Why a Scope of Work Matters in a Remodeling Project
Host:
This is the Home Remodeling Show, brought to you by Edge Construction. You can find them online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
It is a great website and resource to learn more about Edge Construction. Of course, they have links there to Facebook, Pinterest, and also Houzz. That is H-O-U-Z-Z. It is a great website if you have been thinking about doing some remodeling and want to get ideas.
Head on over to EdgeConstructionCompany.com. You can see recent projects on the website and also use that link to Houzz, where you will see even more projects. It is a really good place to get things started.
Joining us in studio this morning is Mike Twohig, owner of Edge Construction. Mike, how have you been?
Mike:
Great, Sean. Good to see you.
Host:
And I should mention the number: 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
How long have you had that number? I know we talked about it a couple of weeks ago because I stumbled over it. You have had that number for a while now, and I think it was your son who figured it out, wasn’t it? It is very memorable. 636-3343 works out well.
Mike:
It does. I think it was one of the boys who came up with the idea. It was not me, for sure.
Host:
It is a good number: 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
We are talking this week about remodeling kitchens, but we have also got something that applies to kitchen remodels and really any type of remodel. You brought in a scope of work.
This is not a thin two-page document. I do not know if people can hear it on the air, but there is a lot to this.
Mike:
There is, but when you get through it, it all makes sense.
If you look up scopes online, a lot of them are one page with a few details. To me, a scope is really important because it is the track to run on. It is also like a legal document. You can tie it to your contract, and it gives the homeowner something to refer back to.
If the scope says something, the homeowner can ask, “Why did this happen?” or “Why did this not happen?”
Host:
All I need is these first two paragraphs.
Mike brought in a scope from a job a couple of years ago, and it starts with a nice overall project summary. It lays out what is happening, and then the following pages get into much greater detail.
Those first two paragraphs in the scope of work really do tell a lot about what will be happening with a remodel.
Mike:
They do. That basic description is just what it says.
Our contract portion of the agreement is fairly simple. It will have a basic description like this, and that might be cut and pasted from the original contract or project summary.
It gives the basic idea of what the project is. It also reiterates that we are going to comply with codes, build to at least industry standards, and follow manufacturers’ written instructions.
There are a lot of rules that come with these things.
Homeowners may think, “I do not need to know the manufacturer’s rules or industry standards.” But that comes into play a lot, especially with flooring choices.
I will pick on LVP and LVT a little bit — vinyl plank flooring. We have had this product for quite a while now, and we have learned its strengths and weaknesses.
There are a lot of LVP products we will not sell anymore because they expand and contract too much. If you look at the manufacturer’s instructions for products that have not done so well, they often have more rules.
At first, they might have said you needed a quarter inch around the whole floor for expansion and contraction. In the past few years, I have noticed some manufacturers now say you need a half-inch gap around that floor.
Then you think, “How do I hide a half-inch gap around the outside of this floor?” There are ways to do it, but that still does not guarantee the product will work. It also gives the manufacturer recourse to say, “You installed it wrong.”
A lot of homeowners install these products themselves, and I know it is not exciting to read the manufacturer’s rules, but we read them and try to understand them.
Electrical fixtures are another example.
Host:
Have you bought light bulbs lately?
Mike:
It has been years.
Host:
Ever since we switched over to LEDs a couple of years ago, I have not really thought about it.
Mike:
If you went out and wanted to refixture your house or put in new fixtures, you would realize there are ten billion different light bulbs now. They are not all created equal. They are not all meant for every fixture.
The only way to know what to get is to get help from your supplier, someone like us, or an electrician. It takes research to figure that stuff out.
Host:
When we talk about changes in guidance, and you mention light bulbs, I think about regular screw-in light bulbs. Those are simple enough. But then you start thinking about light fixtures with thin pieces, maybe an LED strip, or a circular fixture, and getting the right size.
There is a lot to it.
When you go through the project summary and understand that what is being installed is not only up to code but also meets these guidelines, that is important.
The other area I find fascinating is being very clear in the scope of work about what is excluded. What areas are not going to be done? That is very important.
It may seem like, “Why would you have to do that?” But it really helps the homeowner understand exactly what will be done and what is not part of the project.
Mike:
As you go through the design process, some areas that are excluded may have started out in the original scope. During design, you may realize you need to cut back somewhere.
Another practical reason to list exclusions is that the people we send to your house to do demo were not part of that whole design process. They are not going to have it memorized.
