Precise and Efficient Installation Commercial jobs often present the residential contractor with logistical challenges. How do you transport the product to the jobsite? Who among your installers is willing to hang out of a window from 20 stories? What equipment, such as scaffolding or sheltered walkways, will you need to buy or rent?
“One of the biggest challenges is the sheer size and quantity of material you have to move into a commercial building,” says Ralph Sabbato, a planner and engineer for Gilkey Commercial. “In a residential application, you’re dealing with 5 to 12 windows and they fit on a pickup or a trailer. With commercial, getting the tools and crews staged is a huge challenge before the installation occurs.”
Planning and constant contact with building owners and managers are essential. Windows for office buildings are larger and heavier and require three to five people to handle. “A lot of the older buildings that need new windows have tiny little elevators,” Gilkey Commercial salesman Ralph Knepp points out.
When Gilkey Commercial replaces the window units in a multistory office building, it develops a floor-by-floor plan. “If the building is full and occupied, we will work evenings and weekends,” Knepp says. “If there’s any chance of moving people around, we prefer working in the daytime hours. Two reasons: You can’t see without a lot of light. And the labor rate. We pay a premium for night and weekend work. And we bring that up when we quote the job.”
Safety’s also a consideration. With office buildings, for instance, height and workers’ fear of it enters in. Installers may need harnesses, tied off to something in the building. Working with a general contractor on a job means that you’ll have regular safety meetings and regular OSHA inspections. “It’s a whole different environment, safety-wise,” says Lett. Working in factories or foundries, “in some cases they will have a safety inspector watch you while you’re working.” His crews sometimes have to attend classes before they’re allowed to work in certain sections of buildings.
Learning Curve What home improvement contractors who do commercial like about it are the diversity and extra revenue. Scott Barr, for instance, sees his company doing “two or three” commercial jobs this year, including a possible condominium window replacement project. Two such projects, he guesses, could boost his company’s sales from $2 million to $3 million, “and that’s short-term.” Long-term, he plans to hire a contract estimator and full-time project manager to expand commercial business.
But David Moore, CEO of Garden State Brickface, cautions that commercial’s not for every home improvement contractor. Large-scale commercial projects require “a different skill set, and you have to determine whether you have the people and the presence in the marketplace to manage that,” he says.
On the other hand, there’s no reason home improvement contractors can’t seek business in “small commercial settings,” such as other small businesses. Hay’s suggestion to companies looking for commercial window replacement work: “Start small, and learn. And solicit all the advice you can get.”
Strong Advice If you’re thinking about expanding into some line of commercial work, be aware that it isn’t easy. “Commercial work is not for everyone,” says Jim Lett, owner of A.B.E. Doors & Windows in Allentown, Pa. “When you take on a large project, you need to have the financial resources to carry you. You need a strong balance sheet so you can either finance it yourself, work with your suppliers, or have an established line of credit at your bank. You also want to be careful not to take on such a large project that you ignore your bread-and-butter customers.
“If you are doing municipal work, you usually have to pay prevailing wage,” he continues. “You also need to post a bid bond. When you complete a commercial job and submit your invoice, you might wait 60 to 90 days for payment. Then there’s often retainage of 10% until the general contractor completes the punch list. These are all costs that must be taken into consideration when you prepare your bid.”
Lett, whose company’s commercial focus is on garage doors, points out that margins are lower than in residential and that “you hope to make it up over time with service work.” So why do it? Unlike residential, commercial work is slow in summer, busy in winter. “It helps reduce the seasonality of our business,” Lett says.
