By Alicia Garceau
"Sometimes I'm my own worst enemy," says Bruce Case of Case Design/Remodeling. "I've gone into many projects where I didn't control any of the variables before I started the job and the variables ended up controlling me."
On one such project–a small 5' x 9' bathroom remodel–the client had her heart set on high-end materials. She selected an Italian wall-hung sink and tumbled marble tile. "I'm thinking a wall-hung sink. How hard could that be?" Case says. He soon found out.
The sink was to arrive from Italy by boat in six weeks, so Case scheduled the project's start date to coincide with its delivery. As that date drew near and the sink was still somewhere on the Atlantic, Case called the client to delay the project. The client, confident that the sink would arrive on time, insisted they go forward with the job.
Of course, when it came time to install the sink, it was still no where to be found. In an effort to keep the client happy, Case tiled the wall and even installed a temporary sink. The tardy sink arrived eventually, and when it did, Case discovered that it had a shroud, which incidentally was missing, and the rough-in for the temporary sink was too low.
The tiled wall had to be redone, and that's when Case learned the tumbled marble tile had a four-week lead time. When the shroud finally arrived, the rough-in was still too low, which was something Case might have known from reading the instructions–except they were written in Italian.
"One option with those variables is to say, let's wing it! Let's get on that rollercoaster and see what happens, baby. We'll start this job. We don't have the sink, I'm not sure when the subs are lined up, the instructions are in Italian, but we'll figure it out as we go.' I've been there," Case says. "The other option is to say, 'Of those pieces of the pie, let's find a way to control 85 percent of the variables.'"
Picky picking
Case readily admits his first mistake was failing to control the selection process. While most clients look to their remodeler to guide them through the selection process, more and more clients want to supply their own materials.
"That, I think, is going to become a bigger and bigger issue," he says, adding that owner-supplied materials can wreak havoc on a job from a time-management and financial standpoint if not handled properly. Hypothetically, a homeowner might decide he wants to supply appliances for his kitchen remodel, but asks the remodeler to schedule the delivery. The delivery comes and the remodeler is the person signing off on the items. If the wrong item was delivered, or if there was a dent on it, the remodeler–not the homeowner–is suddenly dealing with appliances.
Case learned this lesson the hard way when a client supplied tile for a project. The tile order, which was delivered to the jobsite by the client, turned out to be short. The client ordered more tiles, and asked Case to pick them up. Case obliged. Unfortunately, that order was also short several tiles. In a case of "no good deed goes unpunished," the client demanded Case order more tile, pick it up, and pay for it because he had signed off on the order. "We had bought the problem," he says.
Because of his firsthand experience with owner-supplied materials and the problems they can cause, Case developed a one-page form that places the sole responsibility for such materials on the owner.
Whether materials are owner-supplied or ordered through the remodeler, Case maintains that selections need to be complete before a job can begin. "If you use that as a key step to say 'Look, we're happy to put it in the schedule, but you've got to pick the selections,' it will help get those selections done," he says.
For shorter jobs, Case takes it a step further. He wants everything on hand before starting a job. This is particularly important for shorter jobs. "I want them there before we start the job because that's too short of a job to find out that the shroud with the Italian wall-hung sink doesn't work," he says.
Alicia Garceau is a freelance writer based in Indianapolis. She is the former managing editor of Professional Remodeler magazine.
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