A New Colorado Housing Boom On the Horizon

Posted by & filed under construction problems.

Colorado’s supercharged upswing

In a reversal from the last few years, the housing market in several of Colorado’s resort counties is booming like never before. Propelled forward by a particularly good month at the end of 2012, Colorado is seeing rising prices and a steady influx of new home buyers. In fact, December of 2012 was the best month for the Colorado housing market in 5 years.

 

Although one of the contributors to this rise may have been the uncertainty about changes to the tax code in 2013, the house market has shown no signs of slowly down a quarter of the way into the year. Although the market at a whole is not where it was in 2007, experts say that things are looking positive in a big way.  In addition, a large market has opened up for new housing projects. Any time sales are good, developers are not far behind. An improving housing market goes hand-in-hand with construction projects, for both family homes and businesses.

 

In the article, “Colorado resorts’ housing market rebounds,” Jason Blevins of The Denver Post writes, “Realtors say the rebound was supercharged in the last few months of the year, with December sales ranking as one of the strongest since the boom times of 2007.” While we are not at the boom times, the area market does seem to be on a supercharged upswing of sorts.

 

Telluride, a ski resort, experienced a momentous December. Longtime broker T.D. Smith said, “There is definitely a recognition by people that they can buy in this market and they are not going to get hurt. People are tired of being tired. They are ready to move on and teach their children and grandchildren how to ski and fly-fish and be a part of the mountain environment.” Families want to move on with their lives, go onto the next chapter. They are sick of the uncertainty. Who can blame them? There is nothing more disheartening than a lack of construction in one’s life, physically and emotionally. We all long for progression and mobility. Thankfully, the market is improving. Let the construction begin!

 

What this means for 1-2-3 Door Shield®

An improving market means that housing construction projects should steadily rise throughout the rest of 2013 and beyond. With no much construction on the horizon, there has never been a better time to invest in re-usable construction protection systems.

 

One aspect that many do not consider is the protection of doors in the construction process, particularly in the final stages. Doors are vulnerable in every step of the construction process. By construction’s end, if not properly taken care of, they may show signs of wear and tear. This is no way to end a lengthy and costly building process. It is not a good feeling having a lengthy construction process tainted because of a banged-up door.

 

At Construction Protection Systems LLC, we have a variety of re-usable door shields that are perfect for any project. If you are in the Colorado area and are eager to begin this new era of housing development, contact our team for more information. We can provide you with the high level of protection that you demand for your construction projects.

 

For more information on the Colorado real estate market, you can find Blevins’ article here.

 

–Rick

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Surface Protection – The Stealth Profit Center

Posted by & filed under construction problems.

123 door shield - stealth profit centerOver the past several years we have talked with hundreds and hundreds of construction professionals about surface protection. Many of these professionals recognize the need for surface protection during construction but it is such a small part of the overall project cost that it gets ignored or, in some cases, pulled from the budget as change orders start to squeeze the final budget. However, when surface protection is left out of a project there are a number of important areas that can be affected: schedules can be pushed back as damaged finishes are replaced or repaired and budgets can be affected because there is a real cost to the replace or repair finished surfaces damaged during construction. In addition, there is a “hassle-factor” as areas of the project already completed must re-worked. And finally, the carefully crafted image of a construction firm can be marred as stakeholders question a firm’s commitment to quality standards.

 

Here we want to look at just one of the factors affected: the budget. We were approached by Company A concerning a major project they were building. The team had recently completed a very similar project and was concerned with one specific problem – door protection. In the recently completed project they chose not to protect the doors and jambs during construction. When they looked at the overall project after completion they discovered that they had spent $500,000 to repair and replace damaged doors and frames. They asked if we could help them eliminate this unbudgeted expense on the new project.

 

We suggested two products that could help them – The Protector Series Door Shield® and jamb protectors. The cost to properly protect the large quantity of doors in the project was about $60,000.00 on a project with an overall budget in excess of $500 million. Using Door Shields and jamb protectors to protect doors from damage during construction had a specific identifiable cost which eliminated what our client expected to be an unbudgeted expense of $500,000, a savings of $440,000 when compared to the previous, comparable project.

 

Like many contractors, our client generates profit equal to about 1.5% of the total budget. That $440,000 savings resulting from their decision to protect their doors during construction was the same as if they had been awarded a contract to build a new $30 million project. Surface protection, many times an afterthought in construction, can have a major impact on profitability.  The cost to protect doors, jambs, finished floor surfaces and the like is really low-cost insurance that can improve overall bottom line profit.

 

–Rick

 

*Image courtesy of Charles Rondeau

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