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The Contractor Coaching Partnership Blog

Help with Selections for Remodelers; Interior designers

Posted by Mark Paskell on Sun, Feb 15, 2009 @ 06:02 PM

Remodelers, Design/build contractors, Custom Home Builders; Help with homeowner selections.

During the design/build and scope development phase of a remodeling project the selection of products and finishes tends to slow down the progress of the project. With so many things to decide upon, homeowners agonize over making decisions on what they want to select. You know that it is better to have everything selected before it goes to production. Sometimes you get frustrated and resort to using allowances which seems to always wreaks havoc on the production schedule causing tense moments between the homeowner, the carpenters, the office, sales and the design team.

If you could eliminate this from occurring would it make your project go smoother? Would you prevent slippage due to down time and less supervision costs? Would you have less headaches and a happier customer?

A simple and effective solution is to use an interior designer who is strategically aligned with your business. If you include in your design and scope development budget, the services of a talented interior designer, you will add value to the customer experience and save valuable time and look like a hero.

If you are the owner, production manager and salesperson do you really have the time to go shopping with the wife to pick out the bath fixtures, the cabinets, the bath accessories, the shades, the granite, the knobs, the finishes, the tile and the faucets?

Here are the names of three excellent interior designers with specific unique skills that you could use to help with homeowner selections. They all work in the Metrowest and Boston markets.

1. Amy McFadden; an interior designer and NARI member who handles selections and creates tile layouts and designs. She is an expert in tile and stone selections. E-mail; mcfaddenamy@mac.com

2. Kendra Weldon; an interior designer and NARI member who specializes in window treatments, custom blinds, color consultations, faux finishing and upholstery.

3. Lina Khatib; an interior designer who is an expert specializing in 2020 kitchen designs and provides hand sketched custom cabinetry elevations.

I know all three and they are outstanding professionals who have contractors and homeowner clients that rave about there services.

In this challenging environment this is one way you can stand out from other contractors who only rely on allowances or worse, wait until they need the selected product while they are ready to install it. You know that this leads to losing some of your profit with a client who blames you!

How do you handle selections during the design phase of the project?