Best Laid Plans - What are change orders?

The saying “best laid plans” applies to every industry and situation. No matter how thorough or organized, our plans often require flexibility and adjustments. Home renovation projects are no exception. While our team works hard to gather the specifics of the scope of work at the very beginning of a project, we always anticipate some variation. It is completely natural to dive into a project and then decide you don’t like a decision that was made before the work began. Maybe it is something small like a new dissatisfaction with eggshell paint finish, maybe it is something a little bigger… that cabinet style isn’t as cute in person as it was in the stylized Pinterest photo. Either way, we want to work with you to ensure the result is exactly what you want.

We utilize change orders through our management software, Houzz, to document variations to the original scope. This ensures you have the power to approve changes that will be seen by the whole team, which means everyone will be on the same page. It also gives you the power to see how those changes will impact the cost of the project. We cannot move forward with any changes until they have been approved through Houzz; “approved” means that the client and management team have discussed what this change entails from financials to schedule changes to the labor required in implementing the change. One of our team members will talk with you about what needs to change, create a change order in Houzz with all available information on the product and associated labor, then send it to your client portal for final approval.

One of our top priorities is to be transparent and thorough; we never want issues to arise due to the neglect of communication or clarification. Our protocols, like those for change orders, are part of the systems we have in place to make sure that everyone is satisfied with the project in its entirety. We want these steps to make it easy for questions and answers and discussions to flow freely. If you have any other questions about change orders, please do not hesitate to contact us!