Skip to main content
Fulltext search
FILTER RESULTS BY:
RECOMMENDED IN RENT
Moving to NYC after college? Here's how to find a rental apartment
RECOMMENDED IN BUY
How buying real estate in NYC is unlike anywhere else
RECOMMENDED IN SELL
A guide to using a no-fee renovation loan from a NYC real estate firm
RECOMMENDED IN IMPROVE
How to make your NYC renovation more pet-friendly
BEST REAL ESTATE WEBSITE!
National Association of Real Estate Editors
BEST REAL ESTATE WEBSITE! National Association of Real Estate Editors
Brick Underground
Social Links
follow:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Flipboard
  • search
Brick Underground
☰ Brick Underground
Brick Underground
Brick Underground
☰
Brick Underground
  • Buy
    • Buy
    • The Market
    • Investing
    • New Construction + Condos
    • Affordable Housing
    • Co-ops
    • Negotiating + Financing
    • How to Buy in NYC Guide
    A rendering of the roofdeck at 55 Broad Street.
    Rent
    Housing lottery launches for 143 apartments in the Financial District
    Aerial panoramic view of Red Hook, Staten Island, Brooklyn, and Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
    Sales Market
    24 NYC neighborhoods where median prices more than doubled in the past decade
    431 West 54th Street is a co-op building that allows subletting.
    Investing
    Want to buy an investment apartment to rent out? Here's what you need to know
  • Rent
    • Rent
    • Affordable Housing
    • Roommates + Landlords
    • The Market
    • The Search
    • How to Rent in NYC Guide
    Young woman using laptop at new apartment, with moving boxes around.
    Roommates + Landlords
    Didn't get your security deposit returned in NYC? A new chatbot can help
    A rendering of the six-story building in Park Slope.
    Affordable Housing
    Housing lottery launches for 45 rent-stabilized units in Park Slope
    Laura and her dog Jack
    Rent
    Why I moved to NYC from Brazil: I relocated for work and reunited with friends I made 15 years ago
  • Sell
    • Sell
    • Staging + Open Houses
    • Negotiations + Closings
    • Getting Ready
    • How to Sell in NYC Guide
    Aerial view of downtown Brooklyn
    Sell
    Median sales price in Brooklyn climbs to $995,000 in the second quarter
    Downtown New York City
    Sell
    Manhattan deals rose to highest level in nearly two years, defying national trends
    new condo building and older co-op buildings in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
    Sell
    Brooklyn median price nears $1 million but the spring market is a question mark
  • Live
    • Live
    • Neighbors
    • Kids + Pets
    • Neighborhood Intel
    • Products + Test-drives
    • Troubleshooting
    FlatRate moving brick underground
    Live
    How to troubleshoot your move in advance
    Sponsored By flatrate
    Distressed woman sitting in her apartment
    Troubleshooting
    Ask Altagracia: My live-in partner is abusive. How can I get out of my lease?
    Sponsored By Outerbridge Law P.C.
    NYC apartment buildings with fire escapes
    Neighborhood Intel
    Can you sit on a fire escape in NYC? 5 things to know
  • Improve
    • Improve
    • Small Spaces
    • Small Projects + DIY
    • Renovations
    • Design + Architecture
    • Products + Services
    • How to Renovate in NYC Guide
    mini splits apartments new york city
    Products + Services
    Yes, you can install central AC in your co-op or condo unit. Here's how
    image
    Products + Services
    Take back your deck! How to win the war with mosquitoes and enjoy outdoor living again
    NYC apartment building with AC units
    Products + Services
    My neighbor's dripping AC is driving me crazy. What can I do?
  • Boards & Buildings
    • Boards & Buildings
    • Boards
    • Finance
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Property Management
    • Structure & Systems
    • Sustainability
    Burned and Boarded Up Windows
    When should your board hire a public adjuster?
    Manhattan GM
    What should we consider when renewing insurance for our building?
    Facade of NYC buildings
    How much is insurance on a NYC co-op or condo building?
  • Advertise
    • Advertise with us
    • Sponsored Content
    • Experts
    FlatRate moving brick underground
    Live
    How to troubleshoot your move in advance
    Sponsored By flatrate
    Distressed woman sitting in her apartment
    Troubleshooting
    Ask Altagracia: My live-in partner is abusive. How can I get out of my lease?
    Sponsored By Outerbridge Law P.C.
    Building facades in New York in winter
    Roommates + Landlords
    Ask Altagracia: I withheld rent due to inadequate heat and I'm being hassled to pay it back. What should I do?
    Sponsored By Outerbridge Law P.C.
  • Brick Report
  • About Us
  • About Us
The subscription service is currently unavailable. Please check again later.
Fulltext search
FILTER RESULTS BY:
New Main menu
  • Buy
    • Buy
    • The Market
    • Investing
    • New Construction + Condos
    • Affordable Housing
    • Co-ops
    • Negotiating + Financing
    • How to Buy in NYC Guide
  • Rent
    • Rent
    • Affordable Housing
    • Roommates + Landlords
    • The Market
    • The Search
    • How to Rent in NYC Guide
  • Sell
    • Sell
    • Staging + Open Houses
    • Negotiations + Closings
    • Getting Ready
    • How to Sell in NYC Guide
  • Live
    • Live
    • Neighbors
    • Kids + Pets
    • Neighborhood Intel
    • Products + Test-drives
    • Troubleshooting
  • Improve
    • Improve
    • Small Spaces
    • Small Projects + DIY
    • Renovations
    • Design + Architecture
    • Products + Services
    • How to Renovate in NYC Guide
  • Boards & Buildings
    • Boards & Buildings
    • Boards
    • Finance
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Property Management
    • Structure & Systems
    • Sustainability
  • Advertise
    • Advertise with us
    • Sponsored Content
    • Experts
  • Brick Report
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Advertise
  • About Us
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER →
Social Links Footer
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Search
Renovation [ SPONSORED ]