Where do we stop? If we do not have that written down somewhere they can find it, they can get in big trouble with the designers for taking out flooring that should have stayed, demoing a door that should have been left in, removing trim, or something else.
So that needs to be written down for both parties.
Host:
With the project exclusions and the scope of work in general, is this being used by the people on the ground at the project? Is this out there on location with them?
Mike:
Very much so.
Our designers put a lot of effort into the scope because they have gone through a long design process. You want to answer as many questions as possible in advance in the scope of work.
If our people do not refer back to it, that means a lot of phone calls to busy designers: “What about this? What about that?”
Then the designer says, “Read your scope. It is in there.”
There are times when I say, “I did not see it in there,” and two minutes later they say, “It is right here on this page.” Then I have to admit they got me.
It is referred to a lot.
Host:
We will get into some things later, and you can explain why they are probably written into the scope the way they are. A lot of that comes from past problems.
It is not only written detail, either. There are also pictures, which are really helpful.
I do want to ask you about demolition and waste management. The scope gets into where the material created during demolition is going. How do we get it from here to there? In the meantime, where is it stored? Is it on site or off site?
Those are not small things. They are important, and I notice they take up a fair amount of the first couple pages.
Mike:
They do.
Homeowners often ask during design whether they can help with demolition to save money. That is a complicated question.
Demo is not like TV, where somebody hands someone a sledgehammer and they start swinging.
Host:
If only it were. You should build walls in your showroom and let people smash them apart.
Mike:
There are a lot of ways to do demo.
Here is an example. If we are demoing a tub in a bathroom, we need to cut back the drywall so we can get the tub out. That sounds logical.
But here is a little trick we use. The corner where the wall meets the ceiling is more work to rebuild in drywall than if we make the cut three inches down and preserve that corner. Then it is a much easier fix.
Corners in drywall are tougher to do, especially if you do not have the experience. They take different tools and skills. So making a nice straight line a few inches down can save a lot of work later, and it usually makes no difference to the quality of the demo.
If you read through the demo section on this job, it probably talks about temporarily disconnecting ductwork or electrical. Maybe we have to brace an upper floor to demo a wall.
Demoing cabinets may sound easy, and that part is not a huge cost. But what happens after those cabinets come out? Are they going to the dumpster, which means they have to be knocked flat and put in the dumpster? Are they going to someone else’s house? Sometimes we find good homes for cabinets if there is life left in them, or we take them to someplace like ReStore.
All of that should be laid out in the demo plan.
A lot of times, when homeowners look over that demo plan, they decide they are going to stay out of that part and maybe get involved in some other way.
Host:
I used to have that Hollywood view of demo too. I imagined going in with a sledgehammer. But having done this show with you for a number of years now, I have realized that I am never going to be in charge of any type of demo.
Mike:
If you have a whole bunch of tile floor and really want to tear that out, we are going to let you. That is one of the worst jobs in construction.
Host:
That is good to know. If they are very eager to let you do something, there is a reason.
Mike:
If you want to take that chimney down, no problem.
Host:
They will gladly let you.
We are talking this morning with Mike Twohig, owner of Edge Construction. You can find them online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number again is 636-EDGE.
We talked demolition. What about waste management and dealing with everything that is created? There has to be a plan in place for that.
Mike:
There does.
I routinely see contractors around town park a big dumpster in someone’s front yard for three months or six months. That is not something I want to do.
We want to handle the waste early. For a kitchen or bathroom remodel, we might have a dumpster there for one or two days. After that, it is not like something is going into it every day.
If we have a heavy day and need to get a bunch of stuff out, we may bring in a dump trailer.
I think it is kind of tacky to leave a dumpster sitting out there. It is messy, and when it gets windy, things can blow out. Neighbors can get feisty about that.
If we are working downtown, there are a lot of jobs where we cannot even have a dumpster. There is no place to put it. In smaller houses on the isthmus, there is not much parking, much less space for a dumpster. Then you are trying to get a street permit, and you do not want to make enemies of the neighbors.
We are trying not to ruin the parking situation down there, even though we will have vans and trucks.
About half of the demo budget is getting rid of the waste. Dumpster costs have gone up quite a bit. We need them, and I understand that we cannot tell them what to charge us, but it has to be a bigger budget number.
Hauling things away also matters. If a homeowner takes out a kitchen and wants to get it over to Habitat, they need a truck, trailer, van, or some way to get it there. They also need the horsepower, because some of these things are heavy.
