Blog

Q. Have renovation prices dropped with the slower economy?

A. We have seen some companies that don't have a client base of repeat and referral business try to "buy" business by lowering their prices.

Have you seen many price reductions on your personal bills like your mortgage, utilities, property taxes, fuel, groceries, cell phone bills, internet, child care, and other personal bills? Our Installation Technicians sure have not, so why would we ask them to work as hard for less income? If guys are on piece work and making less per piece, what is their incentive to work slow enough to maintain quality?

Some companies use slower economies to attract lower cost labour, but good skilled labour is not cheap, and cheap labour is not properly skilled.

Material prices are the other part that makes up a large chunk of project pricing.

The majority of the building industry's materials either come from the US, or have the raw materials imported from the US. Because of the US dollar's rise against the Canadian dollar, a lot of pressure has been placed on Canadian manufacturers and distributors, forcing them to raise their prices - in fact some have increased more than 15% within the last 9 months alone!

With material costs rising and labour costs needing to remain in line with the cost of living, what corners are being cut by the companies who are dramatically cutting their prices?

Remember, if you buy quality, at least you only cry once.