5 reasons your contractors’ bids are higher than you (or your architect) expected

By Bolster  | June 24, 2019 - 1:00PM
image

Bolster presents each homeowner with a fully itemized, detailed bid that empowers them to make an informed decision.

Bolster

SHARE:
Share to Facebook
Share to Twitter
Print
More...

Picture this: After months (or years) of saving and planning for your NYC home renovation, you’ve got a stellar design from an architect. Now you just need to hire a contractor and get down to business.

But when the bids start coming in, the numbers are shockingly high. The contractors you and your architect have reached out to say the project will cost way beyond what you budgeted for. Now you’ll either have to go back to the drawing board (incurring additional design fees from your architect), shell out far more than you planned, or call off the project entirely. How did this happen?  

"Our data reveals that bids from contractors priced off an architect's design come back on average 90 percent over an owner's original budget,” says Fraser Patterson, Co-Founder of Bolster, a New York City-based, design-build firm that has created a seamless renovation experience by delivering industry-leading expertise and a radically transparent process. 

Pro Tip:

Spend less, build faster with Bolster. "We deliver risk-free, on-time, on-budget renovations," says Bolster's CEO and co-founder Anna Karp. "We give you a fixed-priced cost up front, and absorb all unforeseen project costs after the demolition phase. Bolster--not you--is responsible for any and all surprises." Ready to start your renovation? Learn more >>

According to Fraser, the mismatch of budget and bid is most often due to one or more of these five reasons:

image

1. Your budget was not properly stress-tested against your intended scope of work

To a certain extent, you and your architect are operating in the dark when it comes to how much a project will cost.

“Even architects with years of experience may not have a strong sense of cost, because every renovation project is unique,” says Fraser.

The variables that make it impossible to compare one renovation to another can range from the network of contractors your architect contacts, to the rules for renovating set by your building’s management, to the materials your walls are made of.

