Congratulations. You’ve chosen to remodel your home or business. You’ve vetted the company, collected your funds, and you’re ready to begin. What could go wrong? Plenty.
We’ll be honest, right from the start. Although remodeling companies make every effort to flawlessly execute each client’s job, there are things that could possibly go wrong. Here are some potential areas where that can happen.
What Could Cause Things to Go Wrong on your Remodeling Job?
Pre-Conceived Perceptions
When you started talking to your friends and family about wanting to remodel, you probably heard a number of horror stories–contractors walking off the job, prices escalating, or shoddy work. So you’re already going into the process with apprehension. We liken it to buying an automobile. Before you even step inside the dealership, you may already be suspicious of their sales techniques and pricing. We try to make you feel comfortable from our first meeting on, with open and honest communication. We have nothing to hide. Feel free to ask us anything! We’ll be glad to answer your questions.
Many Moving Parts
There are hundreds of pieces to the puzzle of your remodel, and although we do our best to coordinate them all, things happen. Items may be mis-ordered by accident, or something could get inadvertently left off your order. We have a structured process, with dedicated project developers and project managers, and an online system through CoConstruct to aid in communication and to help prevent errors from happening. If an error does occur, rest assured, we will make every effort to fix it as soon as possible. We want to earn your five-star review at the end of our job.
Dealing with Outside Vendors
We can’t control everything. When we order from outside vendors, we trust that what we order is what we’ll receive. It sometimes happens that they mix up an order, or an item comes in damaged or is delivered to the wrong job site. At other times, items are backordered or discontinued. This might mean that an order can be delayed, which could delay part of your job, depending on what the product is. When a problem is discovered, we get on the phone immediately to remediate the issue. We will communicate with you all issues that arise and reconfigure schedules to incorporate the order issue and keep your job moving along.
Scheduling
After 35 years in business, we know how to schedule a job from beginning to end. But there are still things that can go wrong in the schedule. Our people get sick, clients are called away for business, or components’ delivery is delayed, for example. Working around scheduling issues is one of the biggest challenges all remodeling companies have. It is our desire to complete every job on time and on budget.
Related: Help Your Remodeling Projects Go Smoother
Costs
We work with dozens of vendors and have solid and long-term relationships that garner us excellent prices on their products, which we pass along to you. But again, although it happens rarely, things can go wrong. There might be a lumber shortage or a manufacturing issue that causes the vendor to raise their prices. If this happens, we have no choice other than to communicate this to you. Any changes are presented to you and approved via a change order.
Miscommunication
Although we encourage clear communication, sometimes information is misinterpreted by one or the other sides. Please, don’t get angry. Let us know if you feel that something is off, and we’ll do the same. The biggest problem with miscommunication is when the issue is not brought to light. That’s when bad feelings can build up. Even though it may be uncomfortable to bring up the subject we’d rather learn what the problem is and address and resolve it before it becomes a larger issue.
Like All Remodeling Companies, We’ve Had Things Go Wrong
You can read, in our clients’ own words, testimonials about what occasionally went wrong in various client jobs and how expediently our team resolved the issue to our clients’ satisfaction. Our goal is to have a happy client at the end of each and every job.
A Happy Client at the End is Our Goal
There is a likelihood that something may go wrong during your remodeling job. There are just too many moving parts involved, and each job and the people involved are so unique. Hopefully it’s just a little issue that can be quickly resolved and that 99.9% of your job goes right. As Tony Robbins said, “Stop being afraid of what could go wrong, and start being excited about what could go right.” Think ahead to the fabulous new space you’ll have to enjoy at the end of your remodeling job.
The Majority of Our Business Comes From Happy Clients
The majority of our business at Schroeder Design/Build comes from either repeat business from our happy clients or their referrals to people they know. If they weren’t happy with our work, our customer service, our processes and the end result, this wouldn’t happen. This is testimony of the commitment we have to creating happy and satisfied clients.
Looking to Remodel? Contact Schroeder Design/Build
We’d like to talk to you about your Northern Virginia remodeling project. Please contact us for a free consultation at 703-449-1700 or info@SchroederDesignBuild.com.
