Management
Management
How to Create a World-Class Remodeling Team
Great remodeling companies position themselves for the future with the right players
Management
Everyone Should Have a Number: KPIs for Your Design Build Team
Measuring key performance indicators guides your team to success while creating accountability and ownership
Management
How to Revamp Your Pre-Construction Process
Experiencing too much slippage and delays? See how Bridget Bacon of Red House Design Build solved these issues by improving the remodeler's pre-construction process
Women at WIRC
How This Remodeler Revamped Their Pre-Construction Process
Bridget Bacon of Red House Design Build outlines how she helped transform the pre-construction process for improved finances and morale
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Starting from Scratch
"All I ask is that you make my wife happy, or I'll eat you for lunch." Those were the instructions given to Ryan Haas, vice president of Houston Structural Inc., by the homeowner — an attorney — of this 1950s ranch residence. "The owners had been working on this project more than eight years," Haas recalls.
Enhance the Environment
The owners of this 120-year-old house had a patio, gazebo and a small pond in the backyard, but they wanted to create an outdoor haven that would better integrate their active lifestyle with their pastoral environment in rural Pennsylvania. The space they envisioned would be more functional and also more architecturally distinctive.
Master Suite
Denver's older neighborhoods have what every city-dweller longs for: great parks, homes with timeless character, and easy access to a complete range of urban amenities. The only drawback: The homes are small, usually at or below 1,200 square feet, with little room to grow. Most are brick bungalows, Victorians or Denver squares with cramped rooms built for working-class families of the early 20t...
Heat for the Feet
For centuries, people have been warming their homes — and their feet — with radiant floor heating. Warm, clean, and efficient, radiant floor heating is increasingly popular in new homes, but it remains a rarity in remodeling, as many contractors believe radiant heating is impractical to install in an existing home.
Manage Mobile Phone Features
Just because we've been using telephones in business much longer than we have computers doesn't mean that choosing the right cell phone and plan is any easier than choosing the right computer hardware and software. In fact, depending on your business needs, the two tasks may go hand in hand. Can I get a signal? While companies in metropolitan areas have their pick of technologies, features and ...
A Custom Approach
Farina and Sons Inc. in Orlando, Fla., specializes in whole-house renovations and new custom homes, which make up about 20 percent of the business. Second-generation president Victor Farina employs three people in the office and six lead carpenters. Joe Gradison, vice president of Gradison Building Corporation in Indianapolis, owns the 19-year-old business with his brother, Mark.
Reining in Runaway Costs
Hurricanes in the south, unprecedented levels of construction material demand in China, record oil prices and a host of other issues drove up material costs in 2004. Ongoing increases in labor, insurance and general overhead expenses squeezed margins from another angle. How do you generate an acceptable profit when pricing seems out of control?
Taking the Office to the Field
Scott Sevon, CGR, CAPS, GMB, a remodeler and custom home builder based in Palatine, Ill., uses his Palm Tungsten W handheld every day. The wireless device allows him to check his e-mail and the Internet from the road, and doubles as a cell phone. A longtime proponent of handheld devices, Sevon spent between $420 and $500 each to buy handhelds for all the employees of Sevvonco Inc.
38 Great Ways Ergonomics Can Save Time and Money
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...
Selling the Interior Design Difference
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.