| Tech Know-How |
If there's one thing we know about remodeling, it's that the schedule always changes. At the same time, if there's one thing that we know about customers, it's that they hate it when contractors go over schedule. Smart scheduling can prevent this irresistable force and immovable object from ever meeting.
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| Project Spotlight |
Reaching full growth potential as a company requires having more than one person — especially if that person is the owner — who can sell jobs. At Blackdog Design/Build/Remodel in Salem, N.H., president David Bryan has a whole team of design consultants who double as salespeople and triple as estimators.
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| Safety |
Supporting a world-class work force requires a world-class work environment — one that is safe, healthy, comfortable and productive. Adapting the workplace to meet these criteria and create working conditions that suit the worker is what the study of ergonomics is all about. Using ergonomic tools, equipment, work layouts and methods can cut remodeling firms' long-term costs by reducing in...
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| Remodelers' Exchange |
Allison Perry Iantosca is a second-generation manager of F.H. Perry Builder Inc., a Hopkinton, Mass., residential remodeling and custom home building firm founded by her father, Finley Perry. With annual revenue of about $5.5 million, F.H. Perry employs 14 people, six in the office and the rest in project management.
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At Professional Remodeler, we've always been committed to providing you with the best information, business strategies and innovative ideas to make your business as successful as possible. That's why I'm pleased to announce some exciting changes we're making that will strengthen our ability to bring you the best and most comprehensive information for your business and its future in the growing ...
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| Human Resources |
Colleagues who trust each other. Managers who mentor. The chance to develop new skills and advance professionally. These are just some of the basic elements of the price of entry on our annual Best Companies to Work For list. Basic, you say? These are some of the hardest things in the world for a company owner to provide for his or her employees.
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| Editor's Notebook |
As a card-carrying member of Generation X with a baby face that belies my age, I've been upholding the work ethic, drive, maturity, skills and knowledge of my cohort for more than a decade. I've never noticed the lack of initiative and attitude of entitlement that I've heard many employers claim to see in younger workers.
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| Great Practices |
Nearly 20 million people worked at home at least once a week in May 2001, according to the most recent available data from the U.S. Department of Labor. Combined with the number of homeowners who need space from which to manage personal and household finances, you're looking at a lot of home offices.
With company crimes both big and small regularly making headlines, nothing says "trust us" like an ethics and integrity award from the Better Business Bureau. When Firstcall Construction Inc. of Urbandale, Iowa, took home the 2004 Des Moines Better Business Bureau Integrity Award in the 1–50 employees category, the company promptly e-mailed press releases describing the achievements for w...
In each new episode of HGTV's "Designers' Challenge," three designers picked by the producers present their concepts for the same remodeling project to the homeowners. Though the scenario resembles the three-bid sales process that many remodelers prefer to avoid, Construction Concepts Corp., a full-service remodeling firm in Stamford, Conn.
Creating a remodeling company with sellable value continues to challenge even the best contractors in the business. Some remodeling company owners have turned to purchasing, rehabbing and selling or renting properties to grow personal wealth and ensure a comfortable retirement. Steve Jordan, former owner of Dirty Work Construction Company in southern California, has taken that model to the extr...
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| By the Numbers |
Looking at metrics for accounts payable, accounts receivable and working capital efficiency over time and against benchmarks can tell us if we are headed toward being cash strapped or if we can safely grow our business. They draw attention to payment and collection policies that might need closer investigation to keep us solvent and financially flexible.
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| Construct |
The hurricanes that pounded the Gulf and Atlantic coasts in 2004 left contractors and their customers pondering how to avoid damage when the next storm blows through. "There's no better time than when rebuilding to incorporate construction changes that will make a property less vulnerable to wind or water," says Bill Carwile, federal coordinating officer for the Federal Emergency Management Age...
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| Portfolio |
The story is typical: The owners of this 1,500-square-foot English Tudor needed to expand their living space, but setbacks and architectural controls in their Denver historic district restricted what could be done with an addition. So they turned to the 1,280-square-foot basement as the likeliest candidate.
Chicago's North Shore is well known for teardowns, and this 1950s ranch home set on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan seemed a perfect prospect. The roof leaked, windows needed replacing, mechanicals were out of date, and the house was about half the size of those surrounding it in the community of Glencoe.
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