Clearly Stated

Managing trade contractors is an integral part of the remodeling process, so much so that the success or failure of a remodeling venture could well hinge on how astutely this aspect of the business is handled.

Key to managing remodeler/trade contractor relationship is communication — making sure that information is readily available and shared and that expectations and requirements are clearly stated from the start. Those were themes repeated by remodelers to whom Qualified Remodeler spoke.

John Todd, president and owner of Elite Remodeling in Frisco, Texas, notes that his company has quarterly meetings with all of its trade contractors to make sure they understand the company’s business philosophy, quality standards, safety procedures and other issues.

Equally important is the almost daily communication between the trade contractors and Elite’s staff. “Our project managers meet almost every day with every trade contractor, in addition to clients, and talk to them about what we’re doing, where we’re at in the schedule, what materials they need, and quality issues or other concerns,” Todd says

In addition to communicating during the job, Elite involves trade contractors in the process as early as possible. “We bring the trades to the table and have them go through the design, whether it’s blueprints or drawings or photographs of the job, and explain to them what we’re going to do. We get them involved early on in the process so they’re not surprised when we win a job where we have to move a gas line or trench into a foundation,” Todd relates.

It’s all part of constant and effective communication, whether you’re talking to a trade contractor face to face, over the phone or by e-mail. “You can’t assume somebody understands what to do. Our sales staff has to have good drawings whether it’s a simple backsplash or the wiring plan for a room addition. You have to have good documentation and the ability to share it with people,” Todd says.

Emphasizing the importance of project management in producing a project with extensive use of trade contractors, Todd notes that Elite uses a mainstream project management software tool that has strong resource management capabilities and the ability to create Gantt charts that are flexible and useful.

Communicating with trade contractors is crucial to the success of the relationship, agrees Paul Eldrenkamp, owner of Byggmeister, a design-build remodeling firm in Newton, Mass. While Byggmeister does use a Web-based project management tool, Eldrenkamp puts a great deal of faith in more traditional methods.

“For the most part what we do is put together a really good job book,” he says. “I hate to sound old-fashioned, but if you’ve got good drawings, a good contract, a good budget, a good schedule and a good list of contact information, you can set up a project so that it runs for weeks without the office hearing a peep from the jobsite, apart from time sheet reporting and job cost accounting.

“I think technology can sometimes be a substitute for planning,” he adds. “We just haven’t found a substitute; there isn’t a good technology tool that replaces a really solid three-ring binder with all of the information you need to run a project. All your questions are answered in the job book.”

What’s in Byggmeister’s job book? Really just “standard boilerplate stuff,” says Eldrenkamp. “It’s the drawings, the contract the specifications, the budget sheet, the schedule, a list of contact information, some blank forms, and a few checklists.”

“There’s nothing in there in the least bit surprising. The only thing that might be unusual is the extent to which those documents answer questions before they come up,” he continues.