When it’s time for condo renovations, your first impulse might be to hire a residential contractor. After all, condos have residential doors, windows, decks, and other elements, so it might seem like a residential contractor is the right hire. In reality, they aren’t. If you own or manage a condo complex, here’s the 411 on why you need a commercial contractor for your renovation project.
Ability to Handle Complex, Large Projects
Renovating a condo complex isn’t the same as renovating a single family home. While our houses can seem crowded during a family game night, they are not nearly as busy as an entire condo complex.
During renovations, it’s not your daughter or son’s complaints about the noise or how long the build-out is taking that you have to deal with. It’s potential complaints from hundreds of residents, who can leave a review of your complex on Google.
To keep those potential complaints at bay, you need a condo renovation contractor who has handled complex, large projects with ease in the past. While a residential contractor may work on multiple homes, they haven’t renovated an entire residential complex. The right commercial contractor has experience managing multi-unit residential complexes like condos and assisted living communities.
Project Management at Scale
Because a commercial contractor completes bigger projects, they are adept at large-scale project management.
At its heart, project management is the ability to coordinate many moving pieces at once and ensure all teams deliver their part on time. You probably have condo complex managers who manage internal projects at your complex–and you wouldn’t hire someone for that job if their only experience was managing a family home. These are two important, but different skill sets, just like residential and commercial contracting.
By hiring a contractor with commercial project management skills, your project can finish on budget, on time, as Carlton Building Services has done in past projects we’ve worked on.
Access to the right subcontractors
If you have two leasing agents and one knows everyone in town, while the other doesn’t have many local connections, the agent who knows everyone is more likely to refer your condo complex to relevant friends when a space is available.
The right commercial condo renovation contractor is the same–they know the right people to get your project done on time so your condo renovations can boost your bottom line faster. If your project needs a structural engineer, roofing company, or another specialist, the right contractor can subcontract an expert with experience completing similar projects on-time and on-budget.
Higher Insurance Coverage
A residential contractor isn’t required to have the same level of insurance as a commercial contractor. That means if something goes wrong during the renovation project, their insurance may not be able to cover all the costs as your complex.
A commercial contractor, on the other hand, has a higher level of liability, meaning working with them brings less financial risk for you.
Experience Working with Tight Deadlines
Business moves fast. A commercial contractor understands that and can work with your deadlines and budgets. However, not all commercial contractors are good on tight deadlines; only the good ones are.
To know if a commercial contractor can finish your project quickly, look at their turnaround times on past projects. Carlton Building Services, for example, took e week and a half to renovate McCormick Law and two weeks to remodel Pursuit. If you’re looking for a condo renovation contractor in the Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, or Hampton Roads areas, check out Carlton Building Services’ past work. If our on time, on budget model suits your need, reach out for a free estimate on your condo renovation.
