“Do you have secrets to selecting the right contractors for YOUR project?”
I get asked a lot from friends and family members often about this question. Being the architect somehow gives the illusion to those that I have some “secrets” about hiring the contractors…
While probing the nature/why of the question, I am learning to realize that their questions have really to do with the TRUST. Although as an architect, I tend to keep working with the the number of contractors I know, however, those people (especially the residential clients) who need to select the contractors for the first time, it seems a scary prospect.
To help out with friends/ family members who are planning for their custom homes as well as others who need to have that FIRST meeting with different contractors, I decided to ask.
Here are the answers to your TOP 5 questions answered from Ted Hillmer, who founded the JT Construction Solution
1. What do you find the potential clients’ biggest concern when they are looking for contractors? How do you help with their concerns?
We generally find that the biggest issue people have with the prospect of finding a contractor has to do with the potential for the lack of communication during the build process.
At JT Construction Solutions, we do our best to set expectations going into the client relationship and we feel that most reasonable people respect the fact that things further to the original contract do come up.
“We find that most people just want to know that we will keep clients up to date change orders and extra costs as they come up and establishing pricing before we proceed.”
People also like to know that we will be available to answer the questions that have as they come up. When this comes up we generally ask our prospective clients to speak with some of our previous clients.
2. Besides the project budget, another issue is time. Whether the project would be completed on time. How do you make sure to keep the projects completed on time?
When we give a project timeline we try to give an effective range in order to aid in peoples understanding of how things will take.
We work together with our site supervisors and other employees to make efficient progress on all of our projects. People tend to understand that with our commitment we will fall within the range of our timeline.
They also understand that change orders as well as other permitting issues can cause delays.
We feel that as long as there is communication and commitment provided to their project from us at JT construction Solutions clients will be pleased with the build process.
3. How do you answer to potential clients who are asking the costs without being clear about the project scope?
This is often a situation that occurs with potential clients that come to JT Construction Solutions.
We are always happy to try to work with people when it comes to their budgeting and financial planning.
“What we generally do to try to help people out in these sorts of situations is to base numbers on square footages based on other projects that we’ve done.”
It is at this point that we generally try to refer them to a designer that can help come to see their vision take place and prepare the contract documents.
4. When you look for designers/architects for projects with the client, what is your criteria in selecting the right person for the project?
When it comes to us recommending designers and architects we try to clarify with the client what their objective is.
Some designers are better at coming up with something that is based on fitting into budgets.
On the other hand some designers are better at being creative to make sure that people are able to get all the benefits of a luxury build at a range of price points
5. Tell us why we should hire JT Construction over other contractors:) or any other information about the company you want to highlight.
We here at JT Construction Solutions are really just focused on clients getting what they are looking for at the end of the day whether it be with us or not.
We try to focus our business model on great service and quality of our craftsmanship.
If this is what people are looking to benefit from during the build process then this is what we can provide
Life Outside of Design Studio 