FEATURES

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    Beating competitors with consumer and contractor education

    A few years ago, Tricia Sinn bid on a room addition and master bath project designed by an architect. The president of Sinn Design Build in St. Louis usually does not bid, but made an exception for a strong referral from a previous client. The prospect chose to hire a contractor they had previously...

     

  • Handle small jobs with up-front planning

    While some use small jobs as a gateway to larger projects, many remodeling companies continue to focus solely on smaller jobs, and still others maintain separate small-job divisions to keep from turning over these jobs - and profits - to other remodelers or handymen.

     

  • Lessons buried in your bodies of work

    Laid out on the table under the intense rays of the fluorescent lights, the victim was a $100,000 addition that had exceeded your estimate by 10% and missed your scheduled finish date by six weeks. Precisely what went wrong was unclear, but the evidence suggested a multitude of culprits.

     

Reader Panel

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    Reader survey on competitive bidding

    The results of this month's Reader Panel show that for the overwhelming majority of remodelers, competitive bidding is simply a part of business.

     

SPECIAL SECTION

Outdoor Living

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    Curved composite deck shows creativity

    Julia and Dave Bodell must have good karma. How else to explain their great luck in being asked to build one of the most remarkable decks in their careers, a $250,000 multi-toned, multilevel Trex deck and arbor at the Los Angeles Arboretum?

     
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    Long-span glazing systems find favor

    When Jeld-Wen sales manager Brent Adair retrofitted his San Diego home with one of his company's long-span folding door systems last year, he expected it to be an oddball job. The product, which the company introduced a year ago, wasn't conceived with existing homes in mind. But that hasn't stopped...

     
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    Incorporating an outdoor living area into the garage structure

    Like the children's song about the old lady who swallowed a fly, incorporating an outdoor living area into the garage structure of a remodeled 1909 downtown Orlando bungalow was a progressive process - though this story has a happy ending.

     

  • Bringing indoor comforts into the open air

    Outdoor living is not a new idea, but it's an idea whose time has come.

     

VIEW POINT

FIRST WORD

  • Green costs not as worrisome as standards

    It looks as though the green movement is here to stay, but some remodelers appear to be in denial. The one comment I hear over and over again is that green is too expensive, that customers are interested until they hear how much it's going to cost.

     

News + Notes

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    Slowdown shifts supply houses focus to remodelers

    In order to understand what's currently happening in the supply chain, it's important to understand how we got to this point. Dealers won't admit it, but anecdotal and statistical evidence strongly suggests a conscious decision by the bigger supply houses to focus on the big-production builders, at...

     

MARKET WATCH

  • Getting to Know the LIRA

    This month, we reported on an exciting new development: The announcement of the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA). The LIRA predicts growth in the remodeling industry out three quarters.

     

  • Figure This

    Remodeling by the numbers

     
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    Industry gains a forecasting tool

    The industry gained a forecasting tool with the April introduction of the Leading Indicator for Remodeling Activity (LIRA).

     

COMMENTARY

GUEST COLUMNIST

  • Finding common ground through mediation

    Unfortunately, at some point in your career, you may face an issue with a client, vendor, or trade partner that won't be resolved by rational discussion, and before you know it you'll be looking for your lawyer's phone number. To save yourself a lot of time and money, it's best if your contracts...

     

LINDA CASE

  • Creating a culture of accountability

    You're unlikely to transform an individual who accepts no responsibility in his or her personal life into a highly accountable hire. At the same time, there's more to the challenge than merely hiring folks who are willing to take responsibility. You must also give them the structure and the culture...

     

MARK RICHARDSON

  • Growth creates opportunities

    I find that many in the remodeling community tend to look at the importance of the growth of their business differently from other types of businesses. While most small-business owners are constantly striving to grow larger, many remodelers are happy to stay small. In industry seminars and even in...

     

SHAWN MCCADDEN

  • Let your employees think for themselves

    As a frequent speaker at industry meetings, I see the consequences of cell phone over-reliance. At every scheduled break, between seminars, I witness a sea of contractors and their employees with cell phones glued to their ears.

     

YOUR BUSINESS

Sales and Marketing

  • Rewarding referrals

    You can ask clients for referrals, or you can give them something to talk about.

     
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    Making the showroom more effective

    The more products proliferate, the longer some clients take to select theirs, particularly when their remodeler has neither a big showroom nor endless time to walk them through endless catalogs and retail stores. One New York City firm has developed a pair of tools to effectively help their...

     

  • Marketing with features and benefits

    The secret to writing successful marketing materials? Your potential clients want to know what's in it for them. Your sales copy must answer this question.

