind about a tile layout or cabinet design). Of course, the budget for design time will likely not include extra hours of design time due to a homeowner’s inability to make a decision. So keep an eye on that and be realistic. Also, your job will tend to go more smoothly with a D/B firm because there will be less of the typical adversarial dynamic that often occurs between an architect (who is designing on the fly), and a designer who won’t specify finishes until the last minute, and the contractor who is expected to make up for it all (and who everyone often blames when the job is not complete by the due date).

5. Always allow for wiggle room in all phases, from plans, to interior design, to production, to timing.
If you cannot afford the wiggle-room then wait until you can, and then begin your project. Home-remodeling with reputable professionals is a good thing, but it will never be an exact science. The sooner we let go of this idea the happier we will be. There are variables, unforeseeable(s), and lots and lots of humans involved.

If we have the courage it actually takes to do this right, then the first step we must take is to let-go of everything we think we know about home-remodeling. We should also let go of miss-trust. This is where the courage part comes in and …hang on there; I’m not suggesting you not protect yourself. On the contrary! Self protection should be built in to our choices and decisions. It should not, however, be the motive behind them. Do you see the difference?
So rather than pick a contractor we think we will have the power to control, we are better served looking for one who values partnership, and whose clients are treated with integrity. So rather than focusing on a common project spoiler like fear, it is better to educate ourselves about the true nature of a remodel-project, and then make every decisions based on reality. And, THIS is how you protect yourself and your family.

Up Coming Blog items:
Real Design-Build. What is it really, and how to spot a fake!
Night of the Dreaded Change-Order