Design Services - Client Shopping - Material Selections
At Houston Remodeling, each estimate begins with determining the cost of the project's material selections and allowance items. We determine these cost by creating allowances and taking our clients shopping for material selections.
For example: If you are having your kitchen remodeled, we will take you to our stone and tile supplier's showrooms to help you choose your countertops, under cabinet kitchen back splash and tile flooring. We can visit our cabinet showroom or bring the door selections to your home along with flooring, help with appliance sizes, paint types and colors and electrical lighting selections.
We do this for one reason:
1. To get a true and accurate cost of the project.
The majority of our competitors will low-ball your allowance items in order to make their estimate appear lower. For example, they might give you a tile allowance of $3.00 a sf. but when it comes time for you to select the tile after the contract is signed, you decide that you want a tile that cost $4.40 a SF. If you have 1000 sf of tile being installed, that means you will be paying the contractor $1,400.00 plus tax and their additional overhead and markup they have specified in their contract.
Another example - Cabinets: I've seen our competitors give cabinet allowances in the neighborhood of $180.00 a LF. The only way to accurately price cabinets is to design the kitchen in a CAD system (Computer Aided Drafting) such as 2020 Designs and then price it accordingly. Don't get left holding a large change order for thousands of dollars more because your contractor did not do their job by accurately pricing the cabinets before you signed the contract. Add allowance overages on cabinets, flooring, plumbing fixtures, countertops and lighting and the next thing you know you are thousands of dollars over your budget.
Home Owners dont rush the contractors into unrealistic bid deadlines as some items can get left out unintentionally, costing you thousands later down the road...Then realizing you may have chosen the wrong contractor.
How does Houston Remodeling handle allowances:
Once the material selections have been chosen, we obtain our contractors price and present it to you for review. You then review the cost and if within budget, we add that cost to your estimate as an allowance item.
Unlike other companies, Houston Remodeling does not mark-up the actual cost of your allowance items. Our cost is your cost and what we enter into your estimate. We also provide a copy of the original invoice after purchase on allowance items. Using our method of pricing allowance items saves a lot of heartache, surprises and out of pocket expenses later on.
Professional Blueprints and Designs Services
Houston Remodeling is one of the early pioneers of the process termed, Design-Build Remodeling. We have offered In-House Professional Blueprints Drawings and Designs since 1996 that are ready for city permitting with a very fast turn around and at a low fixed cost.
If you are having drawings or designs done by someone other than us, make sure you are quoted a fixed cost and that you are getting a full set of plans that can be used to obtain your permit and to allow estimating. We can't begin to count how many times we have been called in to start a new design because another contractor, architect or designer has taken advantage of a homeowner by providing them inadequate drawings, only later to be told either "that's all we offer" or "there will be additional charges". In many instances these extra charges are more than our fixed cost for the design.
A typical set of Designs or Drawings should include:
- Original Floor Plan: The original area of the building to be changed and showing all original plumbing in the effected area.
- New Floor Plan: The new layout of the floor plan showing walls, cabinets and plumbing.
- Electrical Plan: New floor plan showing all new electrical outlets, smoke detectors, lighting, fans and the electrical panel.
- Roof Plan: Layout of the new roof plan. (For additions only)
- Framing Plan: Layout of the walls, ceiling and flooring joist. (Required to obtain permit for additions and structural changes)
- Plot Plan: The original house and addition drawn to show property lines. (Required for additions)
- Foundation Plan: Drawing details of the foundation. (Structural Engineer approval required per the State of Texas)
Most designers and Architects start out at $100.00+ an hour and start charging the moment they enter your home. Neither will be able to provide you an estimate. If they over-design and they often do, your estimates will come in over budget and the design will have to be redone as well as starting the estimate process over again. To give you an idea of time and cost, a kitchen design takes a minimum of 30 hours. If you choose a designer, expect to pay $3,000+ and you still will not have a set of drawings ready for permitting or an estimate.
By choosing us for your material selections, construction drawings, cabinet layout, specification and blueprints, we can easily cut your design cost in half. Please click below to contact us for your next Home Renovation in Houston or surrounding cities. We also work in The Woodlands, Kingwood and Sugar Land, Tx.
