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Many homeowners at one point or another are faced with the dilemma of moving vs. remodeling. Being that every situation is unique, it is imperative to weigh both sides of the equation before determining what decision makes sense for you. At Sparling Construction, Inc. we feel qualified to be able to help you through this challenging process because we can either build you a custom home or remodel your existing home. After 26 years of doing both, we’re able to provide you the pro’s and con’s of both, based on your current information that you provide us. There are three key questions to ask yourself when determining whether to move or remodel. Costs To Consider When Moving To A New Home: The Average Cost Of Remodeling Your Projects:
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The Remodeling Experience
Remodeling can be a very stressful thing for any homeowner. Sparling Construction knows this better than most contractors because of our experience in dealing with this everyday and working closely with our clients. As a professional Remodeler/Builder, we are here to SERVE our clients’ needs. SERVE is a strong word that most of our clients can’t hardly even relate to today because “Customer Service” is almost a dinosaur, but not with Sparling Construction.
We often tell our clients before we start their project that they will be glad to see us go and they all chuckle, and agree. Our statement to our client about “glad to see us go” is a realistic and accurate statement because that’s just life. We come into their home, or business and start removing walls, flooring, etc. and it appears to them their home, or business is never going to be the same again. Well, in part that is true. Their home or business is never going to be the same again because it’s going to be better than before, when we’re done with their project.
It’s easy for us to see and visualize the process more so than our customers. It’s natural for our customers to start feeling overwhelmed and stressed. Knowing this, we try to prepare our clients “BEFORE” as what to expect so that when it does happen they’re prepared and not totally shocked. Plus, we never leave their side – we walk them through the whole process. As their Remodeler/Builder, we pride ourselves on our strong & effective communication that we provide to our customers “DURING” the project as well. It’s our job to keep our clients informed on not only what is happening now, but what the next step will be too.
With Sparling Construction, we also make certain to keep a clean job-site. Everyday we clean up our site for two reasons: 1) Safety, and 2) because we care about our clients and their home. We even go as far as not to park on their driveway along with not allowing smoking, or cigarette butts on their premise as well.
In closing, one of our advertising slogan’s has been over the years “REMODELING MADE EASY.” Remodeling is not easy as a General Contractor, but with our help it can appear to the customer that their project was pretty easy and that is exactly what we want them to feel. We try to take the stress of remodeling and put it on ourselves so that our clients don’t have to carry the load. After all, we are your "PARTNER" when we take this kind of journey.
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SELECTING A REMODELER/BUILDER If you’re thinking of remodeling your home or business, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve been helping our clients to “LIVE BETTER AT THEIR SAME ADDRESS” since 1978. Remodeling is a very relationship driven experience and it requires extensive communication, kind of like a healthy marriage. What you need is a strong "PARTNER" to protect your best interests. It’s vital to us that there be that chemistry between us and you. From our own experience of doing building and remodeling, we often say that building a home or business is much easier than remodeling. Remodeling requires much more planning, design, communication, and attention to detail. With remodeling, we realize that we’re in your home, or business and that it’s imperative that we accomplish the following: 1. Understand your need or problem. 2. Create a functional design that will work for you and your family. 3. Create a detailed plan of attack that will minimize “Production Time” & “Cost” without sacrificing quality. 4. Communicate, communicate, communicate… 5. Execute & manage the plan to full completion. The beauty about what we can provide you, our client, is that we handle absolutely every detail of your project for you. We not only have full-time carpenters, painters, and tapers on staff, but we’re also your “Full Service” General Contractor. We work daily, with an extensive group of high caliber Subcontractors that help us perform the level of quality and performance that you would come to expect. You don’t have to “piece-meal” your project together and try to manage something that you’ve never done before – we do it all for you! Let the "POWER OF THE GENERAL CONTRACTOR" go to work for you! Some may say that you will pay more for the services of using a General Contractor. Ironically, just the opposite is true. We do it right the first time so you don’t incur additional expenses to get it right a second time. Second, with our volume in sales, who’s going to get a better price from a Subcontractor or Supplier, we will? Our deeper discount takes care of our overhead and profit, while at the same time providing you a better level of service than if you were to try and be your own General Contractor. It’s a win/win situation for both involved. For “REMODELING MADE EASY” Try Sparling Construction today when it comes to your home, or business improvement needs and let us take the stress out of your life. We are committed to your satisfaction – we demand it!