“This all plays a part in dictating price, so the best way to understand pricing is to get a contractor who has experience with, and can take command of, all of these variables and produce some semblance of reliability in the pricing,” says Fraser.

The traditional approach is to figure out a project’s cost once you reach the end of the planning process—but by then, bids may come back as much as 90 percent over the initial budget. This late in the game, renovators may find themselves eliminating aspects of their project that they would have known to cut from beginning, had they been armed with more accurate pricing information.

Pro Tip:

With more than 50,000 square feet renovated in NYC, Bolster understands how to guide New Yorkers through any renovation challenge, from navigating Landmarks to recreating pre-war details, and gives them full visibility into project milestones. "Bolster is the only renovation firm to offer a fixed-price cost up-front. Once we perform due diligence and verify the existing conditions of your property, we absorb unforeseen project costs," says Bolster's CEO and co-founder Anna Karp. Ready to start your renovation? Learn more >>

“Why should renovators pay for architects to design things they can’t afford?” Fraser points out.  

This is why before design begins, Bolster produces a cost estimate using an algorithm informed by data from similar projects, as well as professional estimates based on site visits, to provide a statistically accurate prediction of the cost of every project upfront. These cost estimates then enable owners to plan to their budget and avoid getting hit by major sticker shock later.

image

2. Your architect didn’t consult with a contractor early enough in the design process 

While architects have the expertise to transform a client’s wish list into concrete design plans, contractors have the knowledge of construction methods and product costs—and the actual prices from subcontractors and suppliers—that determine the price of a renovation.

“When architects work alone, in isolation from reliable construction and cost information, it increases the likelihood that contractors will eventually come back with bids that homeowners can’t afford,” says Fraser. “It’s a good way to waste six months of planning and $10,000 in re-design fees.”

The best way to address this knowledge gap is for architects and general contractors to collaborate from the outset, creating fast and frequent feedback, applying to the design of your project the same principles entrepreneurs use in lean start-ups.

“Engaging them both at the same time means that as the architect designs, the contractor can estimate the scope of the work and what it’s likely to cost,” says Patterson. “Both can receive consistent feedback from the homeowner as plans develop.”

image

3. Your scope of work kept increasing as your design was being developed

It’s not hard for renovators to get a little carried away: As you start to feel more excited about your project, it’s common to add new upgrades and other items as you go, without realizing how quickly all those little details can accumulate—and dramatically raise costs.

“With traditional renovations, owners typically wait quite a while before they get a global view of their projects, and when they don’t have access to the final numbers, they can be in for an unpleasant surprise by the time they see contractors’ bids,” says Fraser.

To avoid this, it’s important for the owner, architect, and contractor—all working together—to create a very specific list from the outset, in order to see each line item and understand what it is really wanted.

“Clarity from the beginning makes it harder to deviate from plans and trigger extensive changes later on,” says Fraser.

image

4. The information provided to contractors was not suitably structured to obtain “like-for-like” pricing

A common complaint Fraser hears from renovators—in addition to bids coming in over budget—is that they can’t understand the pricing on a bid, and what they’re being charged for.

“There is no standardized structure in the industry for how the various components of a project are presented on a bid,” says Fraser. “For a $1 million renovation, for instance, a renovator might receive a bid with hundreds of line items, multiple columns, and dense pricing data, structured at the whim of the estimator.”

Not only is this difficult to read and interpret, but it will also likely be different from other bids, with variations in how items are listed and calculated. When you can’t compare one bid to another, it becomes impossible to make an informed decision. And trying to get to the bottom of confusing bids by questioning contractors over the phone or email is very difficult, adding a layer of distrust between client and contractor that can slow down the whole process.

That’s why Bolster presents each homeowner with a fully itemized, detailed bid that empowers them to make an informed decision.

image

5. The pricing information that's coming back from contractors doesn't carry any penalty for inaccuracy

Unfortunately, contractors don’t face any penalty for presenting false or inaccurate information, which places the onus on homeowners or architects to dig deep and figure out whether or not to trust a bid.

