Updated Farmhouse Bathroom Remodel and How Good Planning Helps Avoid Construction Surprises
Host:
Welcome to the Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction on News Talk 1310 WIBA. Have a question? Email it to EdgeConstructionRadio@gmail.com.
Now, here is your host, Sean Prebil, on News Talk 1310 WIBA.
This is the Home Remodeling Show, brought to you by Edge Construction, online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
Head over there right now because we are going to be talking about some great recent projects, one specifically being a recent bathroom remodel.
By the way, Mike Twohig is with us.
Mike, how have you been?
Mike:
Great, Sean. Good to see you.
Host:
This bathroom, by the way, is near the beautiful community of Edgerton, isn’t it?
Mike:
Yes.
You know, since they got this new alderman down there, people are just flooding to it.
Host:
Exactly.
We are going to talk about this updated farmhouse bath up at EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
We are also going to talk about some construction things that can be run into, how they are solved, and, of course, we will talk with Mike about that.
But first and foremost, before we get to the recent bathroom remodel, and before we get back to working through some problems encountered during remodeling, real quick, as we are getting late into the summer — Labor Day is Monday, and it is not fair.
I want a longer summer.
Mike:
Man, it just seems to go a little fast.
Host:
You guys are obviously going year-round with work, keeping busy, and you have some great stuff underway.
But now is the time.
I know a lot of people, when spring hits, the phones really start to explode, and people say, “I am ready to do a remodel right now.”
We should be thinking spring now, shouldn’t we?
Mike:
I think so.
It is easy to say, “Let’s get through the holidays, and then we will get to work on this thing.”
But people do not realize, in general, that it takes longer now in all parts of the process.
It takes a little longer in planning. There have been problems with the supply chain. We have heard rumors.
Since COVID, it seems like things spiraled out of control a little bit on materials, and things became less predictable. So we have had to expand timelines.
Especially if you have a little bigger job, there is just so much planning that goes into it.
Our big jobs, like if you are thinking about an addition, or right now we have a house in Middleton where we tore the roof off and went up a floor — to get that going next year, you have to call pretty much in the next couple of days.
Maybe it is not quite that bad, but you should really get the process started.
We are not going to be tearing your house apart during Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Eve or anything like that. It is still a ways out because you have to go through this planning process, which takes at least a matter of months.
The bigger the job, the longer that planning takes.
If a big job is going to take six months to do, it is probably going to spend that long in planning and design.
Host:
Are people sometimes surprised?
I think of all the different choices and options, even things that may seem very trivial, like what the knobs are going to look like, that end up taking more time.
I think I have told you this before, but many years ago, when my wife and I got engaged, we were at the jewelry store. My wife, of course, was very diligently working on selecting the right wedding band to go with her engagement ring.
The jeweler said to me, “What would you like?”
I said, “I am simple. It will be quick.”
He said, “Guys take longer for this than women, even though they claim they are simple.”
Is it the same thing with remodeling?
Sometimes we think, “Well, I am going to do an addition. It should be simple. I have a pretty good idea of what I want.”
Are people sometimes surprised by how many options there are and how maybe their perspective changes once they start seeing some of those options?
Mike:
I think so.
You just do not have a benchmark for this.
If you are starting off in the process and your job is not in this industry, you are probably thinking, “What takes so long?”
But we are not going to rush you on that upfront process.
It is not necessarily us driving the timeline on the design portion. We are going to let you react to things.
If we come up with a design or a change to the layout, a lot of times that is prompted by you anyway. Then we are going to let you sit on it until you say, “Okay, where are we at?” or “I do not like this. Can we modify it?”
It does take time.
At the beginning of the process, people look at us a little funny when we say it is probably going to take about this long.
But after you go through it, we have had many homeowners say, “I get it now, and I am so glad we took that time.”
That is how you end up with those great remodels and the great pictures online.
Host:
We are going to talk about some great remodels and pictures online in just a moment.
It feels like, when you are doing things, things tend to move faster.
Going back to summer being almost over, summer always flies by.
It feels like the same thing when we are talking about design and getting prepared for the actual remodel.
On a calendar, you may think, “Oh, that seems like a long time.”
But when you are in it and working on it, I have to guess it feels like it is moving a lot faster because decisions are being made and there is a process.
Mike:
Right.
I think people do appreciate not being rushed in this process.
On the new-construction side, we do work for builders, and I see it over there. They have what they call selection days.
It is like, “Okay, we are going to pick out all the flooring, the trim, the cabinets, the countertops, the paint colors, and on and on.”
All of this stuff is happening at once, and I am not sure that is ideal. That seems like overload to me.
When we have bigger remodels, if we are doing a whole-house remodel or even a whole-floor remodel, a lot of times we like to break that up.
Maybe we are doing a kitchen and some common areas, and then we pick another hour or two to work on the primary bath.
We are putting these products in your hands, whether it is cabinet door samples with colors, countertop samples, or flooring samples, so you can take them back to your house and see them in the light that is there.
Things can look different in your house than they do in a showroom because we have a bunch of light, and we are trying to make sure you see everything really well.
Your house may be a different style.
You have to make that go with what you already have.
Host:
We are talking this morning with Mike Twohig, owner of Edge Construction.
Online, EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
We talked a little bit about the process and getting started now for remodeling.
You mentioned the website, EdgeConstructionCompany.com, and a recent project you guys worked on.
Before we get into the process and completion of it, I do have to say, aside from being dated, the bathroom you guys worked on here looked like it was well cared for, and cosmetically and maybe structurally, it looked to be in fairly decent shape.
Do you run into that often with bathrooms specifically, where they are in pretty good shape generally?
Mike:
Usually, when people are doing baths, it is a pain and it costs money. You are without that bath for a while, so it tends to get put off until water is running into the floor underneath it.
But it is maybe not always that bad.
We do probably 30 percent of our work more like updating, like this one.
It was out of style, and it was still functioning in the same way. We did not even really change the layout on this bath.
What happened was this family had a life change. I think somebody’s mom was moving in with them, and they happened to have a sort of mother-in-law suite, I will just call it.
They felt like if they were going to remodel this bath, now was the time, before she was living there and they were not able to do it.
We made it better and incorporated some universal design elements. We got some neat stuff in there.
I think that was what drove it.
It was also a bath where the present homeowners did not pick out anything originally. It was not their dated stuff. It was somebody else’s dated stuff.
Now they had a lot of input and were able to fix it up.
Host:
Something I saw that was interesting: it had a shower before, and you guys really updated the shower space.
Something I noticed, and you pointed out too, was the soffit above the shower.
Did that serve no purpose at all?
Do you run into that, where for some reason they just decided, “We are going to lower the ceiling artificially in here”?
Mike:
Quite often, really.
It was a 1970s and 1980s thing.
I remember back when I started off, I was on a framing crew and we were building houses. Somebody would say, “Well, we are done. We just have to build this soffit.”
Nobody said, “Why are we building soffits?”
We would build that ceiling down.
I do not know if it felt cozier or what.
By today’s standards, the old shower would be like walking into a cave or tunnel. There is no natural light making its way in there.
Now you have this ceiling that is down.
I am 6-foot-3, so I probably would not have really enjoyed this one very much. I do not know if I could actually stand straight up in this shower.
Host:
That brings us to the remodel.
One of the areas you mentioned is natural light and making that space feel more comfortable and open.
Before we break down everything, I really want to talk about the glass doors and the glass surround you guys put on this one.
A couple of things stand out to me.
One, it is very nice how it is done with the glass door on the front and then the glass on the side.
Also, the frosted glass adds privacy, but it still allows the space to feel open and larger.
That finished project — thank goodness for that slider — it is hard to believe it is the same space because it just seems so much bigger.
Mike:
Yes.
You can see by the trim style on the window and on the door that it is an older house and very well taken care of, like you mentioned.
So it was hard to find that balance.
This is always a challenge: how do you meld old with new?
If the glass was totally clear all the way around, I love that look too.
But this one has a little nostalgia to it. It gives you the privacy, and I think it fits the space.
Host:
Looking at the flooring and the stone that was put on the shower, that also seems to add to that farmhouse feel.
It is clean and nice, but it still has that farmhouse, almost rustic look to it.
Mike:
Yes.
The floor is a little bit rustic.
The glass tile on the walls is literally glass tile. The glass has a tint to it, but it is actually the backer that gives it a lot of its look.
If you held it in your hand, it does not show up great in the pictures, but it really has a green tint to it.
It almost looks like it goes with the privacy glass.
I will give one caveat.