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What To Expect The remodeling experience can fill you as a homeowner both with a feeling of excitement and apprehension. While the end result is well worth the inconveniences that can occur while the project is in progress, it is important to realize that a remodeling project most often will cause disruptions to your everyday routine. This is why we work hard to manage your project so that the remodeling experience doesn’t become overbearing for you. We really do make remodeling easy, it’s what we’ve been doing since 1978 and we’re great at it! We are not just carpenters building your project. Sparling Construction, Inc. is your General Contractor that takes care of every single task required to finish off your project. We make things happen that require managing of tasks and much communication behind the scenes. We manage your project so that you don’t have to. Be prepared to deal with a whole new level of customer service and quality, because we will deliver it – we promise. It’s our commitment to you! With this being said, it is important for you as the homeowner to understand exactly what will be taking place with your remodeling project before the work begins, as well as during the project. This will help you to prepare as best as possible before the actual construction begins, and while you’re in the midst of remodel. While some things are unpredictable, the less surprises you encounter, the happier you are going to be with us, and your remodeling project. The more we communicate upfront the more efficient the project will run. Yes, it will still require close communication during the project, and sometimes this can create stress for you as a homeowner because sometimes those decisions need to be made by you and not us. We would rather communicate with you than to assume, it’s your home not ours. Believe us, in the end you will thank us for being tenacious with our commitment to communicate. Once production begins, you will encounter noise and some dust. One thing we can assure you is a clean job-site at the end of each day, and we do our best to keep our job-sites clean during the day, due in part for safety reasons. We also make certain to be cognizant of the fact that you may have children or pets around the house and extra precautions need to be taken. Believe us, we think through and put into action most things that many building companies don’t even consider. Why? It’s simple, it’s because we really care about our clients and their personal belongings. We respect your home, business, and family as if it were ours. In fact we have two pages of very important logistical details that we discuss with every one of our clients before any work begins. Be prepared to do some dusting when we’re done. Dust is inevitable, especially with remodeling. Also know that there may be some challenges that catch all of us by surprise, but we work hard to keep those to a minimum by taking our time with analyzing the details of your home up front. Much work goes into designing and estimating our projects. It’s very common for most of our estimates to be 5 to 8+ pages long, breaking down what’s included and what’s not. Even though we manage our jobs very well and we have an eye for detail, we sometimes face issues that arise that are beyond our control and that may lengthen the projected time-line of a project. Such things as weather, schedule conflicts, backorders, & damaged parts could be factors in lengthening a project’s time-line. An additional factor that may contribute to lengthening a time-line on a project would be if the homeowner decides to add additional tasks while we’re still working on the base proposal task items. Yes, it makes sense to keep production going while we’re there instead of coming back, but often times it can add to the project’s time-line. This is why it’s very difficult to schedule way in advance an exact time of when we will begin your project, when there are so many factors that could come into play. With all this being said, it’s in your best interest that you pick a builder/remodeler that comes with experience, great credentials, and a list of referrals. Is your builder licensed and insured just in case something unfortunate were to happen on your project? Does he know how to communicate while still at the same time know how to listen? If he can’t do both of these, we can assure you that your expectations will be different than his, which means your project could cause you much stress and unhappiness. We’re so confident in our staff’s abilities that we can, and will deliver quality service and a quality product every time. No, we’re not perfect, but we strive for perfection. Give us an opportunity to serve you and you will see why so many of our clients would consider no one else for any of there home improvement needs.
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The Design/Build Experience 1 Establishing A Working Relationship
3 The Estimating Team
4 The Presentation Of The Proposal
5 The Selection Process
6 The Pre-Construction Meeting Prior to the beginning of construction, we provide a service that is unique to our industry – our Production staff and Subs will meet with you at your home. We will do the following:
7 Production & Our Service If you know anything about building, you will know that there are always challenges that seem to present themselves, but it’s how we handle these challenges that is important. We deal with them head on, but most of the time we are able to foresee potential challenges and disable them before they happen. It all comes down to making the right decisions and the right time. At the end of the project we finalize the project by performing a “Final Punch List.” After these final tasks have been performed and signed off by you, we classify the project as being 100% complete.
