What’s it Going to Cost?

What’s it Going to Cost?

I dunno.

When your local mechanic quotes you $400 for new brakes and rotors, he knows how long the job is going to take and how much the parts cost. It’s 2nd grade math. 9 out 10 times that is what you will pay, but if the bolts are rusted and the widgety thingamabob is bent, then he’s going to charge you more.

10 out of 10 times in custom and contemporary home building, it will cost more. I can spend days, weeks even months drawing plans, procuring bids, inspecting the existing conditions and writing dozens of pages of detailed specifications describing what will happen and what will get installed and the actual time and eventually the final product will not match.

20 years in the business, I have learned that if we (me and the client) want a win win, then fixed numbers don’t work. Can I give you a range? Yes. Can I give you fixed numbers within the overall budget? Ie; $25k for the foundation, $30k for the plumbing, of course. But when the selections, the tweaks, the moves, the unforseens, the changes, the customs, the art, and the overall craft of custom building comes out, then fixed numbers simply don’t work.

View Rail – The case study.

We have used their product before. Great floating stair system at a fair price with outstanding customer service.

The cost of the system, the material, is a fixed number. That’s easy. Installation is another story. Now, unless you install these things every day, it’s impossible to know how long it’s going to take. Add to that the Jensen Hus standard, which means tweaking, redoing, adjusting, cursing, spitting, fixing, shimming, moving, altering, fudging or sometimes ripping it out and starting over to get it right. That’s custom building.

Custom Car Building

I love custom car restoration shows. Texas Metal, Iron Resurrection and Monster Garage to name a few. One thing I’ve learned is that the end product is so amazing because the mechanics and the artists have the latitude to ply their trade and create their art. But it aint cheap! 

Custom builders require the same environment in order to produce quality and meaningful results in whatever trade they are plying. Yes, it will cost more, yes it will take longer. That’s the point.