Competent Estimating

With the approach of fall and winter, this is the time to hire a contractor for any painting or carpentry jobs that you might want to have done before the next rental season. As you probably know, it will be difficult to get estimates in the spring, since most reputable contractors will be booked for months in advance.

Do yourself a favor and scrutinize the companies that you invite to estimate your work, because not all companies can competently estimate the work that they perform. You may think that a low-ball price wouldn’t be much of a concern to you, but that is far from true. What happens when the contractor runs out of money, time, and motivation? If this happens to you it will surely cost you more for another contractor to finish the work left by the guy who won’t return your calls anymore. Most likely, the contractor who finishes the job won’t give a warranty either, since he can’t vouch for the quality of the priming and prep work already completed.

Many contractors on the Outer Banks don’t know how to accurately measure and apply production rates, so it’s no surprise that they are simply guessing, rather than estimating their jobs. In some cases, that guess may be an educated one, but it is still just a guess. 

Unfortunately, most homeowners trust that each competing company has the expertise to provide an “apples” quote that he or she can compare to the other “apples” quotes provided. However, this is rarely the case. If you have ever hired a contractor, you know that the estimates can vary wildly in scope of work and price.

To estimate properly, a contractor must first have an hourly rate based on the actual cost of fixed and variable overhead, labor costs (including labor burden), and a reasonable profit.

Once the hourly rate is established, the estimator must know capabilities of the employees who will complete each aspect of the job. The production rate for each given task is then applied to the measurements for that specific scope of work.

If the proper measurements and production rates are applied to an estimate, this allows the estimator to factually negotiate any aspect of the quote honestly and ethically. A measured item won’t change, but the scope of work and specified materials can change to fit within budget constraints. While this doesn’t seem too complicated, it does require plenty of work for the business to document and establish production rates. For many small business owners, this never happens. Often they are too occupied working for the business rather than working on the business.

According to the R.S. Means Company (the oldest and most reliable source of construction data) the national average for a professional painting contractor is currently over $55.00 per hour. While there is some variance regionally, beware if your contractor is charging significantly less than his competitors. He probably has not come to that figure by any scientific method. Make sure that your contractor knows how many square feet of siding or lineal feet of trim he’s installing or painting. If he can’t tell you exactly how much, you could end up as the victim of a badly flawed estimate.  

Fall - Timing is Everything

On the Outer Banks, fall is typically a time anticipated by sportsmen and anglers worldwide. For home owners, real estate professionals, and property managers, fall is the time to plan your improvements and execute property maintenance programs in preparation for the upcoming summer rental season. 

As most of us on the Outer Banks know, this area can try the patience of a saint when it comes to getting required maintenance work done (or any other work for that matter). There is a pervasive, relaxed work ethic that translates into unreturned phone calls and eventually frustration on the part of anyone wanting work performed.

Consider using a reliable, full-service painting company that offers a maintenance program. Dealing with fewer contractors leaves less room for errors and should provide you with more personalized service.

You may be surprised at how versatile a professional painting contractor can be in the scope of services offered. This can complement the services offered by your rental company and in most cases provide you with a much more complete and professional interior and exterior maintenance package.

With any job there is a logical starting point. With yearly maintenance, exterior cleaning and power washing will provide great bang for your buck.

Once the house has been cleaned, you can begin prioritizing what needs to be done in order of importance and in accordance with your budget. Often, cleaning is all that is needed to make the outside of your property look fresh and suitable for guests, but certainly this process can reveal latent problems.

While cleaning the house, your professional should look for (and take note of) rotten siding, missing roof shingles, bad caulking, peeling paint, broken windows, and other such problems. This is the best time to have these problems reported to you so that they can be dealt with in an effective and timely manner. This needs to be on the top of your to-do list. While these items may seem minor, they almost always lead to more costly repairs if ignored.

You are best served to use a painting contractor with the skills to tackle these problems. Your ideal painting contractor should be able to replace siding, repair wood rot per building code, replace windows and flashing, repair drywall, and repair decks and rails.

What about the interior of your home? The most misunderstood issue that we address each year on the interior of homes is in the area of touch-up versus repainting.

You should understand that unless you know the exact product and color that was used in the painting of your interior, it’s not likely that you will be able to touch it up flawlessly. With interior touch-up, the end result should be that you cannot see where touch-up was performed.  

A good painting contractor should also keep extensive records for you so that you’re not guessing every year when it’s time to do interior touch-up painting.

Call us today and we can review your property and suggest a maintenance program that addresses your painting and carpentry needs. Remember that timing is everything and any good contractor will likely be fully booked in the spring, so don’t wait to take care of your maintenance, construction, and painting needs.