Putting together an estimate for home damage

What’s the Difference Between an Estimate and an Invoice?

Now that you’ve picked Classic Construction as your contractor, you may have received an invoice that is slightly different from your estimate. From time to time projects start with an estimate and most always begin with with an invoice. At Classic, we want to help inform you on the how we break down our estimates and invoices for when we partner with you as your team of general contractors.

Putting together an estimate for home damageWhat is an estimate?/What is included?

An Estimate is a document in which our estimators outline the estimated costs of repair and restoration. They will walk your property, often with an insurance adjuster, and take notes of materials, damage, and what needs to be replaced.

Then, replacement materials are sourced and priced and those numbers are applied to the notes. The final result is your estimate. This document is useful for getting insurance payouts, for comparing between construction companies (see our blog on why multiple bids can work against you!). From here you can accept the bid, which will then turn into an invoice.

What is an Invoice and What Is included?

An Invoice is a document that our team will give you once your project is completed. It will include an itemized list of your entire project and is the amount that you will be requested to pay. The itemized list includes all of the items that were used to complete your project and any additional fees. This could be things like contractors fees, sub-contractors fees, supplies fees (wood, nails, cement, etc.), disposal fees and so on. The invoice also includes any additional items that came up along the way that were not included on your original estimate. As with any large project there are sometimes things that will pop-up that you can not plan for and these will be reflected on the final invoice.

Why They Can Differ

An estimate is always just a rough calculation for the cost of work needed to be done upon initial inspection. Once your contractor actually gets into the project, it’s not uncommon that the scope of work gets expanded. Whether it be hidden damage that wasn’t able to be assessed or complications during the project, your invoice at the end of the project will be different from your estimate cost.

Conclusion

It can be easy to get estimates and invoices confused with each other, but our team is always here to help if you aren’t quite sure which stage your project is in when it comes to moving forward with it. If you ever have a question about any documents, feel free to reach out to our team any time and give us a call – we’ll always be here when you need us the most!

Remodeled Restaurant

Tips for Restaurant Renovations

Building integrity, roofing, foundation, flooring, walls

Damaged Roof Shingles on a business roofPurchasing a building will require inspection and most likely renovations. This is a great time to knock out major renovations as well as cosmetic updates. Building integrity is a major component not only in making sure you do not experience leaks, electrical issues, or cracks in the walls and ceilings, which can be costly to fix later, but they will give your customers pause. If the outside looks bad… what does the kitchen look like?

Roofing inspections can find leaks and weak spots. Foundation inspections can find small cracks before they get bigger. And major plumbing and electrical upgrades can be less costly when bundled in with a full renovation. Classic Construction has expertise in renovating and restoring commercial buildings for restaurants, or any industry, so your customers feel confident they’re patronizing a clean and safe business. As major renovations are being done, consider updating walls and outdated, crack, or dirty flooring for something clean and new.

Maximize seating areas

In today’s world, it’s important to not only make your restaurant space accommodating, but also flexible. Our team stresses 3 things: 1) Optimization 2) Productivity 3) Profit

Remodeled RestaurantOptimizing your restaurant space can include many different elements that create the space that your customers will overlook but enjoy while ensuring that the floor plan is efficiently managed. It’s important to understand that different types of restaurants (Fine Dining, Fast Food) will have different guidelines and require different layouts based on the type of dining itself. The space between customers during COVID and room for the furniture and staff to move around easily must now also be flexible enough to change at a moment’s notice and with long-term planning when dining areas are fully open and customers are comfortable sitting closer together. Our team can help partner with experts with professional space planning expertise that creates the perfect space based on the type of restaurant you own.

Productivity is important for your business – allowing your staff to move freely without running into each other in the kitchen and in the dining room with a well-laid out floor plan in both areas are the key to ensuring that your staff’s efficiency is top-notch. Even small things like making it clear where the restroom is located can save your staff from being bothered while they need to work on something else – this is one of the small yet highly impactful adjustments that really reduce inefficiencies over time. From the more apparent productivity floor planning and down to the strategic pieces, our team can help brainstorm and create the space that truly maximizes productivity and reduces overall costs.

At the end of the day, profit is highly impacted by the layout of your restaurant. During every step of the way of planning a restaurant’s space, our goal isn’t just to create a beautiful building for your restaurant, but to create the strategically beautiful and creative plan for your restaurant that maximizes your profit and facilitates its growth and success.

Give your staff room to work/keep work areas hidden from guests

When remodeling, you should also consider ample employee work space and keeping it hidden/separate from the guest areas. Not only will this make work more efficient and smooth for your employees, but it also enhances the dining experience of your guests. Things such as custom half-walls so your servers can still see the guests, but the patrons won’t be distracted by the inner workings of the restaurant.

Conclusion

When considering the affordability of starting a new restaurant, remodeling and making sure you are building a safe and comfortable environment for future patrons must be taken into consideration alongside maximizing seating area in the restaurant. At Classic Construction, we can’t purchase a new restaurant for you but we can do help you build integrity by making sure all of your buildings needs are met. Contact us for a free estimate and walk through today!