Again, demo is not the TV version very often.
Host:
There is also the issue of where everything ultimately goes. I have talked with people doing cleanups around town, and I ask, “Where do you take all those garbage bags?” That is a big thing too.
Mike:
It is.
There are things like getting rid of old appliances. It is not like you can just put them on the curb anymore and have someone pick them up. If that is still possible, we are not aware of it.
There are appliance recyclers in town, and we know that process. We can get appliances there.
We also have someone who comes to our shop. We make a pile of metal, for lack of a better term, and about once a week they come pick it up. It gets recycled and handled properly.
We try to keep things out of the dump when we can.
Construction waste generally gets recycled even at the dump. If we have a dumpster picked up on a remodel site, it goes to the dump, but they have a huge building out there where we dump it. It gets loaded onto a conveyor, ground up, and separated with magnets, blowers, and other systems into different products.
A lot of that material gets recycled. It does not simply get buried.
Host:
Are your guys using those Rubbermaid Roughneck trash cans to load things on site and bring them to the truck?
Mike:
We do that.
We want to make sure that if we bring a plumber in, we have a plan for the waste they create. When we get into finishes, we generally bring stuff back.
Our guys leave our shop in the morning and come back every night. If they stay on top of it, it is fairly easy to have a clean job site without leaving a dumpster there. They just deal with trash every day.
There is quite a bit of time figured into a remodeling budget for cleanup and getting rid of trash.
Host:
For people who do not know, we spent probably half an hour before the show talking about the importance of keeping things clean.
If you ever get a chance to talk to Mike about techniques and ways of keeping a job site clean, he has an expert view on that too. Carpentry is one thing he can definitely give you expertise on, but keeping things clean and neat is also very important.
Neither of us likes a mess.
Mike:
Sean, we learned something about you today.
Host:
Yes, we do.
It is a great day. If you have not checked out the website recently, head over to EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
Speaking of neat and clean, that website is very user-friendly and convenient for checking out Edge Construction projects.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number again is 636-EDGE.
We will talk more about the scope of work next as the Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction continues right here on 1310 WIBA.
Host:
This is the Home Remodeling Show, brought to you by Edge Construction. The website is EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number again is 636-EDGE.
We are talking about a scope of work. Mike brought in a sample from a job they did a couple of years ago, and we are walking through it.
I did not think we would talk as much about demolition as we did, but it is a fascinating and important part of the process. There is a lot more to it than I ever thought.
One thing I had not thought of is when there are items the homeowner wants to keep. Maybe there is a ceiling fan or a particular fixture they want to repurpose or reinstall as part of the remodel.
The scope gets into where those items are going to be kept and preserved, and what should be kept. It is spelled out here.
Mike:
And where we are going to put it.
When the crew gets into demo mode and has not read this, things can happen. On this job, it looked like they had bought a new toilet within the last few years, so we did not need to replace it. That means we have to put it somewhere it will not get wrecked, it will not be in the way, and we have to remember that it is going back in. We also have to make sure all parts are there.
The same goes for a vanity or a ceiling fan.
I do not know what it is with ceiling fans, but it seems like they are never in the right location. A builder might have thought the dining room table would go in one spot, then the homeowner gets a smaller table, a larger table, or puts it somewhere else.
A lot of times, we move ceiling fans. It sounds worse than it is. We are used to doing it, and we want it to look right.
Appliances can fall into the same category. If we are preserving a refrigerator, dishwasher, or another appliance, we need somewhere to put it where it will not get damaged.
Our people also need to take good pictures. If there was a scratch or dent before we started, we need to know that. We did not put the dent there; it was already there.
It is amazing what you can do with a cell phone camera now.
We also have a scheduling program, which is another way our people can look at the scope. We can post files and plans there. They can also add photos. That is where a lot of the in-progress pictures come from, including the ones that show up on the website or on Houzz.
Host:
You mentioned ceiling fans and how they are often in the wrong place. It feels like that is one of those projects people think they can do themselves.
They may have a regular light fixture and think, “We will just put a ceiling fan there,” not realizing those things are heavy. Over time, they start to wobble. I have seen videos of them dropping down.
We are going to talk about rough carpentry in a future segment, but I have to guess more than a couple of times you have removed a ceiling fan only to find out that, had you not removed it, sooner or later it was going to remove itself.
Mike:
Yes.
