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Archive for September 2016

How to save money in construction and renovation.

I’m not in to clipping coupons, but I like saving money. With most industries it’s easy to watch and wait for a sale to save money on what you want. But in construction there aren’t really sales like that. Construction materials are seldom on sale; and fixtures and finishes are never all on sale at the same time or when you need them.

In construction, there are only a few ways to save money. Some use the lowest cost materials they can buy. Some use the lowest cost labor they can find. Some push people to work faster or sooner than they should. These methods are easy and obvious, but each has it’s pitfall. and while they do save some money, what they cost later in redoing and repairing work is often far greater.

In construction, saving money is about negotiating the best prices for what you want, and controlling costs. The best to do that is to use this simple 3 – step process:

1 – Plan your renovation project and outline all the work you want done. Include adds and deducts to account for things you might or might not want.

2 – Negotiate the best price by using competitive bid, adjusting the scope of the work with new information and objectively comparing prices.

3 – Manage your contractor(s), enforcing the scope, contract and quality you expect, paying only for what is complete.

Contractors make money by getting in, doing the work and getting out. The faster they can get in and out with the least amount of problems, the more money they make. This 3 – step process works because contractors have a clear picture of what they need to do before getting to the project, what the expectations are, how long they have to do it, and the price has been well negotiated before starting.

For a more information on how this works join Construction Conductor.