When this product showed up at our shop, I said, “Heather, where is this going?”
She said, “In a shower.”
I said, “Well, you know that is a very tough product to work with in a shower because glass likes to break.”
If you are drilling through glass or trying to mount door hinges on glass, it is a real challenge.
This one, in particular, was a challenge.
We had to show that it is not all cake and cookies.
I think the first go-round of installing glass broke seven glass tiles.
What we ended up doing was retiling those areas, actually carving out where the hinges go, and putting a solid backer there so we were not mounting onto the glass tile.
We have had to do that a couple of other times, and now we are over the hump. Everything is great.
But if you look on here, there are a lot of things protruding through that glass.
We have the door hinges, the mounting points for the stationary glass, the plumbing fixtures coming through, and we had a crack there.
We also had cracks where we mounted some grab bars.
All of that was quite a challenge, but I think the end result was worth it because the product looks amazing.
Host:
One of the things I noticed, as we talk about design and planning, is the subtle stuff that adds amazing functionality.
I am looking at the doorway, and to the left it looks like a nice place to hang a towel or robe.
It is subtle, but functionally, that is a great little addition.
It probably required planning and a conversation to say, “We need a place for a towel. When you are getting into the shower, where are you going to put your towel? Where are you going to hang your stuff?”
To have that thought and design, and to put that on there, fits in really nicely.
Mike:
Yes.
It is a little robe hook mounted right in the glass.
It is kind of a cool style, and it matches the style of everything else on the hardware.
I am going to quiz you.
If you are looking at the low wall with glass above it on the left-hand side, there is clearly a niche there, right?
Host:
Yes.
Mike:
That big niche.
There is a niche right below it. What do you think that is for?
Host:
Let me look.
Because you are quizzing me, I am going to guess it is something I am not familiar with personally, but I know my wife always looks for a place to set her foot when she is shaving her legs.
Mike:
There you go. That is what it is.
Host:
Okay, I got one.
I know why I picked up on that.
This is not a joke, but from doing the show with you all these years, we have talked about the different little nuances and little things you guys add to bathrooms.
It may have come up on a previous program and sat back in my brain somewhere.
It is funny because I think we actually did a show titled “The Little Things.”
Those are the types of things where, if you are getting that planning and design, and having those conversations upfront, again, is it something that is going to make or break the space? No.
But is it something that is going to be greatly appreciated and make you say, “How did I live without this?”
Absolutely.
Mike:
Right.
Some of those little things are not things that really add to the budget. It is more that we do our tile in house, so our people plan for that stuff.
They will come to us with ideas too on where to put things.
I know we were struggling on this bath with where to hang your towel.
That can be tough in some bathrooms.
I am sure our glass guy came up with that idea, so that was kind of a neat thing.
Host:
One final thing on the glass.
How does the frost on the glass work? Does that come that way?
Mike:
Fair that you ask me a question.
Yes.
There are so many options now on the glass.
When you do a custom glass shower like this, our glass guy does a ton of glass around the Madison area, but he is not necessarily making this glass in his shop.
They do cut a lot of glass and send it off to be tempered for certain things.
This is one he would have had to spec and order from a manufacturer.
Again, it is not necessarily a big cost thing.
He is obviously great at measuring and very precise, and it is coming exactly the way he asked for it.
It is pretty cool to have those options.
Host:
It is really amazing stuff.
Check that out right now at EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
We are talking about the updated farmhouse bathroom.
Speaking of some of the things you encounter, we talked earlier about bathroom remodels, some of the issues that can be found, and hidden repairs over the generations that may have been done.
How do you solve some of those problems, overcome them, and prevent some of those issues?
We will talk with Mike about that in just a moment.
In the meantime, head over to the website, EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
Of course, pick up the phone and give them a call at 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
More of the Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction comes your way next, right here on 1310 WIBA.
Host:
The Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction continues now on News Talk 1310 WIBA.
This is the Home Remodeling Show, brought to you by Edge Construction, online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
We were talking earlier about some recent projects up at EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
One of the really cool things, if you have not been there recently, is that they are always updating it.
There are also some fantastic links to Pinterest, Facebook, and Houzz. H-O-U-Z-Z.
Check out those links right at EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
If somebody is thinking about doing some remodeling, Mike and the team at Edge Construction would love to talk with you.