And I do not know why this is, but after being around this for a long time, I have seen a lot of things. Dale, our master electrician, will show me things that were wired wrong but still working.
That happens more often than you might think.
There are also progressions in quality with these products. You have the big-box-store version, which is not always the best. If you ask a master electrician, they will say they can wire it. But it is a much different experience than wiring something from a lighting store.
You are going to pay more, but you are getting a better fixture.
If you are a homeowner thinking, “This looks easy,” sometimes maybe it is. But a lot of times, there is more to it than you think.
Host:
Unfortunately, we often learn the hard way that there is more to it.
If you installed a ceiling fan and it has low and high speeds, but medium never comes on, there is probably something wrong with the wiring. I know somebody who had that problem and ignored it.
Mike:
I hear electricity is completely safe.
Host:
As we talk this morning with Mike Twohig, owner of Edge Construction, we will also talk about ways to make things more sturdy and install them properly as part of the remodeling project.
We will get into rough carpentry. We will also talk about moisture, because moisture in the wrong spot is a bad thing. We will talk about mechanicals and other parts of the scope of work with Edge Construction.
If you have not been to the website recently, head over to EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number again is 636-EDGE.
Edge Construction brings you the Home Remodeling Show right here on 1310 WIBA.
Host:
This is the Home Remodeling Show, brought to you by Edge Construction. You can find them online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number again is 636-EDGE.
We are talking this week about scope of work, where it fits into a remodel, and why it is such an important document.
The next couple of things we will touch on are rough carpentry and related details. Rough carpentry is not the most glamorous part of remodeling, but it holds everything together, doesn’t it?
Mike:
It does.
We put some general things in the scope, like blocking for cabinets or replacing damaged materials.
That is partly for the homeowner. If you watch TV and there has been a leak in the past, that can become a moment where the builder says, “Hey, we found a problem and it is going to cost more money.”
This is an assurance that if we find damaged material, we are generally going to fix it. Usually there are clues before we even start, and we know we are going to replace that stuff.
Our people never have to call me and say, “I found a problem. Should I fix it?” The answer is yes. Fix it.
Host:
When you talk about blocking, do you ever find cabinets that were hung on walls without proper structure behind them?
Mike:
Yes.
A lot of things happened during the flipper era. A lot of people were flipping houses who were not really qualified.
The flipper mentality for a lot of people was turn and burn. They threw things up, and then it became the next person’s problem.
We routinely find cabinets that were screwed only to drywall, not studs, and obviously not blocking. They held up for a while, and maybe they did not hold up. Maybe that is why we got the call.
There are a lot of ways to go wrong.
Ideally, when you are hanging cabinets, you always want to be into something structural. If we peel a wall apart and know we are hanging cabinets, we know where we need blocking and where we need something structural to tie into.
Host:
I think I have told you this before, but the house we rented before we bought our house was a newer fourplex. It was a nice enough place, but the cupboard above the refrigerator had my Pizzazz pizza oven in it, which is one of the greatest inventions ever.
I set it up there, and all of a sudden, the cabinet fell off. It ripped right out. They had simply screwed through the back, which was like cardboard.
How are cabinets supposed to be hung? Are there cleats?
Mike:
This is a rabbit hole.
For a good installer, you can take a lower-end cabinet, install it well, and not have too many problems. It will look pretty good. Will it last as long as a really good cabinet? No.
As you move up the scale, and because we have been doing this a long time, with the cabinets we buy, we want a built-in cleat in the back of the cabinet. That doubles or triples the material at the back. Then we are screwing through that cleat into the structural part of the wall, like a stud or block.
Most cabinets are particle board, and I do not love that. Particle board is heavy even before you put anything in it.
A plywood cabinet is a better product, and it is also about half the weight. In my mind, it is stronger, better, and handles moisture better.
Over a 20- or 30-year lifespan, cabinets are going to take on moisture in the summer and shed it in the winter. Plywood is a much more stable product.
If I had a choice, I would want a cabinet with great cleats in the back to attach to the wall. I want a nice, strong cabinet. I want it as strong as possible, but not a super-heavy cabinet where its own weight becomes part of the problem.
Host:
Can it withstand the Pizzazz?
Do you still have one, by the way?
Mike:
Do you still have one?
Host:
I do. When my wife is away, that is how Mason and I make dinner. For some reason, she seems to have an adversarial relationship with it.
There is a chance I will check the cupboard and find out she threw it away.
