The early spring Victoria Home Renovation Expo opened its doors on Friday Feb 27 at 1pm. The Alair booth looked sharp with our display, educational material handouts, project photo slide show, and we were proudly displaying the plaque of the recent award from Business Examiner Magazine as top Vancouver Island construction/development company for the year 2014. We made a special Alair Homes cake to serve at the booth to celebrate the award with our clients, trade partners, and new contacts attending the show.

Attendees of the show spied our booth over the 3 day event and we had well over 300 visitors stop in to engage in conversations, browse our materials, and ask lots of very good questions. We were impressed at the interest level of the attendees as they were furthering their education and gathering inspiration for their own home renovation and construction projects, so we’ve compiled a list of 10 questions that were commonly asked and will share as an ongoing published resource for all to enjoy:

Q: How and why were you selected as the winner of the Business Examiner award?

A: From our side, we see this as the voice of our clients and trade partners, their experiences working with us and the resulting positive impact and influence on their lives and businesses,
finding its way through to the award selection committee during their research.

Q: Do you use your own crew for renovation construction?

A: We use a combination of our own Project Management and Carpentry staff, along with an aligned group of skilled trades subcontractors who we work with regularly and regard as part of our team. For a smaller job, such as a single bathroom remodel, we use more of our own labor, and for larger renovations such as an addition, we are primarily using specialist tradespersons for each job function.

Q: How much will my renovation cost?

A: A very important question that has no fixed or easy answer besides stating that a construction budget in an Alair project is developed by the homeowner through our guidance in the client-control process. After our first consultation and investigation with a new client, we offer a free estimate of projected costs based on our experience so that the owner can gauge in to a realistic budget range, then we work quickly to find their comfortable spending level, and design the project budget to meet that cost point.

Q: What is the average cost per square foot to build or renovate a home in Victoria?

A: Answering this with a fast number can be misleading, it’s a fair and important question to ask and can be answered truthfully but only after having a deeper look at what type of project the owner is planning to do, and using some real comparable examples to show and share facts of what the costs were. Cost per square foot is a more applicable budgeting method in new construction than renovations, we will answer that specific question during a consultation where factual examples can be show.

Q: What if I don’t like some of the features or the results of my renovation?

A: Through very careful upfront planning this is usually avoided, though inevitably does sometimes occur. If there are deficiencies in the materials or workmanship after install, we warranty our work and make any necessary corrections. If there is a decision made to exchange materials or modify a design, we will work collaboratively with our suppliers to make this happen.

Q: Do you offer just the construction building service, or do you also design homes?

A: We design, build, and beyond, and in-between. We are flexible in our service offerings and will be happy to provide some or all of any of the services that may or will be required to produce a new or renovated home. This includes the design, which is typically a custom new design for the project or we can use design packages that are available for sale in the market or a design that an owner has already had made before we become involved. Beyond design and construction, we also handle engineering and permitting, landscaping, financing assistance, and offer guidance for other life effects such as moving, storage, long-term living space and home-asset planning.

Q: If I have a budget to build a home, how do you make sure you stay within it?

A: We pride ourselves in a very diligent upfront project design and detailed budgeting before any construction starts, which you as the owner build yourself through our client-control budget software. Our experienced construction project managers then work for you to protect your investment and keep the budget on track.

Q: We want to travel abroad while our renovation takes place. Can you tell us about how we can monitor our house while away and it’s under construction, and ensure we will find it in livable conditions when we return?

A: Our online project management software gives you 24-hour access to monitor your project, where you will find daily uploads of pictures, budget and cost entries for your approval, a tasks schedule flow chart, and you receive a daily email from your project manager with status updates. We consider a project complete only when it is in “brand new” living condition, our crew’s last function is the sparkle-clean, completing the transformation from a construction site to a beautiful and comfortable home.

Q: How much involvement will I have in my renovation?

A: We welcome the owner to be involved to their own comfort level. For some this means watching progress through our software on their smart phone while on the beach in Hawaii, for others this means living in the home during renovation and seeing the action live every day. Our project manager runs the jobsite, and we respect that some owners want to be very actively involved in the decision making each step through to the end, while others have hired the manager to run the show allowing the owner to step away with minimal stress and involvement until they are ready to move in. That’s how client-control works, it’s the client’s choice.

Q: Who are the people on your team?

A: The team here at the booth is Chris, Scarlet, Mike, Sean, and Rick. We’re the core group in Victoria that are your designers, engineers, project managers, and general carpenters, working for Alair Victoria. Beyond this group, we have a long list of expert trades partners in every field of construction materials supply and trades, real estate, and financing, who we line up to represent Alair to our clients for each specific project. And outside of Victoria, we are part of the Alair partnership of construction companies that spans across Canada and the US, all of which have owners and staff with all kinds of diverse expertise within the large expanse of the construction industry, who all contribute every day to share best practices and to build and refine Alair’s operating systems that translate in to how we conduct business for our clients.