Presented April 8 by the National Association of the Remodeling Industry at its spring meeting, the annual Contractor of the Year (CotY) awards recognize contractors who have “demonstrated outstanding work through their remodeling projects.” With categories in local, national, and regional groupings, the CotY awards are aimed at promoting excellence within the remodeling industry. Here is one of three CoTY award winning projects in exteriors.
Residential Exterior Under $100,000
Kade Homes & Renovations: Cumming, Ga.
The story behind this exterior remodel is a lesson in the importance of hiring a professional contractor. Daniel Cipriani and his team at Kade Homes and Renovations had to overcome the challenges of dealing with less than stellar work: Previous work done on the basement remodel of a Georgia home wasn’t up to code and had exposed electrical wiring.
Cipriani says the poor work of a shoddy contractor is something he often encounters, "This one is very personal to me, because I hear about it all the time," Cipriani says. Due to the poor workmanship, Cipriani and his team determined that the existing work would be unable to support the additional load, so they had to gut the structure.
This project, he says, emphasizes how much a good contractor can either help or hinder a project. "When you pick up another contractor's work—and there are so many contractors who are shady and not properly licensed or don't do the job properly—and you take on work like this, it costs the homeowner an additional $20,000."
Additionally, new deck code standards were implemented during this project. The ledger now had to properly support these new codes, so rather than remove brick masonry Cipriani built an external support system that fit with the rustic design on the rest of the home. Using 4x4 cedar posts between each of the exterior posts added architectural elements to the home.
The result was a beautifully redone exterior that secured Kade Homes & Renovations a Contractor of the Year Award for 2016.