Pick up the phone and give them a call at 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
Mike, we were talking earlier about the timeline, and of course, now is a great time to start the conversation for springtime remodeling.
One of the things you mentioned had to do with the global pipeline of things.
It gets a little more complicated with things like custom orders.
We are going to be talking about some construction nightmares and how to solve them.
With custom orders, sometimes you open a box and what you ordered may not be what is in that box exactly. Maybe it is the wrong color, the wrong size, you name it.
Mike:
I had mentioned that light green glass tile on our website.
I think it took two or three orders to get the correct stuff for that, and I do not remember what the issue was.
I think we opened up some boxes.
When you sign your contract, we order everything.
We order cabinets. We want our countertop people to get the slabs on hand.
We want to get that stuff. We are sort of pre-ordering things before we need them.
It gives us some expense because we want to get that stuff, but it is better to do that and identify a problem than the reverse, where everything is a surprise.
If we open every box and have problems, that is an issue.
We joke about the supply chain, but it is not just that it takes longer and is more expensive. It is also that the level of production is lower.
We can have problems with quality.
We order certain things that are very specific on color, style, and size, and close is just not close enough.
So, yes, we talked about custom orders. I was thinking maybe cabinets, but it is more than that.
Because there are so many options now, you almost have to treat everything like it is not a standard.
In our showroom, we wrestle with this quite a bit.
We want to show you products and show you everything so you can make an informed choice, but we want to peel off products that we have had trouble with in the past.
Or maybe we are not sure we can get them in time to do your job.
Or maybe we are afraid they are going to go out of production between the time we pick them out and the time we actually order them at contract.
So there are some things that play in.
Even with all those fail-safes, there are times where a flooring manufacturer, for, say, LVP — vinyl plank flooring — will not even make the same product for a year.
They bring it out, we get samples, we start selling it and showing it in our showroom, and nine months later we get emails saying, “Okay, we have a product change, and we are no longer offering this product.”
Then we are scrambling to find something else to fill that slot.
The custom stuff can be a nightmare.
Host:
For folks who have been out to 2616 Industrial and seen the showroom, they go, “There is a lot here.”
What is going on behind the scenes?
Another reason, as we talk about incorrect and custom orders, is that you mentioned ordering everything and getting it in right away.
One thing you guys are able to do because of the space you have is get that stuff in and warehouse it for when it is needed.
You are not at the mercy of — back in the day, things were real time. You would start the project and know things were being shipped and on their way.
You guys do not do it that way at Edge Construction.
It is in there. You stock everything you can, and when that project starts, you have the stuff on hand and the proper stuff has been brought in.
Mike:
Yes.
If you go in our back shop, you will see tile that could be three months out.
I would rather have it and take a peek at it to make sure it is the right stuff.
We open a box or two to make sure we do not have damage.
A lot of times, when you open a box and find damage, it means the whole thing has problems.
We do everything we can to stay ahead of it.
It does create a challenge sometimes.
If we have 2,000 feet of wood floor sitting in our shop, we have to find room for all this stuff.
But we also control the environment it is in.
We heat and cool that space, and we do not let the humidity build up too much.
It is a great place to store things like wood flooring and cabinets, and you have fewer problems when you install that stuff if it has been treated right in the lead-up time.
Host:
We are talking this morning with Mike Twohig, owner at 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 is 636-EDGE.
We are talking this week about some of the problems that can be encountered when it comes to remodeling and the ways they are prevented.
We have more details on Mike.
You know how you hear the term that we are all working off the same blueprints?
Sometimes it is not only about looking at the details, but the importance of keeping everybody on the same page.
We will get those details next.
In the meantime, type in the website, EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
Head over there now, and pick up the phone and give them a call at 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
More of the Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction is next right here on 1310 WIBA.
Host:
The Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction continues now on News Talk 1310 WIBA.
This is the Home Remodeling Show, brought to you by Edge Construction, online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
It is a great website to learn more about Edge Construction Company.
You can also see recent work, and it is a great place to go for ideas, as well as links to Pinterest, Houzz, and Facebook.
Again, all of that is available at EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
If you are thinking about doing some remodeling and want to start that conversation, all you have to do is give them a call at 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
We are talking this morning about some construction issues that can happen, and, of course, what do they say? The best-laid plans of mice and men.
Sometimes things can happen.
One of the keys is planning and working to prevent that stuff.
