Construction Services

We Fix Buildings

Our primary business function is that of a general contractor. Western Exterior Services, Inc. (WES) was established purposefully to address the growing need for good construction services for repairs to building exteriors.

Water Entry and Damage

The majority of our work is focused on the elimination of; water entry at the building envelope, and repair of damage caused by previous water entry. All components of the building-envelope must correctly interface with adjoining components to prevent water entry and resulting damage. Exterior work often requires partial or complete removal and replacement of the building exterior components. In many cases extensive framing repairs are required.

A trained workforce is critical to the proper construction of the building envelope. By specializing in building envelope remediation, we are able to maintain a staff that is very competent in application of well designed building exteriors.

Building Appearance

The primary focus of our work is restoring the protection of the building envelope. Much of the protective components of the building envelope are concealed and cannot be seen, nevertheless; we are very conscience of aesthetics. The appearance of a building directly affects the value, and at the end of the project we want the building to look great.

Fortunately "Quality work always looks better".

Every project that we have ever done has looked better at the end than at the beginning. Someday we might do a project just to make a building look better.

General Contractors Role

Over the years, the role of 'General Contractors' has evolved from that of the primary employer of skilled trades-people to the facilitator of subcontractors. This is a viable method of operating a as a general contractor, however; it is not the business model that we follow.

WES is a blast from the past. The vast majority of the work we perform is carried out by our regular employees. The primary function of superintendents is directing our employees, rather than scheduling and directing subcontractors. Siding, waterproofing, carpentry, interior-restoration and sheet-metal constitute the majority the work on our projects, and is generally performed in-house, by our regular employees.

We certainly use subcontractors. Last year (2003) subcontractors such as scaffold contractors, plasterers, electricians, masons, plumbers, painters, roofers, and paper hangers performed slightly less than 15% of the work on our projects. When selecting subcontractors we are very careful to locate subcontractors of good reputation who are appropriately qualified for the job. It is generally our practice to negotiate fair value subcontracts rather than rely on the open bidding process typical of new construction.

Some projects are better suited to the general contractor as the subcontractor facilitator. For example: Repairs to a masonry building with curtain wall glazing would be best carried out with good masonry and glazing subcontractors as part of the team.

On the other hand, a framing repair that involves interior finish restoration might go much smoother if all the work is done by the general contractor. Having several different subcontractors going in and out of someone's home tends to be very disruptive to the homeowner or tenant. We have found that the homeowners are more comfortable if we carry out such repairs using our own regular employees.

When negotiating with a contractor, it is important that you understand what role the general contractor will be playing and that you are comfortable with that role.

Negotiated or Formal Bid Contracts

Choosing a contractor can be done based; solely on low bid, by selecting the contractor prior to requesting a proposal, or by some combination of these two methods.

Formal Bid Contracts:

In order to compare bids by price alone, it is necessary that the specification be very narrowly defined so that each bidder is addressing the same things in the same manner. This is the usual method of bidding public sector projects such as schools, libraries and road construction. For these projects, significant resources are expended on the evaluation and design stage to determine in advance every aspect of the work. Such comprehensive specifications are costly to produce, but in some cases are appropriate and necessary.

In such a bid process, we suggest that all contractors be pre-qualified, and interviewed by the owner both before and after the bidding.

Negotiated Contracts:

A purely negotiated contract begins with contractor selection rather than bidding. The selection process would rely more on the contractors reputation and track record. A performance bond might be required to address financial capacity to perform the work. Once a single or a couple of contractors are selected, the contractors would likely provide proposals based on a summary-specification, or scope of work.

Negotiating a contract provides greater flexibility. It also allows for greater contractor participation in the design process. In such cases the contractor might be free to present suggestions that reduce costs.

Negotiated contracts often start with a more formal bidding process, and end with a negotiated contact.

Cost of Construction:

Good evaluation, and good estimating are key to bringing a project in within the original budget. We have had great success at staying within the original budgets on all our projects. This is partially due to good luck, but our superintendents also deserve much of the credit. Unknown conditions occur at every job, and we work hard to address them quickly and efficiently.

We believe that our reputation for bringing projects in under budget is key to our continued success.

Construction Servcies