     
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    Web site keywords reap clients

    Well-chosen words and user-friendly tools are essential on the Web, says John Clements of Clements Marketing Group.

     

BOTTOM LINE

BY DESIGN

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    Sketchpad

    Sometimes the inside and outside of a home demand different window proportions; here are some ways to satisfy the requirements of each.

     

FIELD NOTES

  • Digital camera can preserve evidence

    Rotten framing and other unexpected discoveries behind old walls can derail schedules, add to time-and-materials costs, and cause some homeowners to question your credibility. Short of X-ray vision, your best defense against these finds is a digital camera.

     

  • Spell out policy for extra work

    To the homeowner, it seems harmless to ask the tile setter to re-caulk the tub. Fine, thinks the tile setter. I'll just bill it to the remodeler.

     
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    Job box provides safety margin

    A few days after a fire struck one of his friendly competitors' jobsites, Tom Gilday held an emergency safety meeting for his 24 field personnel. An outcome of the meeting was a brilliantly simple tool for preventing a similar catastrophe from striking his own company.

     

GOOD FORM

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    Surveying clients after the job

    Surveying clients after their projects are complete prevents you from making the same mistakes over and over again. That's all well and good, but why not uncover homeowners' complaints when you still have a chance to make good on them?

     

Tech at Work

  • Technology solutions with large returns

    Just as clients aim for the greatest possible ROI on their remodeling projects, remodelers looking to improve processes should seek technology solutions that provide the biggest bang for their buck.

     
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    Connecting from the field with tablet PC

    The tablet PC, a hyper-mobile PC that operates using a stylus pen instead of a keyboard and mouse, is becoming an increasingly common way for remodelers to stay connected to the office from the field.

     

Ways + Means

  • Winans makes meetings more fun

    To make weekly meetings more fun - and more memorable - Winans Construction has incorporated a series of rotating activities for each of their Monday company-wide meetings.

     

  • Passing credit to the team

    One production manager's experience in the military shaped his way of successfully managing teams.

     

  • Getting your new hires up to speed

    Advice on getting your new hires up to speed on your business needs.

     

  • Pass along kudos to employees

    Unsolicited client testimonials carry a lot of weight. That's why, when Steve Klitsch, owner of Creative Concepts Remodeling, in Germantown, Md., gets one regarding one of his employees he passes it on.

     

  • Survey employees to grow company

    As a business grows, employs more people, and develops a culture, increasing emphasis is placed on job satisfaction, personal growth, and employee understanding of the company vision.

     

BIG50

CLOSE UP

SECOND LOOK

SOLUTIONS

KITCHEN AND BATH

DESIGN CLINIC

SPEC BOOK

SUSTAINABILITY

GREEN SPEAK

  • Recylcing construction waste

    Cardea Construction recycles 80% of construction waste from its remodeling projects.

     
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    Filling a void in the green roof market

    A few years ago, Ann Marzano's home needed a new roof. Environmentally conscious, she wanted to avoid asphalt or cedar, but her local homeowner's association wouldn't allow metal. After researching alternatives, she came up with synthetic slate, a durable rubber composite made mostly from recycled...

     

GREEN SPEC

PRODUCTS

FIRST LOOK

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    New products for remodeling

    Remodeling Magazine staff picks the newest products for the remodeling market. Tamko. Combining the strength of steel with energy-saving technology, MetalWorks Cool Colors shingles offer aesthetics and performance for a wide range of applications. Manufactured to be long-lasting and offer a high...

     

IN FOCUS

TRENDS

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    Renovating with custom-matched windows

    If you speak with Jeff Williams about windows for historic preservation, prepare for an education in classical architecture. “If you look at window design, you had the Georgian era in the late 1600s, then the Adam style of architecture [in the latter half of the 18th century],” explains the senior...

     
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    Furniture styling adds new appeal to contemporary baths

    Minimalist design and the influence of younger, hipper homeowners is making its way into the bathroom. Though full built-in cabinetry is still popular for most of the market, bath furniture manufacturers say stand-alone vanities and accessories now make up 20% to 30% of the market, and growing...

     
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    Retractable screens and shades

    You gave your clients an outdoor living space, but summer's setting in and they're hardly using it. “People want to use their patios and open their big sliding glass doors, but then they're miserable because of the bugs,” says Ben Hume, founder of Mirage Screen Systems. Hume says insects and too...

     

LAST WORD

Bench Mark

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    Delegate using the skill/value/time matrix

    Most small business owners can't find enough hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done. They know they should assign their tasks to employees, but which ones? To help in those decisions, take a look at the Skill/Value/Time (SVT) matrix.