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Design/Build Timeline The Design/Build Time-line can be affected by numerous types of variables such as:
1) Complexity of job
2) Flexibility of customer’s schedules to discuss important information
3) Our production schedule
4) Time of year/weather conditions
5) How definitive the customer is on what they want
6) Subcontractor/Supplier schedules
7) Shipping delays
8) Damaged freight
9) Customer add-ons or revisions
10) Hidden and/or unforeseen situations
These are just some of the realistic things that our clients and us can face and no builder out there today is removed from these challenges. With all these realistic challenges, this is where Sparling Construction separates from the pack. A builder has two choices to make as it relates to these challenges:
1. Accept them and don’t try to improve, reduce, eliminate and/or overcome them, if all possible. OR
2. Not accept them if all possible, or as status quo and try to do everything in their creative mind to overcome in order to make it happen!!!
We strive to do the latter. Sparling Construction is the type of company that believes in making it happen and using our creative minds, along with hard work to overcome, if all possible. Yes, there are times when the temperature is 30 degrees BELOW freezing and the ground is frozen 5’ down where the excavating and concrete tasks are postponed until spring, and that’s just LIFE. Now, we could attach an ice bucket on our excavating machine, build a temporary shelter and then pump heat into that area, but the cost of doing all this may end up being cost prohibitive. This may not be in the best interest of the client, but if the customer is willing to spend the extra money and take some risks and the liability that goes along with it, than we may pursue it.
One thing is for certain; Sparling Construction will ALWAYS operate in the best interest of our clients. We will never compromise the quality of our proven process, or our finished product, to just make it happen. If it’s in our client’s best interest to wait then that is what we will do. In addition to all of these challenges, we as a company have to also think about our employees and their safety. If it’s windy, sleeting, with icy conditions outside, we won’t be sending our Carpenters out to shingle a client’s steep roof just because the client wants it done.
With all this being said, this is why we try so hard to “UNDER-PROMISE & OVER-DELIVER.” If we in our minds think that we could probably finish is two months on a certain project, we may tell our customer that their project could take three months to finish. This way if we finish in 2 ½ months we’ll be the hero’s. Even though we strive to under-promise and over-deliver, sometimes we actually don’t come in line with what we told the customer, and that is just as frustrating for us as well as our clients. One thing is for certain we can assure our clients that at Sparling Construction we will always give them our all. In a positive light, when we do fall short from time-to-time on our working schedule with our client, at least in our venture to under-promise and over-deliver we were closer than if we told them something far less in the beginning like many builders do.
There are times though that the client is fully responsible for the project taking longer because of certain things that they changed, added, or things that they didn’t complete that affected the projects time-line.
We take the approach of a “PARTNERSHIP WITH OUR CLIENTS.” We’re in this together and Partners do everything they can to not let each other down. We know our clients don’t want excuses – they want results and we do everything in our power to make that happen.
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Return On Your Investment Investing in your home has always, and will continue to be, the safest place to invest your money. Can you think of any other kind of investment where your whole family can enjoy it everyday while it increases in value every year? You may wonder how much of your cost of a remodeling project can be recovered at resale. Well Based on the average from 60 different markets around the United States you will find out what the average return is by category. The return on your investment depends on the value of your house, the value of similar homes in the immediate area and the time-line of how many years have transpired since you did your remodel. Of course the quality of your remodel always comes into play on the resale value. If you think about long-term just like when you bought your home 15 or 20 years ago, you will find that you probably made money on your investment, or at least recouped your costs. Anything less than 3 to 5 years may result in partial recovery. The national average for the percent of increase for home value is around 4 to 5% per year with some markets being more, while some markets may be less. This value could rise even more in the future due to the rising costs of materials. Note: In some markets the percent of cost recouped may be higher or lower than the average mean % listed below. The information provided below is one of the leading industry sources for reliable information within the building industry (“Remodel” magazine, November 2004 issue). Additional information pertaining to this subject can be provided, per your request. The average “Job Cost” for the Bismarck/Mandan area will on the average be a little lower in some categories and much lower in other categories than the national average cost listed below. 2007 NATIONAL AVERAGES (West North Central Region)
Job Cost Resale Value Cost Recouped ************************************************************************ Bathroom Addition (Mid) 38,995 21,980 56.4% Bathroom Remodel (Mid) 16,424 11,275 68.6% Bathroom Remodel (Upscale) 52,134 31,141 59.7% Bathroom Addition (Upscale) 76,009 45,494 59.9% Basement Remodel w/bar 62,563 40,758 65.1% Deck Addition 10,546 7,928 75.2% Family Room (16’x25’) 83,099 47,654 57.3% Minor Kitchen Remodel 21,672 16,089 74.2% Major Kitchen Remodel (Upscale) 111,362 73,216 65.8% Major Kitchen Remodel (Mid) 57,156 39,701 69.5% Master Ste. Addt. 24’x16’ (Mid) 103,731 60,062 57.9% Master Ste. Addt. 24’x 16’ (Upper) 226,657 121,615 53.7% Roofing Replacement (30 square) 19,988 11,229 56.2% Siding Replacement 10,353 7,977 77.1% Window Replacement (Mid) 12,046 8,550 71.0% Window Replacement (Upscale) 18,175 12,565 69.1% Sunroom Addition (220 sq. ft) 72,103 39,165 54.3% ************************************************************************
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Question & Answer Format (Q): What is an ice dam? (A): http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/housingandclothing/DK1068.html
Q):What exactly is Condensation and how do I deal with it?
