There is no doubt that you can save hundreds if not thousands of dollars in an interaction with a company. Quality work can even be obtained at extreme discounts if you understand what you are wanting and how to get it. The steps required will take you a tremendous amount of time and effort (and likely frustration as well) but you can achieve your goal. The first step is to identify what companies are willing to negotiate your projects labor cost as well as ones that can provide discounted materials. Its important to make certain that these labor as well as materials are not sub-par and meet the quality standards you require for your project. This will take some research and delving into information about why. Why is a very important question to ask yourself and others when working on a construction project. Why are they willing to provide labor for you at a discount when other professionals are charging more? Why would they not leave your project for another one if it offers them more in monetary benefits during the middle of your project? Why can they afford to something that others cannot? Some of these answers may be as simple as, “We don’t have insurance”, “We are not experienced and are building our reputation in order to gain references.” or, “We are planning on doing this project on our own time frame and will be doing full priced projects first”. But the answers you will likely not hear is “We don’t know the full details of what it will take in order to actually complete this project the way you want or need to be done correctly”, “We plan on creating a change order to charge more once we are already into the contract” or, “We are going to do this job until a better one comes along and leave you without a complete project”.
As far as materials are concerned there is about a 3%-10% difference in pricing in brand named materials at the Big Box type of construction product stores, at the most. But that doesn’t mean you always have to spend top dollar to gain the best end results. Some materials cost more because they provide something extra i.e. Greenrock vs. typical Sheetrock (drywall) is best used in moist area’s such as kitchens, baths, and laundry rooms, making it worth the additional cost in order to have a mold and water resistant material in area’s where water or moisture will likely make contact with the product. Paint is another great example; you don’t have to spend top dollar to get the best paint, however the bigger brands provide more paint and pigment in their products making it cover more evenly and more likely to complete projects in less coats or applications. Plumbing and electrical fixtures, such as ceiling fans, are more about taste and warranty than effectiveness. You can purchase a Moen shower fixture for hundreds of dollars and other than form and extra function, its not necessary to spend that much when a Glacier Bay would work and could be picked up for less than one hundred dollars.
Keep in mind that professional trades are masters of their craft and will likely specialize in what ever it is that they do. i.e. plumbers, air conditioning repairman, and electricians must train as an apprentice for years in order to become masters of their trade. This build up of knowledge can save you massive amounts of time when they can charge sixty – ninety dollars and hour. Just remember that part of what makes them a professional is that they can accomplish things in much shorter amounts of time than someone who is learning as they go. So instead of paying 25 and hour for 6 hours to get that a/c running again, you could have it back up and running in an hour by someone who knows what to look for and how to get it up and going fast.
Keeping an eye out on workers is tedious, asking tons of questions and researching their answers can remove the need to watch over trades once they are onsite and under contract. It not always true that “you get what you pay for” if you are lucky enough to get more than you paid for, but its more likely that attempting to get something done for far less than you know its worth will end in having to have it redone or living with sub-par results.
Do your time and ask questions of your professional’s, we enjoy spreading our knowledge that we have gained. It shows how well we have paid attention and what results we know how to get. In the end, you are paying for knowledge from trades because you can do everything they do if you are only willing to put in the years of time to perfect it as they have.
