Contractors in New York state are required by law to place initial deposits in an escrow account. Remodeler Dett Otterbeck of Otterbeck Builders in Castleton, N.Y., says the practice works well for his company. When he receives the first payment on a project, he puts that money in an escrow account. “We don't draw on it until we offset it with the first receipts,” he says. More
Remodeling is by its very nature a contentious process. But there is no magic bullet to protect against run-ins with customers or, worse, with their lawyers. The best protection, many remodelers agree, is as simple as establishing the rules and then making sure everyone follows them. More
Hurricane Katrina briefly hit south Florida before flitting across the Gulf of Mexico. The storm made landfall on August 29, battering Alabama and erasing coastal towns in Mississippi. But it wreaked the most havoc in Louisiana, where surging waters were too much for the levees that protected New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain, just north of the city and a few feet higher in elevation. The breaches caused the lake to begin to empty into the city, eventually flooding roughly 80% of it with up to 20 feet of water. More
When it comes to using subs for window installations, many remodelers just say no. Design/build companies, especially, tend to limit subcontractor involvement in any job to excavation, foundation work, mechanicals, and other highly specific trades they don't have on staff. Window installation is left to company carpenters. More
By REMODELING Magazine Staff. So, we can do these jobs with our remodeling crews and don't need to have separate divisions.Many insurance jobs come up during cold weather, and one benefit of this work is that it provides us with year-round jobs. More
Rich Gaspar, owner of Gaspar Construction in Seattle, notes that there's a 20% to 30% price difference between nationally known window brands and locally produced brands. The clients who choose the lesser products run a heightened risk of the windows failing," Gaspar says. More