“When you’re not receiving apples-to-apples pricing across bids—and you don’t understand the techniques that contractors use to make their calculations—it’s challenging to determine who is telling the truth, and who might be undercutting the competition to win your project,” says Fraser. 

It’s tempting to go with the contractor who is presenting a lower total cost, but if they’re underestimating, you might have just walked into spending hundreds of thousands on your project that you did not intend to. That’s one reason Bolster offers a financial guarantee to ensure your project is successfully completed on time and on budget.

The Bolster Smart Renovation Zero-Risk Guarantee

How can a design-build firm guarantee a Zero-Risk renovation?

Bolster has pioneered Smart Renovation. We apply quantitative analysis along with our  proprietary technology solution to identify and quantify the performance risk on every renovation project. The result is a personalized strategic approach to each renovation that allows us to absorb 100% of the homeowner’s risk. Your home will be beautifully designed, and delivered on-time and on-budget. That is our guarantee.

Smart Renovation & Zero-Risk means that Homeowners are now free to dream.

To start your major home renovation project visit bolster.us

The Bolster Promise video

You Might Also Like

image
Renovation Here’s how much it costs to gut renovate a historic Harlem brownstone
image
Renovation How to work with an architect on your NYC apartment combination
image
Renovation How to renovate your brownstone without going over budget

 

 

Alanna Schubach

Alanna Schubach

Contributing writer

Contributing editor Alanna Schubach has over a decade of experience as a New York City-based freelance journalist.

SEE MORE BY Alanna Schubach »
Brick Underground articles occasionally include the expertise of, or information about, advertising partners when relevant to the story. We will never promote an advertiser's product without making the relationship clear to our readers.

topics:

architects bathroom contractors interior design kitchen Renovation townhouse
SHARE
TWEET
BRICK’S PICKS
NYC apartment building with AC units
My neighbor's dripping AC is driving me crazy. What can I do?
Historic brick facades of NYC apartment buildings
Getting overcharged by a landlord? Here’s how the Tenant Protection Unit helps rent-stabilized tenants
Apartment buildings in Soho
New Rent Guidelines Board report justifies a rent freeze, tenant advocates claim
Brooklyn apartment buildings
Understanding net effective rent: Here's how to calculate your real monthly rent
image
How much should you renovate your NYC apartment or house before selling?
Council Member Shahana Hanif hold press conference before the City Council vote on Arrow Linen spot rezoning.
City Council signs off on 10-story towers for Arrow Linen site
Follow Brick on Instagram
@brickunderground | #brickunderground
Brick UndergroundBRICK UNDERGROUNDREAL LIFE. REAL ESTATE. REAL NEW YORK.
Social Links Footer
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Search
Main menu footer
  • Buy
    • The Market
    • Investing
    • New Construction + Condos
    • Affordable Housing
    • Co-ops
    • Negotiating + Financing
    • How to Buy in NYC Guide
  • Rent
    • Affordable Housing
    • Roommates + Landlords
    • The Market
    • The Search
    • How to Rent in NYC Guide
  • Sell
    • Staging + Open Houses
    • Negotiations + Closings
    • Getting Ready
    • How to Sell in NYC Guide
  • Live
    • Neighbors
    • Kids + Pets
    • Neighborhood Intel
    • Products + Test-drives
    • Troubleshooting
  • Improve
    • Small Spaces
    • Small Projects + DIY
    • Renovations
    • Design + Architecture
    • Products + Services
    • How to Renovate in NYC Guide

Get more news you can actually use...

Email Address

Delivered to your inbox weekly - for free.

*By signing up you agree to receive occasional emails on behalf of our sponsors

Footer Menu
  • About Us
  • Advertise

Copyright 2009-2024 by BND Ventures Inc | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Ad Choices | Login