DODLA 2016 AGS Panel #6

Transcription:
Facilitator: So I want to ask you guys about cost also. What role does cost play in deciding whether or not you’re going to go with a custom-fabricated railing or another railing? Brian?  


Brian Abramson of Method Homes: Well, every project has a budget and every project, typically the budget is a little bit lower than what the spec is or what the client wants. So it’s always a dance and it always comes into play. But again, like I said, long term durability is something. So sometimes it’s worth spending a little more upfront for something that is going to last forever. But it does come into play and with that, we have various options.

I mean on the very basic side, we will sometimes do wooden railings and – but those aren’t going to last for as long as the stainless system. So budget always comes into play and there are various specs and various budget points.

I would put stainless kind of in the upper tier but also the longest lived, the most durable. So it’s always a cost benefit analysis and it’s also a budget thing because sometimes they’re some of the last things that happen on a project and budget can be constrained at that point. So it definitely always comes into consideration on every project, be it a $100,000 project or a million dollar project. Budget is always a concern.  


Ryan Hanson of Sustainable 9 Design + Build: Yeah, I would say same with us. I mean like most of our – even the higher end clients, I mean they come to you and it sounds like when you’re first meeting with them, that they have just an open checkbook and they don’t. I mean once you get down to – get it up off the third round or the final budget and you’re showing it to them and then there are always things that they got to cut and it’s like if you’re going for 100 percent on site fabricated and all that, they’re – we usually push them towards you right away and they see the savings. It’s just – it’s pretty black and white when it gets to that point.  


Facilitator: Yeah. I appreciate you guys mentioning that. One of the things that we try to encourage homeowners especially to keep in mind is that railings are one of the most visible parts of your house. You think about the railings on your deck. Your neighbors don’t even have to come into your house to see the railings. They may not be able to tell what kind of decking material you have.

But they will see the railings. When they walk in your front door, not everybody is going to go and see your beautiful new master bathroom or go into the kitchen. Everyone will see the railings on your stairs. It’s just the way houses are designed. You walk in. There’s the stairs upstairs and there are the railings.

So railings are actually one of the areas that if possible you want to budget for early in the process because everyone will see them and again, we’re talking about custom design railings. It’s really functional artwork. You think about it, you can commission a painting for your house and everyone will come over and say that’s just gorgeous. But it just hangs on the wall.

If you’re talking about custom design railings, not only does it look beautiful as you’re seeing from some of these pictures that I’m showing you. When people come over your house and you have a custom-made stainless railing system, gracing the interior, everyone who walks in will walk over to your stairs, rub their hands on the railings and go, “Wow! Where in the world did you get this?”

So it’s an opportunity to really do something very, very special and have it also serve a functional purpose each and every day as you walk up and down the stairs.  


Ryan: If I can interject one thing, during the spring – the homes that we had, this recent house that we did with AGS, we had – we like broke a record for how many people came through during it. We had over 6000 people over the month of March. It’s a full – Thursday through Sunday, the full month of March and I can’t even tell you.

I was there every day because I was a builder and the client is that way too. But I can’t even tell you how many people we had that asked 'where did the railings come from' and 'I’ve never seen these before, can you get them locally?' So obviously that was – it showed well on you guys too and then I also had several builders that came through and they’re like where did you get that. I mean another person that was building even a much more expensive [0:18:18] [Indiscernible] one of the lakes in Minneapolis and he had used a very – a much cheaper system, let’s put it that way and probably about a $3 million house. So yeah.