Avoiding Changes That Cost Money and Clients

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Changes and change-orders have always carried a negative aura about them, both with kitchen and bath remodeling professionals and their customers.

Customers often view them as a means for remodeling contractors to “make up” for errors in the original contract. Contractors, on the other hand, see them as disruptive to their schedules and a cause of dissatisfaction for their clients.

In this month’s column, we’ll examine the different aspects of managing changes in our projects – specifically, avoiding changes in the first place, pricing them fairly and profitably and keeping customers happy through these changes.

PRACTICING AVOIDANCE

The first step in avoiding changes and change-orders on a project is to insist on thorough planning before the contract is signed. This process starts with the initial client meeting, when your designer is gathering information about the goals of the project. It’s at that time that the broad outlines of where the project is going should be defined, including potential expansion of the work beyond the original project definition.

Once the overall project has been decided, it’s important that adequate time is spent on the plans and specifications to make sure that as many decisions as possible can be made and fully understood. At this point a thorough investigation of the structural aspects of the proposed project should be done. A contractor should consider his/her their responsibility to know and understand anything about the project that can be determined without any actual deconstruction.

One approach to the planning process is to view it as a “funneling” exercise. In other words, rough out the project and then attach some estimates to the work involved. The next step would be to adjust the scope of work or products as required to bring the cost into line with the client’s budget. Next, the specifications can be completed to associate actual costs with the revised design. The ultimate objective is to incorporate as close to all of the products and features the client desires as possible and still fall within the budget.

Ideally, you do not want to rush this process, but rather allow the client to consider what the priorities are and get comfortable with the things that are being eliminated. At the same time, the client should be considering other areas of the home for those “as-long-as-you-are-here” items that seem to come up once the project starts. Identify those add-ons and incorporate them into the original contract. This will allow you to deal with these more economically for your client, and with less disruption to your schedule.

Finally, make sure there is as much certainty as possible in your plans and specifications. Include catalog cuts of the products being specified, and make sure colors and finishes are included in those specifications. Drawings should clearly show details such as crown moldings, panels, etc. If there are special stains or finishes, have the client approve on samples of these.

WHEN CHANGES OCCUR

Once the project starts, changes may occur regardless of how thorough your planning has been. Changes can result from hidden defects that surface during the construction process, but, more often, they result from things the client wants to add to the overall project. Either way, changes can cause tension between you and the client.

The first step in controlling such situations is to make sure that your client understands what work will be involved in executing the additional work. Often, a client does not understand all of the elements that may be required to accomplish something that he/she wants to add.

For example, let’s say your client asks you to add an electrical outlet and assumes that, since he/she has seen one of these at the hardware store for $8.00, this change should be minimal. The problem that arises with this, of course, is that the project is almost done and this change involves a special trip for the electrician, the drywaller and the painter – and you need to bill the client $275 to add this outlet.