Before You Remodel Your Bathroom, Consider These Things

by | Sep 18, 2021 | Bathrooms | 0 comments

Reading Time: 5 minutes

A decent remodeling project should be modern behind the scenes, functional as in Universal design, safe as in bars or surfaces to grab if you need a hand with balance issues. Creating a great plan will make it spatially accommodating and easy to see what you are doing. It should have superior ventilation to avoid microbial growth, easily cleanable, durable, and comfortable. Updating your fixtures will automatically conserve water too.

Having a remodeling contractor that understands these principles can guide you through the process. This is where our experience is going to pay off. This article covers many of the FAQs of bathroom remodeling.

Where to Begin?

at the beginning

At the beginning

At the beginning of course.

  • Being frustrated with existing conditions is a good start,
  • Daydreaming about solutions is the next logical step,
  • The third is to contact Levco today to book a visit!

Remodeling bathrooms is about discovering what you want, what is available out there, (because it is changing all the time), and what you want to/can afford. Avoiding common pitfalls is a necessity, adding some jazz to the project is going to make your bathroom great for years to come.

These are all things that get discovered and addressed during Levco’s Design Development Phase. Once you get into the Design Phase as we like to say, we strive to become attuned to your style and taste. We have found that once presented with existing conditions and a clear understanding of where the overlap between wants, needs, and budget exist, everything begins to fall into place quite nicely. Much like a sheet of orchestra music looks to a maestro. (My uncle Leon was a composer)

1, Who is going to draw my plans, and do I get to be involved?

Uncle Leon

Uncle Leon

We come to you in what we call our meet and measure time. At that meeting, we:

  1. Review the preliminary Description Of Work, and photo document existing conditions.
  2. A few days later we will present an As-Bult set of plans.
  3. Several days after that we make ourselves available for a Zoom drafting session.
  4. We draw your plans together in one of the most fun and collaborative processes there is.
  5. 2D & 3D imagery is available. Within an hour or so we can typically hammer out most projects.

2, Why Use an Experienced General Contractor?

The tangibles are that we have created a team of experts and have lots of practice. We have found that just someone says they can do something it is often below our standard of excellence. Do you want to have the joy sucked right out of your project? Just get a jack of all trades in to do your tile work, or painting, or you name it. I am a craftsman too, but my work pales in comparison to a specialist. You don’t want to have someone practice on your home and get paid for it.

3, How Much Will It Cost?

There are three things that make up the cost for a remodeling project,

  1. Labor: The physical labor that needs to be accomplished, including, but is not limited to site protection, demolition, materials delivery, scheduling, and overseeing the day-to-day operations of the players, meetings, and any extra tasks that pop up.

PLUS

  1. Materials: These are the things that go behind the scenes, plus and the things that you have selected to include into the project like plumbing fixtures, cabinets, and countertops.

PLUS

  1. Subcontractors: These are the tradesman that installs the cool things you’ve selected. They do the work that requires a specialist. Most are licensed tradesmen.

EQUALS the Project Cost. Everyone is unique because of the variables that come into play. In other words, “IT” is always changing.

I have links to places on this site that you can visit and see how much thought and time we have put into this process to make it manageable interesting and interactive.

4, What’s My Finish Materials Budget?

We offer allowances for the finish materials (The things you can see)  Once we have a general idea of what you want, we use ample hypothetical numbers until you actually select what you want. This includes things like tile, lighting fixtures, plumbing fixtures and cabinet pulls.

Since the project will consist of labor, materials, and subcontractors. The only real thing you have control of once the design and description of work is agreed upon is what finish materials you will include.

5, How Much Help Will I Get Picking Materials?

During the Design Process, you will get as much or as little assistance as you want or need, we will get you connected on our Client Portal and set up meetings with professional designers as showrooms who can give you assistance selecting things that are a good fit. “We met with her first and she was able to help us color coordinate our selections. In fact, everyone was so helpful, the process went quite smoothly”

6, Will I Get To See Prices?

We have updated our process several years ago based upon feedback to reveal our pricing. We were reluctant to do it for years because I felt it was more important to pick what you want rather than basing it on price alone. Now that pricing is shared, my clients have one more selection criteria to make good decisions with.

7, Do I Have to Use Your Services to Remodel?

No, but we would like it very much if you did. Our Design Process is paid for so in the end if you chose to have the project done by others we will allow that. To incentivize you to stay on board for the remodeling part, we credit a portion of the design fee towards remodeling with Levco.

8, What if I Want to Change Something While We Are Remodeling?

Levco has a Change Order process that does not penalize folks for making changes. Some great opportunities become obvious at times after the walls are opened up. Keep in mind that often changes extend the timeline and so there are usually tradeoffs to weigh.

9, Do I get to see the schedule?

The schedule is a part of the remodeling process, the field or “Work” part of the project is outlined in our critical path style schedule before things even start.  Regardless of the method, there is a regular checking-in that occurs while we are working to update the day-to-day aspects of the project.

10, How do the payments work?

We tailor the payment schedule individually to make sure we are using your money to remodel your home. We make an effort to stay slightly ahead and we reserve some for the end. This is one of our many secrets to getting and keeping the best workers, vendors, and tradesmen in the area.

11, Do you provide a warranty?

Levco understands that our workmanship and how we address warranty issues is our reputation. We customarily provide a one-year warranty on paper. The truth is that we have a clear understanding that our reputation is riding upon how we address any issues that arise. This is why we also offer our “Limited Lifetime Warranty” Our testimonial section and our amazing service sections address how we do it.


Your comments are welcome. To ask questions or get more information about remodeling, click here to email me directly, or call 208-947-7261

If you or someone you know is considering remodeling or just wants to speak to a trustworthy remodeling contractor, please contact me. You’ll be glad you did.

Disclaimer: Some of these images came from the WEB. If they are yours, and you object to them being used, please claim them and I will gladly remove and replace them at once.

Disclaimer: Some of these images came from the WEB. If they are yours, and you object to them being used, please claim them and I will gladly remove and replace them at once.

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