Selection Hand-Off When it comes to product selection, Alon Toker says remodelers have three basic options. The first is to have the remodeler specify the products that will be used in the project. “We price it and name all items, which is not practical from my point of view,” he says. It does not allow the customers to reflect their own style. Also, for larger projects, there might be many months between product specification and when the materials are needed on the job. “The cost could have completely gone out of ballpark, and it’s a tremendous amount of work when one does not have a contract yet,” he says.
The second option is for the remodeler to give homeowners an allowance for all the different selections such as appliances, tile, fixtures, etc. Toker is not a big fan of this option, either. “I’d rather keep my markup safe per each dollar collected than collect more dollars with an eroding markup,” Toker says.
He prefers to completely exclude the cost of certain materials from the contract. “Anything that is not an integral part of an assembly is something the homeowners can and should buy separately,” he says. He makes the schedule and gives clients selection dates. He goes through the specifications with them and reviews the products. “It brings more value to the homeowner and liberates us from selections, and it does not compromise our markup,” he says. If homeowners are overwhelmed by selections, they often hire an interior decorator.
Waterproofing Plus Due to the house’s proximity to the beach, owner Mike Sloan was concerned about water damage. Remodeler Alon Toker says he uses systems that meet code, but in this case, he went above and beyond to assuage Sloan’s apprehension. For stucco houses in California, the code requires a single layer of 20-minute paper under the metal lath. Toker’s crew installed two layers of 60-minute paper. To provide extra protection for the new hardwood floor, he included a second vapor barrier between the new plywood and the existing subfloor.
Likewise, he waterproofed door and window openings with both sheet metal and bituthane, a rubberized asphalt membrane. The remodeler now does this on all projects. “It’s a marginal additional cost, and I like the peace of mind it gives us,” Toker says.