(A):GLASS, WINDOW AND FRAME CONDENSATION
AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT:Each winter sees more and more homeowners vitally interested in the subject of condensation. It’s not a happy interest. It stems from bad experiences with condensation forming on the windows, glass, doors and framework. It may strike you as odd, but the growing condensation problems of the nation are caused by progress. Yes, if you have trouble with condensation it’s probably because you live in a tight modern home, or you’ve added an addition that offers more insulation than was there before.
What causes “Trouble” condensation? A little fog on the lower corners of your windows or solariums (insulated units) now and then probably doesn’t bother you. It shouldn’t. By the time you’ve thought about it a second time it is usually gone away.
What we’re talking about is excessive condensation. Troublesome condensation. Condensation that blocks whole windows with fog, or frost, water that runs off windows to stain woodwork, or in serious cases even damage the wallpaper or plaster. If you have this kind of condensation on your windows, you have a good reason to worry, and a good reason to react.
Don’t worry so much about the window where you can see the effect of excess humidity. You should worry more about what excess moisture may be doing elsewhere in the home. It may be freezing in the insulation of your attic where it will melt and damage your plaster exactly like a roof leak when warm weather comes. Or it may be forcing its way out through the siding to form blisters under your exterior paint. That means the most expensive kind of paint job is now in order.
It’s natural and easy in such cases to blame the paint, or the insulation, or the windows or the solarium, but it’s wrong to blame them.
The real villain is invisible water vapor… too much water vapor. The best and usually the only way to prevent this trouble is to get rid of excess water-vapor; to reduce the humidity.
WHAT IS HUMIDITY?Humidity, water vapor, moisture, steam, they’re all the same. They are all one form of water. Humidity is an invisible gas. It is present in varying quantities in nearly all air. THIS MOISTURE IN AIR TRIES TO FLOW TOWARD DRIER AIR AND MIX WITH IT. Scientist’s describe this force as “vapor-pressure”. It is often a very power force indeed. It can act independently of the flow of the air within the home, which holds the moisture. Vapor pressure can force moisture easily through wood, plaster, brick, and cement, and even right through most of the materials we use to build our homes. That is exactly what happens when moisture seeks to escape from the humid air usually found inside your home to the drier winter air outside.
MORE Moisture Trapped in LESS Space:Certain building materials stop water vapor. Glass is one of these. Also on this list are some varnishes, paints, tiles, metal, and plastic wall coverings.
7 PRACTICAL STEPS TO CONTROL CONDENSATION Here, arranged from easy to more difficult, are the steps you should take to reduce condensation on your windows or solarium:
1. Use high performance MC WonderglassTM.
2. Shut off furnace humidifiers and any other humidifying devices in your home.
3. Be sure that louvers in attic or basement crawl spaces are open and that they are
large enough.
4. Run kitchen or other ventilating fans longer and more often than has been your
custom.
5. Open fireplace damper to allow easier escape for moisture.
6. Air out your house a few minutes each day, such as your kitchen, laundry, and
bathrooms during use, or just following use.
7. If troublesome condensation persists, see your heating contractor about an
outside air intake for your furnace; about venting of gas burning heaters and
appliances; or about installation of venting fans.