Mike:
The pizza oven knows she does not like it.
Host:
You mentioned moisture. Kitchens and bathrooms are places where we think a lot about moisture, but in general, moisture in any room is not your friend, is it?
Mike:
It is not.
Everybody knows a bathroom can have moisture problems. There are connection points where problems can happen.
In a hot summer with high humidity, you may see moisture forming on the outside of a toilet. A lot of times, that moisture rolls down into the floor system and weakens the floor.
When you peel apart the floor in a bathroom that has been there for a while, it is common to find rot around the toilet and in front of the tub. If your kids are anything like my grandkids, it is party time in there. Water goes all over, no matter what system you have to stop it.
We do a lot better now with tile floors because we have a membrane underneath, and we try to waterproof it as much as possible. That does not mean you can have three inches of water and ignore it without a problem.
There is always an end to the tile. If water makes it out to the edge of the wall and gets underneath into the floor system, it can cause problems.
There is another way to have a water problem, which is vapor coming from outside the house.
That is another rabbit hole.
When we have a real cold winter with temperatures below zero, warm generally moves toward cold. But when it gets below zero, cold starts to push back into the house. Where warm and cold meet, moisture can form.
Code says that when houses are built, there should be a plastic sheet on the inside. In my mind, that makes sense to a lot of people because of air infiltration. We do not want air rushing into the house because that causes problems.
But that plastic sheet can trap moisture in the wall, and then the house has no place to dry out. Sometimes we tear apart walls and find that kind of issue.
When we work on a house and put plastic up on the inside, there is an easy fix. It is a product called MemBrain, like your brain in your head. It has variable permeability.
Host:
Are we going too deep down the rabbit hole? I am curious.
Mike:
The theory is that if you get moisture in the wall from vapor or anything else, the product opens up and lets air move back and forth so the wall can dry out.
When it is really dry, it closes up and stops air infiltration. It is a cool product, not very expensive, and an easy fix.
Host:
What is interesting as we talk about these different parts of the scope of work is having those details included. Where exactly is the insulation going? Where are the moisture barriers going? What should the homeowner expect?
Another very important area, and a term we probably bring up every week, is mechanicals.
When we talk about mechanicals, we are talking about the things that make the house work: electrical, heating, water, sewage, and all that.
Mike:
Yes. It is a lot of things you cannot see.
This scope details what the electrical panel looks like, which matters because we are an electrical contractor and we worry about that.
If we are doing a kitchen that is more than about ten years old, believe it or not, the codes have changed since then. We have to bring things up to current standards, or the inspectors will be mad at us.
That generally means adding two, three, or four new circuits to the kitchen. Now, many things need dedicated circuits.
If we are serving a microwave, refrigerator, dishwasher, or something similar, we want a home run. We want one wire going back. We do not want a bunch of other things coming off of that.
The code is very detailed about how you are supposed to treat those things. Our scope includes general items, but also the little jobs that need to happen.
If you look at our scope, a lot of it deals with the mechanical side. It lists all those little jobs.
Host:
It is pages. We are talking pages.
It gets into every detail: USB port locations, for example. It gets really deep into the details.
Do you have USB outlets?
Mike:
I do.
Host:
I think it has probably been ten years. You and I talked about them, maybe off the air, and I ordered them that day. Those are becoming almost standard, aren’t they?
Mike:
They have become standard.
There are places in a kitchen where you cannot put them because of code, but they work great. I actually think it is a better way to charge your devices than using some of the chargers that come with them.
Some chargers will overcharge and heat up your phone or computer. The USB outlets have come a long way and do a great job.
Host:
They look cool too. They have a modern look compared to the brick-style chargers.
Mike:
Speaking of that, we had a new thing show up in our showroom. I saw it at the shows maybe a year or two ago. It lets you charge through your countertop.
Host:
We have talked about this off air, but let’s talk about it.
Mike:
The idea is that in a stone countertop, we router out a section of the underside, maybe an eight-by-ten or six-by-ten-inch space. A charging system gets mounted underneath, and you can lay anything rechargeable on top: a laptop, phone, earbuds, or anything in that area.
It charges through the countertop. No cords, nothing to look at.
You can actually find it without marking it. You slide your phone across the surface, and when it senses the charger, it can light up underneath. It can light up the perimeter, and you can choose different colors.
It is a very cool thing, and I think we are starting to offer it now.
