36 Reasons why you should call Dwell Building Services for your renovation
25 years experience building. Jason has literally done nothing else except build. He started his apprenticeship right after high school and has been building ever since.
Specialist knowledge. Since 2000, Jason has done renovation work almost exclusively and has completed dozens of them.
Suppliers! We've been operating in this building and renovation space for 25 years and have great relationships (and lines of credit) with amazing suppliers that listen to us and get us the materials we need as soon as we need them.
Tradespeople. Jason handpicks his tradespeople and holds them to account, supervising the quality of their work the whole way along.
Project management skills. Because of his project management skills, you could stay in a hotel while we renovate and he could give you a check out date!
Timing. Gannt charts, realistic estimates and correctly assessing how long things actually take is all key to the timing of your renovation. We all know that real renovations are not like a realty TV programme and we present you with a realistic timeframe so that you can plan your life around the renovation.
Budget. Unlike a lot of builders, Jason will give you a realistic budget based on real costings because he doesn't believe in doing variation after variation along the way. If there is a variation, it's because you've changed your mind on a product or service which is fine, we're OK with that. But we won't move the goal-posts on you.
Costings. The costing process can take a few weeks and we do charge for a cost analysis (refunded upon payment of your deposit to proceed). When you get our Cost Analysis, it's a real, precise figure that can be directly transferred to a contract. We've contacted our trades, we've priced all the materials. You can take that figure to the bank for finance.
Expectations. Because we plan our renovations so precisely, your expectations will be set and you'll know exactly where you are in the process at all times. It's not until the end of the project that your expectations will be surpassed because of how smoothly the renovation actually went. No nightmare A Current Affair renovations in our portfolio.
Communication. We want to communicate with you the whole way along, using whatever method of communication that suits your lifestyle best. A daily phone call, zoom call, photos via text or messenger, Google Keep, Whatsapp, an email. We aren't rigid in our ways and happy to do whatever feels most comfortable for you.
Fix price contracts. Because we put so much time and effort into our planning and costing, we tend to use Fixed Price Contracts 95% of the time. Its only rarely that a job calls for a Cost+ style agreement and we prefer to use Fixed Price because it removes the guess-work for you, the client. You can manage your finances knowing that there won't be a budget blow out in the end.
HIA. We've been members of the HIA for over 10 years which, from a customers perspective means that we've been keeping up with industry standards, completing our CPD points yearly to maintain and improve our knowledge of building and industry changes. We also use the HIA standard contracts so you can trust that we haven't put any dodgy clauses into our contracts that somehow favour us and rip you off.
Insurance. We carry both professional indemnity and public liability insurance - if anything we're probably over-insured. As well as our own insurance, for NSW works over $20,000 we take out Home Warranty Insurance so if we skip town or die, your job still gets done.
Licenses. Jason is licensed in both Queensland and New South Wales and completes work in both, regularly.
Councils. Because he completes jobs in both states, he's aware of the proper way to deal with both the Tweed Shire Council and the Gold Coast City Council.
Testimonials. Not only do we have a fair few testimonials on Google and Facebook, we also have past clients who are happy to talk you through their renovation experience with Dwell Building Services.
Trustworthiness. Never trust someone who says Trust Me! But seriously, you can trust us. We are a regular family business working hard to keep ourselves and our kids in cheese. We're not fly-by-night loonies that are going to take your money and run. We live here, we're part of our community, our business is even registered to our home address. We would have you over for coffee or see you at the shops. We see our past clients in the community regularly and we're friends.
Small builder. As a small building company, we don't have layers of people to get through - you don't get assigned a project manager and there's really only 2 of us you might speak to on the phone.
Transparent quotes. Our quoting system is sophisticated but not difficult to decipher. When we present you with our Cost Analysis of your renovation we go through it with you together and explain costs as they appear so there's no confusion about what you're paying for and how much.
Transparent margins. Our builder's margin is clearly stated in the contract as well so you can be sure we're not hiding what you're paying us for our services. We're not ashamed to get paid, and we don't compromise on our margin so you know that we won't go broke doing your renovation. Why should this matter to you? Because if we go broke, who will finish your work or come back to fix any defects? It won't be us and you'll have to go through this process again or navigate the insurance system.
Clear process. Either Jason or Cassandra will run you through the build process in the early days so that you know what it is. Then you'll receive an information sheet giving you the process again and an FAQ that you can turn to which should answer a lot of your questions. In any case you can always call us and ask.
Cassandra. Cassandra is always there to back Jason up and answer the phone if he can't. So you'll always be able to get a hold of one of us. As operations manager, Cassandra takes care of paperwork, liaises with Council and balances the books.
Don't take on too much work. We don't take on a tonne of work at once. When you renovate with us, your job gets all our focus and your progress payments don't pay for someone else's renovation. They go directly towards the materials and labour for the stage of the job that was just completed.
Straightforward accounting. We use Xero and our quoting software to run each job accurately. We're fiscally responsible and will never over-run the budget as it is set out. We've never even been close to stuffing up a job budget so your work will always be completed to the standard specified with the materials specified, no shortcuts or cost-cutting.
Deal with council all the time - smoothly. We have a long standing relationship with the Tweed Shire Council and the Gold Coast City Council to a somewhat lesser extent. We know what they expect from us, as builders and we're aware of their requirements.
Building inspector. Jason himself is a licensed building inspector and as such, holds his own building work to a very high standard. You can be sure that a building inspector who builds will never produce an inferior renovation.
Empathy. As a building inspector, Jason has seen the devastation caused by inferior work and realises the importance of his position in your world. Often, he is called to assess poor workmanship in other builds and knows the toll it takes on people.
Remedy stage. The remedy stage of a renovation or any build is a typical time for your builder to stop returning your calls, but not us. Dwell Building Services uses this time to legitimately rectify anything in the job that didn't go to plan or tie up whatever loose ends there may be. We're not running from you - we expect as much from ourselves as you do and want each job to end on a positive.
Service with a smile. We're both friendly people who believe in customer service.
Flexibility. In past renovations, we have had to be flexible with circumstances, and we embrace the challenge. Tough body corporate rules? Fine - we've dealt with those before. Restricted work hours? That's OK too, we'll account for it in our planning. Work around a tenant? Yes! We can be thoughtful and courteous with your tenant. Your wife is pregnant and you're renovating your bathroom? We can be discreet. Anything to get the job done right.
Experience. We've seen most build situations and have a depth of knowledge to draw from. Tricky earthworks - TICK. Bathroom renos on a concrete slab - TICK. Rectify the timber pest damage beforehand? TICK. Tricky access issues for the skip bin? TICK.
Local knowledge. We've been in this area for a long time and we can point you in the right direction. Do you need plans, engineering, certifying, finance…whatever you need to get your project really ticking along, we can help you because we know a lot of great people locally.
Preliminaries. If you haven't gotten very far in the planning of your project, if you're time poor or finding the process quite overwhelming, we provide a preliminaries service that can see you get from nowhere to build-ready quite quickly.
Familiarity. We're just like you - we get lost at IKEA, talk to our parents on Sunday and suck in our guts when we walk around on the beach.
We won't take your job…WHAT? If it doesn't serve you - if we're not the right people for your work, we won't take your job. We'll refer you to someone who is better suited instead of taking on work that we're either not confident in, or we can't support your timeframe or 50 other reasons why we're not the right fit. We wouldn't do that to you.
Why wouldn't you? So….with all these reasons…why wouldn't you?