If the common remedies we suggest (1 through 5) don’t work, you really have a condensation problem. But the changes your heating contractor may recommend to further reduce humidity in your home should not be very expensive. Certainly they will be less expensive than a big paint job caused by excess water-vapor.
You see the basic principle of reducing window condensation is extremely simple. Where there’s too much window condensation on your windows, it means that humidity is too high in your home. You should take steps to reduce humidity until condensation disappears.
But in practice, window condensation and reducing humidity may become very complicated, because many entirely different conditions may affect the way condensation problems work out in different homes. Let us just mention a few:
· The number and type of windows throughout your home.
· The type of glazing in your windows, doors or sunroom.
· The heating system – hot air or water – perimeter or interior wall heating.
· The type of insulation and vapor barrier.
· The type of soil and quality of drainage.
Because of so many variables, a condensation problem can sometimes be very tough to solve. That’s why we recommend that you put an expert to work on your problem if the simpler steps to reduce humidity don’t solve your condensation problem. See your heating contractor first. If they can’t help, we suggest that you ask your general contractor, or lumber dealer to put you in touch with a qualified expert. They are available both at engineering schools and from the staffs of heating, insulation, wallboard, or window manufactures.
Before we leave the subject of reducing humidity, we would like to add the following:
There are two causes of condensation that are TEMPORARY. They will disappear after a few weeks, or at the most season of heating.
First, there is the moisture that comes from new construction or remodeling. There can be quite a lot of moisture in the wood, the plaster, or other building materials of a new home. When the heating season starts, this moisture will gradually flow out into the air in the home and eventually it will disappear and not cause any more trouble.
Much the same sort of thing happens in milder forms at the beginning of each heating season. During the summer, your house has absorbed some moisture. After the first few weeks of heating your house will be dried out – and have less trouble with condensation.
In discussing the control of condensation, we’ve mentioned just about everything EXCEPT windows and solariums. There’s a good reason. There is just nothing much that can be done with windows or solariums to cut down on condensation.
Vapor-seal insulation is designed specifically to stop the escape of water-vapor and to protect the insulation and your walls from the ravages of water.
Increased use of these “moisture trapping” materials in the last few years has created the modern tight homes. Moisture that is created by bathrooms, kitchens, laundries and occupants no longer flows easily to the outside. The modern insulation and construction that keeps cold air outside also keeps moisture in. So it is very easy to build up excessive and even harmful moisture levels in such homes. American Builder Magazine calls the problem a combination of many causes that build excessive moisture in the modern home.
First, more washing, more bathing, more showers, more appliances, and more gas furnaces – all pour water vapor into homes than in former years. HEATING and VENTILATING Magazine provides builders with reference data on sources of water-vapor. For instance cooling for a family of four adds 4.5 lbs. of moisture a day to a house. Each shower contributes a half-pound, weekly laundry, 30 lbs., human occupancy, 6 to 8 lbs., etc. All of this moisture must eventually escape from your home. So you can see that the modern living of a family of four can easily release 150 pounds, or more than 18 gallons of water per week into the air in your home. And houses with no basements have further moisture problems.
How to Reduce Humidity:1. Controlling Sources of Humidity: For instance, venting all gas burners, clothes dryers, etc. to the outside. Use of kitchen or bathroom exhaust fans.
2. Winter ventilation: Because outside air usually contains less water vapor, it will “dilute” the humidity of inside air. This takes place automatically in older houses through constant infiltration of outside air.
3. HEAT: The process of heating your home will reduce the relative humidity – providing it’s DRY HEAT. It will counter balance most or all the moisture produced by modern living. Now before we summarize specific steps for reducing humidity in your home, let’s include some basic data about recommended moisture. You can refer to it if you are inclined to test the moisture levels in your home.
The table below is the result of long and careful experiments at the University of Minnesota Engineering Laboratories. It shows the maximum safe humidity for your home…not just for the windows or solariums, as well for your paint, insulation and structural members.
In most cases, reducing moisture to these humidity levels will cure troublesome condensation on windows or solarium. If not, you can reduce humidity without discomfort to you or your family.
If you test humidity in your home, be sure to use an accurate instrument, preferably a good sling psychrometer. Remember, too, these relative humidity levels are for 70º F. For higher temperatures, lower humidity levels are required.
These humidity levels are comfortable. They are about the average levels you would expect in the spring month in Phoenix, Arizona.
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