One of the notes here says “blueprint confusion,” and I had to ask you: do you guys actually have paper rolls?
Are there blueprints per se any longer?
Mike:
It is fun.
A lot of times before looking at your house, I will ask if any plans came with the house.
Sometimes you do, sometimes you do not.
Did plans come with your house?
Host:
No, I do not think so.
There may be some in the attic somewhere. A past owner may have shoved them in a hole.
Mike:
Yes.
We do not do it that way anymore.
It is really handy, by the way, if you do have those plans and you call us out and can round those up.
We will just take a picture of them, and it is quicker for us to get it into our CAD program.
Now we have this thing called the large-format printer. I think it prints up to three feet wide, so it will print a plan that is three feet wide and infinitely long, obviously.
We do not do blueprints anymore.
I still remember having to do that. You would get this kit or whatever and draw straight lines on it. It would go down through a couple of layers, and you would have a couple of different layers there.
Or we could take our paper CAD plans that we printed and have them made into blueprints. There are companies that will make them into blueprints.
I do not know why you would. Why would you not just copy it?
But sometimes people do that stuff.
So, yes, blueprint confusion.
I am sure you are thinking, “How can there be confusion?”
Well, I am going to pick on our concrete buddies.
At the very beginning of the design process, we rough out what we think it is going to look like and what the homeowner thinks it is going to look like.
We send that off. We do not do concrete necessarily, but we send a version of that plan to the concrete people and expect a bid back.
They rough price that out for us, and that fits into the bidding process.
As things change, we might send another version to them.
By the time we actually sign a contract, there might have been three or four versions or updates.
It does get confusing.
Then they show up to the job, and their boss hands them a plan. It might have been the first one, and we are not doing that anymore.
So we do things like have the scope of work and the plans as a book on your job.
But we have gone even farther into that.
We will take a big version of the plan, maybe 24 by 36, mark it up with highlighters, and say, “This is old. This stays. This is the new concrete going in.”
Then we staple it up on the side of the house right in front of the people who are going to do it.
I pick on them, and we laugh, but they will call me.
This happened last week.
They called me and said, “Can you just measure this out? I know you have the plan out there, but please measure this out. We do not want to make a mistake.”
So it is actually very easy to have blueprint confusion.
Your remodeler, or whoever is in charge of all this, needs to have a thousand fail-safes in the system to not have those problems.
Host:
Is that partially why countertop people are so diligent?
I do not want to call them weird, but I am going to call them weird.
Is that part of it?
They just want to make sure they are getting it exactly right.
Mike:
Yes.
They will not even trust our plan.
Even if it is a 3-foot-wide vanity and I can say, “Just make us up a rectangular 37-inch by 22-inch countertop,” they say, “Nope, we are not doing it.”
They want to come out and measure the cabinet themselves in place.
I understand why.
Those slabs are very expensive. Those stone slabs are almost all we do.
You do not want to mess that up.
For one, it might throw you.
The next slab you get might be a little different dye lot or a little different look if it is stone.
So they are picky about that.
But they will bid your plans. They will price your plans.
Host:
It is interesting to hear that.
I guess I do not always think about this.
Has technology helped?
I know there is software in just about every industry for collaboration and workflow.
I have to guess, obviously in remodeling and construction, there is software like that.
Does that help alleviate some of this?
Or is it sometimes that internally everybody is going to be on the same page, but with some of those other people, you have to say, “No, no, no.”
Mike:
There are two sides to this crime, right?
There is the design side and then the construction side.
In our meetings, the construction side will have questions for the design side, and the design side always says, “It is in the scope. Did you read the scope?”
Well, it is easier to just ask somebody than page through a book and find the specs.
They will not help us out anymore. They say, “Go do your homework and look it up yourself.”
But it is also the best way to do it.
You are trying to take the human error out of it.
There are so many moving parts and so many variables that I still think it is great when a trade calls us and says, “Can we just go over this in person? Bring us the most current version of the plan.”
That way, there is no possibility for a mistake.
Host:
We are talking this morning with Mike Twohig, owner of Edge Construction.
The website is EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
If you are thinking about doing a remodel, today is the day to give them a call: 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
We mentioned the website, EdgeConstructionCompany.com. It is a great website and is always being updated with recent projects.
There are also some great links there to Houzz, Pinterest, and Facebook — all those popular places to get great remodeling ideas.
