Q: Why an estimate?

A: Specialty contractors, like all contractors, run into endless unforeseen issues, circumstances, and unexpected secondary issues. Sometimes it’s much worse than expected, and sometimes it’s better. We're going to give you our best educated guess based on observations and experience. If reality turns out to be even moderately off, we're going to communicate with you about it before we do anything and will proceed according to your direction.

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Q: Are estimates always free?

A: They are usually free, but not always. Some estimates are time-intensive and require research just to put them together, and they also might contain advice on how something ought to be done. That’s a service in itself and sometimes the estimate is going to require financial consideration, which we'll communicate clearly and upfront. 

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Q: Why is specialty contractor work so expensive?

A: There are definitely ranges of costs in this line of service, due to many different factors. We try our best to be fair and transparent, and the fact is that some things are expensive to get done. They require time and they require experience to accomplish correctly in as little time as possible. Our commitment is we'll do our best to get you to done on your project with your budget and satisfaction in-mind.

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Q: If we talked about something, does that mean it’s in the estimate?

A: Please read your estimate carefully. If it is not in the estimate, it’s not in the scope of work and it’s not included in the job. Our intent is to be as transparent as possible. Many customers request to have multiple different jobs done. For many reasons, the estimate may only include a portion of the jobs/tasks discussed, so please read the estimate and if you have any questions, please talk with us about it. We are very open to questions and feedback.

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Q: Why does the process take so long?

A: There’s currently a massive shortage of reliable, licensed, bonded and insured specialty contractors. There’s a tremendous amount of work that needs done and it takes time to process the outreach, put eyes on a job, assemble an estimate, and ultimately get going. The tradespeople we know are all in the same boat, but we believe everyone is doing their best. When you’re filling out our contact form, you can clearly note if your issue is urgent, and we'll do our best to get you an answer on if we can help as soon as possible.

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Q: Why might we turn your job down?

A: There are many reasons and it’s not personal. It might be that we cannot get to it in a reasonable amount of time, no matter how much we'd like to. It might be that we're not legally able to or don’t have sufficient skills, and there could be a number of other reasons that we're just not able to do it.

 

Q: Will we reuse materials, retrofit, or use “green” products?

A: Yes. On all. We love to help customers retrofit and reuse materials they have on-hand or have reclaimed. We're also familiar with USGBC - L.E.E.D., green and sustainable products and services. Just ask. And if it's beyond our scope of expertise, we know L.E.E.D. architects and consultants!

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Q: Do I have to pay taxes?

A: Yes, we must pay taxes on the services we render. Washington has a sales tax calculator that we use with each project that auto-populates your sales tax rate based on where your project is located. So we'll have it entered into the estimate and invoice for you.

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Q: What drives project costs up?

A: Candidly, what can drive project costs up the most is when customers want to talk with their contractor while the work is happening. It’s the #1 driver of costs increases and potential overruns. As much as we love talking with many of our customers, when it’s happening while the work is happening, it’s going to make it take longer, and time is money. Plus, it’s also a distraction and a potential for work quality decrease, injury, or secondary issue creation.

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Additionally, other drivers can be significant clutter where the job/task site is. If we have to move a bunch of things that are blocking what we're there to work on, it takes time. Additionally, unannounced issues or symptoms of the issue that weren’t presented are also drivers. It may seem like you’re exposing yourself to increased cost by holding things back, but please know it’s much better to just put it all on the table and we can work through it and any concerns you have on the front-end.

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Q: What’s an estimate look like?

A: Our estimates are detailed (unless it’s a simple on-the-spot fix that we agree to). We list the materials at-cost (the actual cost of the material or equipment at the time of purchase, with no markups.) Then we include the reasonable and realistic time that we believe it will take to accomplish the work. We then include the tax, any discounts, any materials you already had on-hand, and the time we spent picking materials up. We usually do not charge for travel time in the Snoqualmie Valley, and only charge for the estimate if we agreed to that on the front-end. That’s it. Then we do our best to stick to that estimate, record what we did, and that is all included in the invoice.

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Have more questions? Just ask in a customer inquiry: