by Michael Bills

Created on: January 29, 2007   Last Updated: April 18, 2007

Planning, planning planning. This is by far the most important aspect of any construction project. I am a contractor and have been for 30 plus years. My work is primarily residential remodeling and additions.

I'll use an example of a recent project I have done. I received a call from a gentleman who had just re-located to my area in upstate NY from California. He had purchased a new 5000 sq. ft. custom built home with sliders off the dining room to the back yard but the builder only supplied a basic set of steps to meet code requirements. He asked me to give him an estimate on a rather elaborate and large screen room with attached deck. The area certainly needed something. It is a beautiful home with a beautiful lot. I met with the gentleman and we sat down and thoroughly discussed what he wanted. He had pictures from design magazines and was truly prepared. What he was not prepared for was the cost of this project.

I am a draftsman also, so I went ahead and spent many hours designing this custom porch/deck. Some of the materials he requested were costly, eg; vinyl type composite rails, mahogany decking, skylights and cedar tongue & groove for the ceiling, just to name a few. When I returned to him with the "free" estimate he was shocked at the nearly $20,000.00 price tag. I had a complete set of drawings with a material take off list and a complete breakdown. Needless to say the project went back to the drawing board where I again spent many, many hours re-designing and substituting the expensive materials for lesser and doing away with some things entirely. During the third meeting the gentleman agreed to the proposal at a cost of $12,500.00. I received a deposit and submitted my drawings to the building dept. for the permit. At this point I had already invested much time and effort, but it seemed to be working out. During our third meeting and signing of the deal I had thoroughly explained in detail the entire project to a "T".

The gentleman is retired so was home a lot during the process. He was out there with us on a daily basis, which is normally fine, but he was continually stopping me for 30 to 40 minutes at a time to "discuss" what was "this" and "that". I did my best to explain but after many days of this it started to cost me time and money. The project fell behind schedule due to this, inclement weather, and I contracted pneumonia and was unable to work for a few days. His entire attitude changed and he became very impatient with the process. Then he wanted "add-ons". So I had to take the time and discuss what and why during the work day. We made some changes during the project, which is costly and time consuming and must be submitted for approval by the building dept. The gentleman actually got angry with me because the project was taking longer than anticipated. Not once did he say he was pleased with the way things looked or thanked me for taking the extra time to explain things in detail. In the end he had to pay extra for the add-on's he requested. He told me he thought I was very unprofessional and never recommend me to anyone.

The project turned out beautiful because I take great pride in any project I do. After all I have maintained for over 30 years so that says something within itself. The problem was his lack of understanding and expectations. Planning, planning, planning. There can never be enough

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