Houzz is a phenomenal one. Check out EdgeConstructionCompany.com for that link.
We will continue our conversation with Mike this morning and talk a little bit more about some of the things that can be run into when it comes to remodeling and construction, ways to avoid them, and things you can do to best protect yourself, as well as the importance of having good plans in place.
We will do all of that next.
In the meantime, head to EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
Edge Construction brings you the Home Remodeling Show right here on 1310 WIBA.
Host:
You are listening to the Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction. Email your questions to EdgeConstructionRadio@gmail.com.
Once again, here is Sean Prebil on News Talk 1310 WIBA.
This is the Home Remodeling Show, brought to you by Edge Construction right here on 1310 WIBA.
We are talking this Saturday morning with Mike Twohig, owner of Edge Construction, about some construction nightmares and how to solve them.
When it comes to opening up walls and other things, there are things that are unforeseen, and we might talk about some of those.
One of the great things is the importance of having that plan and working through all these issues beforehand. That can really save a lot of time, effort, and headaches.
Mike and the team at Edge Construction would love to do that for you and work with you to get some ideas for remodeling.
If you have been to the website, EdgeConstructionCompany.com, you are probably thinking, “That sounds like a lot of fun. It would be awesome to do.”
All you have to do is pick up the phone and give them a call: 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
Mike, as we talk about problems and solutions, there are some things that are ultimately beyond our control.
We just went through back-to-school and getting school supplies, getting my son ready for the new school year.
My goodness, you definitely notice right away that costs have gone up a little bit over the last year or so.
Unexpected costs can happen.
Are we still dealing with the lumber thing?
I remember for a long time, that was a nightmare. If you had a stack of two-by-fours, you could have retired.
Mike:
Good, bad, or otherwise, people’s view of construction costs is generally tied to lumber prices.
Lumber is a commodity. It gets priced by the ton, or by the train-car load, or whatever.
When you look at the headlines, they say lumber has come down, and that is great. We are happy about that.
We were paying over $10 for a two-by-four not that long ago, and now we are down to maybe $4 or something. I am not sure what it is exactly at this point.
But what people do not realize is the two-by-four cost, as a percentage of the build, is pretty small.
If you look at things like what we call engineered lumber — beams, the floor-framing system, floor joists, trusses, and even the engineered plywood — it is not plywood anymore.
It looks like a bunch of little wood chips glued together, and it is the engineered stuff.
That did not come down the same way.
It came down a little bit and stabilized, but it is not like it crashed.
Our lumber costs are much more predictable, and they are certainly less than they were. They might be half of what they were a year ago or two years ago.
But I think we are at the new normal.
Things like cabinets, anything with metal, plumbing stuff, and even plastic pipe — we are still getting price increases on that. But they are sort of regular price increases, maybe 5 percent here or there, not 30 percent like we were getting.
Wire has come down.
We are an electrical contractor, and the smallest spool of wire that we would normally buy was $23 in 2019. It peaked at $180.
It was a little bit shocking.
It was almost nine times the price.
Now we are down to about $80, so it is still four times more than maybe it should be. I do not know if it is going much lower.
We have to plan for that.
The frustrating part is for homeowners who maybe looked at a project three or four years ago and said, “This addition was $100,000, and now it is $150,000.”
Those are the things that contribute.
Then we have all that supply chain stuff.
I know our topic is delays, and I got off topic like I sometimes do, but the delays really hit us two or three years ago and last year.
Now the part where we order stuff is getting to a better timeline. It is getting more normal and predictable.
I am noticing the extra time I had to build into schedules the last few years means now we are sort of caught up and ahead of schedule on a lot of our jobs.
I probably need to start looking at that and figure out if I can adjust things because we are not getting as many delays.
Host:
That is great news and great stuff to hear.
We are talking this morning with Mike Twohig, owner at Edge Construction.
The website is EdgeConstructionCompany.com. Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
Mike, we started the conversation this week talking about a recent bathroom remodel.
One of the things I had commented on, and you confirmed, is that it looked like the space was well maintained.
With bathrooms, though, that is often not the case.
When you talk about unexpected construction costs and opening up walls, you never fully know what you are going to find in there.
That is part of what can affect construction, budget, and those kinds of things — finding things that may be a little more involved than people expect.
You guys work through that at Edge Construction, don’t you?