Host:
I can see why people will want to talk about that.
Speaking of really cool things they can do at Edge Construction, if you are thinking about a kitchen remodel, home remodel, or any space, they would love to talk with you at Edge Construction.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That is 636-EDGE.
You can learn more online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is Edge Construction Company dot com.
We talked about some of the pictures included in the scope of work. We will get details on those from Mike next as the Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction continues here on 1310 WIBA.
Host:
This is the Home Remodeling Show, brought to you by Edge Construction. You can find them online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number again is 636-EDGE.
Mike, we are only a few pages into the scope of work. This may be something we need to bring back a couple more times.
We have talked about the business side of it, but also the really detailed side of it. Now we are getting into pictures showing the products that are going to be installed.
Aside from being super detailed with part numbers and layout patterns, there is really no room for error. It is very clear what you are putting in.
I am guessing this is intentionally detailed for a good reason.
Mike:
It is.
Here is a great example. On the first page with pictures, we are talking about interior doors and door hardware.
We recently had a job where the doors came in correctly and the door handles were right, but one of our guys called and said the hinges came in black. It was obvious that was wrong.
Because they could look at the scope, they figured it out. Our supplier had the scope too, but they made a small mistake.
As long as we catch the mistake, it is okay. What is embarrassing is when the homeowner brings it up at the end. Then we have to order a new product, and there is a whole process.
The scope shows trim colors, styles, and color pictures.
When this stuff is loaded by a supplier, put on a truck, and brought out, everybody is somewhat disconnected. The supplier does not have a full view of the whole job. If they grab the wrong stack of trim, that can happen.
But we do not want our people installing the wrong trim. Then we have triple the work to get back to zero.
For a homeowner, if you are buying something and all you have is a general description of the job, without all the pieces and parts spelled out, I do not know how comfortable I would be.
I looked at a contract for a friend of mine outside the area. It was too far for us to do the work, but I asked, “What kind of windows are you getting?”
They said, “Andersen.”
I said, “Your contract does not tell me what style of Andersen. There are Andersen 100s, Andersen 400s, and other lines. You can go up from there to triple panes.”
They checked back and said, “My remodeler says they are Andersen 400s.”
I said, “He said that, but it is not in your contract. If I were you, I would have him make a note in the contract. Then if the wrong thing shows up, everybody knows.”
Host:
That is interesting. You go down to part numbers and details.
Another thing I never thought about, because this is day to day for you, is which way a door opens. It is spelled out here: left-hand, right-hand.
What is a bypass door?
Mike:
It is a closet door where the doors slide behind each other on hardware.
Host:
For people who do not know, if you work with Mike and you get your scope of work and there is a door installed, it will tell you not just the size, but which way the door opens. That is the level of detail we are talking about.
You mentioned the pictures as well. It gives you a reference to verify the product, because sometimes the box says one thing and the product inside is wrong.
It also shows layout for things like floor tile and how the tiles are going to be placed. That must be especially helpful for your tile guys. There is no question about what the finished layout should look like.
Mike:
It is important.
Sometimes we may wait six weeks for certain tiles, and you can lay tile in different ways.
We have a straight lay, where the joints all line up. We have a brick lay, where the joints split. We have one we call thirds, where the joint staggers by a third of the tile length.
All of that should be laid out in the scope. It is very easy to make a mistake.
Host:
As people go through this, are they sometimes surprised by how much detail is included?
I know you talk with homeowners quite a bit and go over this stuff, but I was surprised when I started digging into it. There is a lot that goes into it.
Mike:
I think they probably are a little surprised.
But from a homeowner’s standpoint, they are thinking, “I went into business with these people. I trust they are going to get it right.”
When something goes wrong, that is when it is time to look back and say, “I thought we talked about this.”
That is where the real appreciation for the scope comes in. It should be a level of comfort for a homeowner. You are signing a contract, and whether it is $10,000 or $100,000, it is a lot of money.
You want to get it right the first time.
I see jobs where people later say, “This is not really what I ordered, but it is not too far off, so we accepted it.” Or maybe the remodeler offered them something in lieu of changing it because it would be painful to change.
We are trying to stop those problems before they happen.
Host:
Changing things later is no walk in the park. You want to get it right.
That is the importance of the plan, the design, and the process. It is a really good day to talk with Edge Construction or head over to EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number again is 636-EDGE.
Edge Construction brings you the Home Remodeling Show here on 1310 WIBA.