Home Improvement Articles

The first 3 milestones along this home improvement journey are typically steps that homeowners take on their own before they ever speak to a contractor.   That's not to say that on occasion, we haven't had a homeowner see us working on a neighbor's home, which prompts a conversation that bypasses those first 3 steps, but that's more of an exception, rather than a regular occurence.   Step 4 is where you take action to pick up the phone or send a message online to start a conversation with our team.

 

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-- I have a roof leak. Shingles blew off my roof.  My pipe collar is leaking. What is your availability to repair this?

-- Do you charge for estimates?  Can I get a free estimate?
-- We'd like to build an addition for my parents to move in.  Is $150,000 a reasonable budget?

-- Can I get a quote to replace our decking?
-- We'd like to remove a wall and expand our kitchen.  Do you offer this service?

But the most helpful question and answer we rarely hear in the first phone call, is the answer to the following questions:
-- Why do you want to improve your home? 
-- Why this renovation? 
-- Why now?   
-- What are your goals for this upgrade?   
-- How long have you been thinking about this?  Dreaming about this?     
-- How long do you plan to continue living in this home and enjoying your new space? 

As we work with you to design the renovation or remodel of your dream, the answers to the WHY questions actually do a better job of helping us develop a scope of work, and make selections and appropriate design decisions in keeping with your Target Renovation Budget, than many of the other conversation starters that most clients, who haven't experienced a home renovation process, are more likely to use in that first phone call.   Our team is focused on helping you enjoy the entire home renovation Journey and serving as your Guide to help ensure an outstanding experience that other contractors can't, don't and won't provide.   Gandalf can share with you little more about that in this quick video.  



The old adage of  "always get three bids" or "get multiple quotes and throw away the high and the low number and then flip a coin to pick one of the middle numbers" sadly, no longer serves as an effective way to avoid being taken advantage of and protect yourself from getting ripped off.   We've heard countless stories of a Chuck-in-a-Truck wanna-be contractor who offered a low-ball or mid-range number to win the job, and then halfway through the project, confessed to the homeowner that "he forgot to include some materials and he's going to need an extra $5000 to finish the job."  Or the guy who has to go sell another job, and take another deposit, robbing from Peter to pay Paul, to give himself the money to finish your job.  Moreover, there are SO many design decisions that each contractor "bidding" your job is going to make... based on their assumptions about what you want, its going to be impossible to compare the quotes because each design and set of materials selected is completely different.   We'll talk more about these challenges in our Target Renovation Budget video in Step 6.... and we'll explain what a LEGITIMATE contractor will include in their contract for residential work, as required by law in the state of Pennsylvania in Step 8.

When you reach out to our team, we'll ask you for your contact details (address, phone & email), some details about your project, and we'll ask you send us some photos so that our Project Consultants can get a sense for your space. 

 

Let's continue the journey with Step 5: "our Virtual Estimate System" so that you can understand what we plan to do next with the details you provide.