Mike:
We do.
My view of it is that we almost never charge back homeowners for things that we find.
My view is that we are supposed to be the expert. The homeowner is hiring us to do this job.
If you have done enough of them, I do not know if you get to be a good guesser or you just build up that experience and start to know how they did things in each era and each type of house, and even in different areas of town or the county.
I feel pretty confident when we are doing budgets that I know 95 percent of what is behind those walls.
We might get smaller surprises, but it rarely happens now, and those are not things we are going back to the homeowner for.
I made this rule in our company a long time ago, probably 10 years ago, where I said, “Okay, we are not going to charge somebody for this.”
It is not like on TV, where you find something and magically it is always $10,000. That is the number.
We just do not do that.
It did cost me more because I made more mistakes earlier in my career, but we have gotten better at it.
It is not like we put padded numbers in just in case we find something. We are not necessarily doing that either.
There are a lot of clues there.
If you have done this long enough, I think you get pretty good at it.
There is value to experience, and gray hairs pay off a little bit.
Host:
Exactly.
One of the things that just popped into my head as you were talking is I noticed the words “bad soil” in one of the notes.
I guess I have never thought about that with additions and other things.
Are we lucky here in Wisconsin where generally the soil is good?
What does that mean?
Mike:
It is pretty predictable.
Different types of soil will support different kinds of weight.
If I was building 500 houses a year, it would be different. I would want to really nail this down because my footing size, which is going to support those concrete walls and ultimately the whole house and roof, can vary in size.
If you have a soil that is very supportive, like sandy gravel, that is going to support a lot of weight. I can have a smaller footing and save myself $1,000, let’s say, in a house.
If it is something that is not as supportive, the soil can change enough that, in theory, you could have half the footing size in one spot and double in another.
So the soil condition can be a challenge.
I know builders who work in the Milwaukee area, and it is much less predictable than it is here.
There are inspectors that call it out and say, “Listen, you put a footing down for this foundation for this house, and it is not going to carry. You need to fix it.”
And they do.
Host:
That is interesting.
It is an area I do not know.
You think, “Hey, it is a floor. It is on the ground. It is the ground. What difference does it make?”
But there is a lot that goes into it.
One fun thing before we wrap up is about payments, understanding how that pay schedule goes, and how money makes the world go around.
For some reason, people are very uncomfortable talking budget. They are uncomfortable talking about money and payments.
As much as people say they do not like to talk about it, this is real important stuff when it comes to remodeling, isn’t it?
Mike:
It is.
You should be careful if your contractor does not have a reputation or a good reputation.
I would be much less willing to give them more upfront. I would want to see some progress before I gave them money.
I have talked about all the things we order and get on hand.
We probably err on the side of getting a little more upfront because our jobs generally have cabinets, and cabinets happen right away.
When we are talking about getting those granite or quartz slabs into our manufacturer’s location, they do not do that just on your word. You have to pay those bills upfront.
When we are working with banks on financed projects, on bigger projects, that is a much different situation.
You do need to have these conversations.
Our jobs generally are four or five payments, with maybe 5 or 10 percent at the end that locks it all down.
I think that is generally how it should work.
If it does not work like that, ask your remodeler and make them give you a good reason.
Host:
As we talk about questions and completion, having the stuff all upfront and having a clear financial plan saves everybody.
If you are working with a contractor who says, “Yes, we will make it work in that window. Everything is good,” that would make me a little nervous.
Mike:
Yes.
I think it is good to have firm pay points.
That way everybody knows what their job is.
The homeowner knows, “Okay, when drywall is up, I have to send in a check.”
You will get a bill, but it is not a surprise.
When we inspect for mechanicals, that is a pay point. If we template for countertops, that is usually a pay point.
Homeowners know what is coming.
They will ask our guys on the job, “When do you think you are going to be templating?”
They probably want to know when you are templating, but they are also thinking, “I need to get my checkbook.”
Host:
That is one of the great things about working with Mike and the team at Edge Construction.
Not only can you look at all the beautiful results, but we talk about the detail that goes into the process, the planning of it, and, of course, having no surprises.
They would love to work with you at Edge Construction.
All you have to do is pick up the phone and give them a call at 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
The website is EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is Edge Construction Company dot com.
Edge Construction brings you the Home Remodeling Show right here on 1310 WIBA.