HOW DOES MY NEXT HOME RENO CREATE MY QUOTE?

If you’re getting multiple quotes from different contractors (and of course you should be!), likely you will find that no two are the same. That’s because calculating a competative “Gauranteed Maximum Price” for your project is the hardest thing any contractor has to build. 

If you think about the complexity of today’s building technology along with the Ontario Building Code standards, it won’t take you long to loosen your collar when you realize that, as the contractor, you have to account for every nail, every stud, every 4×8 peice of plywood (including waste), every tile, each bag of mortar, ect. ect. You have to factor all the materials in or it comes out of your pocket. You can’t overshoot your material costs or you risk driving your quote out of the competitive ring. 

What’s more is that Material is only one portion of the grand equasion. As the contractor you still have to factor your time, your kms, and procurement costs. Imagine building a house and breaking down all the steps into line items and allocating a unique “time to complete” number, right down to the nearest 15 minutes. Each house is different, each location is different, and not all crews operate at the same efficiency. 

Then you have operation costs. Some of these are fixed and some of them fluctuate based on how many crews you are running at the same time. The bigger a business becomes, the better we can diversify our overhead over multiple cost centers and of course the more competative we become. But imagine the formula you need to design in order to transition from a small busines to a big one and find that “Goldielocks Zone” of operating efficiency. How challenging would it be to allocate overhead to a project, or even 5 projects running at the same time. 

Now let’s talk about profit. Every company makes profit (Well, that’s the idea anyways) and we shouldn’t be ashamed of profit. Profit is the safetynet that allows you to provide well for the hardworking people in your team, offer stability and security and, of course, grow to create more jobs. As the homeowner, I know profit can seem like a dirty little thing, especially when you don’t understand how much profit we make. That’s the fine line we walk as contractors. It’s a tight rope between where we were and where we want to be, as a company. The balancing pole we so dearly cling to, is our quote. Beneath us, hundreds of feet down, is the rubble of dreams from many contractors who came before us. 

Talk about risk – quoting is a risky business. 

Sometimes you will get a quote that just has a price. No material or labour breakdowns and sometimes you won’t even see a scope of work. We beat those guys all the time, because we take the time to do the job in our head first, step by step, as if we were already on site. We take the time to prepare for the job as if we had already won your business. And when it comes time to sign, well, even your specific job related contract is ready to go. And we don’t have to panic at last minute to make a material list, allocate crews, see if we have the right tools, find a spot in the calendar or hash out a plan of attack. We already have the horse infront of the cart. 

So in an effort to be fully transparent, let me walk you through the systems and procedures we have in place so you know what to expect from us when you give us the opportunity to bid on YOUR NEXT HOME RENO!