Remodelers responding to a Houzz survey indicated in July they have a slightly reduced backlog of work compared with a few months earlier, but they remain more in demand than in previous years, the online service reported today.
Design-build pros polled in July said, on average, that a client would have to wait 11.4 weeks before that contractor could start a mid-sized project for them, while remodelers who don't offer design services said their wait would average 9.8 weeks. That's down from 12.9 weeks for design-build remodelers and 10.7 weeks for build-only remodelers, respectively, in Houzz's April survey. Still, both waiting periods remain roughly twice as long as in the third quarter of 2017.
The averages are weighted to produce a national number. Regional differences can be stark. The biggest difference was among design-build firms, where remodelers along the West Coast said their backlog averaged 16.8 weeks, while in the South Atlantic states the wait was only 7.8 weeks.
Every pro surveyed is on the Houzz network, so the surveyed sample is a subset of all remodelers nationally. The total sample size for build-only remodelers, design-build remodelers, and specialty trade contractors varies by quarter from 870 to 1,400.
