Frequently Asked
Questions

Kitchen, bathroom, basement, whole home remodeling, room additions, decks, porches, and exterior remodeling. Typically larger projects, with investments greater than $50,000.

Michael James Remodeling does not handle handyman jobs, tiny homes, or mobile and manufactured homes.

At Michael James Remodeling we strive to create long-term relationships based on integrity, quality, and honesty. It is our goal to be the first and only name you refer to your friends and family. We want you to feel comfortable talking freely with us about any concerns you may have. We really do become friends with most of our clients.

To prevent delays and maintain the highest level of client satisfaction, we prefer to handle the entire remodeling project. We often run tight schedules with vendors and subcontractors with whom, we are familiar and have worked together on many projects.  Working with other outside contractors and vendors may lead to issues with scheduling, warranties, and project monitoring and ultimately client dissatisfaction.

To ensure we deliver the highest quality remodeling project, we prefer to handle the entire project. The reality is that any work that you may want to do yourself is not likely to result in significant cost savings. What’s more, when not done properly, even seemingly simple tasks like demolition can actually lead to additional costs negating or exceeding any labor savings you may achieve. 

Although remodeling can be and often is very dusty and dirty, we take measures to reduce the mess while your project is under construction. We install plastic dust barriers and drop cloths to isolate the construction area as much as possible. We cover any HVAC registers in the work areas. We often incorporate “negative draft” practices to help further reduce the migration of dust to other areas throughout your home. We will do what we can to make sure your experience is as pleasant as possible.

In most cases, no. Obviously, remodeling can be somewhat messy and inconvenient. But at Michael James Remodeling, we’ll go to great lengths to keep the mess to a minimum, dirt, and dust from entering different parts of your home, and the project moving along on schedule. However in some cases, usually on very large-scale remodeling projects, it can be in everyone’s best interest for all or some of the work to be performed while you are not living in the home. This is determined on a case-by-case basis and discussed upfront before work begins.

We do our best to listen to your needs and ask questions to understand your project before putting the proposal together. We rely on our vast experience and do our best to include many items that your renovation might involve based on the location and age of your home. For certain types of projects, working with structures that were previously built by someone else, unforeseen circumstances may arise. Therefore we do sometimes recommend factoring a realistic percentage into your budget for contingencies, just in case.

The most common reason for a project going over the proposed cost is simply that our clients change their minds after a proposal has been signed. For example, a client may choose a more expensive finish material than what was budgeted, decide to include additional square footage, or simply increase the scope of work. Any additional costs for change order requests will be discussed and detailed so there will be no surprises. For most clients, these change orders result in a 10-15% increase over the original estimate. 

The bottom line is that you will not see an increase in price without a signed change order.