One thing that we have been talking consistently about with our clients, new leads, and our c2s social channels – is lead times in the construction industry.
We are finding that lead times for materials can range anywhere from five days to 20 weeks…which creates a lot of problem-solving on our end.
Here are a few tips that have helped our team stay on track to plan and remodel during this construction craze.
Finalize Your Designs & Plans
This is the first thing we do with all of our clients. We make sure we lock in all final selections from cabinetry style, paint color, light fixtures, hardware, etc. and also ensure that all floor plans & elevations are drawn up.
Whether you’re working with an architect, designer, or contractor…the planning before construction begins can also take anywhere from one month to a year, depending on the scale of your remodel.
Create Material Tracker
Next, we create a spreadsheet that lists all of the final materials that we will need to order, breaking each room into its own tab. This is where we track tile quantities, the number of cabinet pulls, etc.
We also start accounting for the misc. items like ordering dumpsters, applying for permits, scheduling inspections, where & when you might have to call the pros in such as plumbing and electrical, etc. There are a lot of other unforeseen Home Depot runs during our remodels. For every c2s house we’ve flipped, we’ve always budget around $5K for miscellaneous construction “Home Depot” trips for odds & ends items.
We then start researching each material online and/or checking in with our vendors and noting the lead time for each material on our spreadsheet. If there’s appliances, cabinetry or a specialty tile in your remodel, chances are those will be the items with the longest lead times.
Start Ordering
Once we fill out the materials tracker and know our longest lead time for the project, we start to order. We order as many things ahead as we can to avoid stock issues and discontinuations of products. If there’s a pretty standard tile that’s typically in stock, we hold on ordering those for a few more weeks to avoid clustering of materials in the construction zone.
If for some reason there’s a material that has an expected delay or inventory shortage outside of our project timeline, we go back to the drawing board with more options for our clients.
Next – we start tracking when each item has shipped, it’s tracking information, and where it’s being shipped. That way if we run into any issues when unpacking, we’ll have an easy reference point to check back on!
Plan Project Timeline
After we have a better scope of when materials will arrive, we can plan out our project timeline to be consistent with when materials arrive. That way, you won’t be living in the construction zone longer than you need to be!
This includes us reaching out to our subs for tiling, wallpaper install, plumbing, electrical, etc. and getting on their calendars for install dates based on when the materials should start arriving.
Start Remodeling
Once the bulk of the project materials have arrived, we should be ready to start the remodel. And, by planning ahead, we’ll run into fewer issues with lead times and hopefully be able to cruise through the project with ease.
Our goal with our clients during this construction craze is to keep them in the loop with their material ETAs, provide additional options if they don’t want to wait, and of course, be as organized as possible to stay on track for our remodel timeline.
But, there are some things that are out of our control and although we do our best to plan ahead, there’s always shifting and problem solving to do.
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