ABOUT US
WE ARE DGB CONTRACTING
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QUALITY
SERVICE
We have the experience, personnel and resources to make the project run smoothly. We can ensure a job is done on time.
EXPERIENCE
Work with us involve a carefully planned series of steps, centered around a schedule we stick to and daily communication.
WHY CHOOSE US
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Completed Projects
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Skilled Professional.
OUR MISSION
We are a residential renovation company in Sterling, Virginia and which we have worked under others in the building trade for the last 15 years, we started our own company in 2014.
Our Vision:
Deliver residential renovation and construction services at such consistently high standards of quality, professionalism, ethics, reliability and integrity that will set the standard of excellence for the renovation industry.
Our Mission Statement:
Our mission is to provide high quality professional home renovations and construction services and products to middle and high-income proud homeowners in the Northern Virginia area
We transform our client’s lives by improving their standard of living and life style in their own home
We deliver quality work, use quality materials and do the projects on time and on budget.
We are professional, respectful and fair to all our clients, employees, contractors and suppliers
By involving best practices in project management and scheduling, we are trustworthy, reliable and consistently deliver a worry free turn-key service and a pleasant experience to our clients
We create a positive and healthy work environment and encourage our team members to reach their full potential but also expect them to be responsible and accountable for their work
Our Values:
In all of our building and renovation projects, we always meet or exceed the requirements of the Virginia Building Code
We use the best people, materials, tools and building techniques. We stand behind our work 100% and offer a full two-year warranty on our workmanship
We always strive to exceed our client’s expectations
We work hard to minimize the impact that our renovation / construction work has on our clients:
We use the appropriate safety gear and keep a safe work environment for our workers, for our clients and their family, pets and neighbors
Contain the dust to the work area by blocking air drafts to other areas of the home. Work very clean & neat and clean up the work area daily
Contain the noise level and working hours in agreement with our clients
We try to reduce the project duration and therefore the length of the home disturbance but never at the expense of lowering our quality standards
We conduct ourselves on highest levels of ethics, honesty and respect for our clients to develop trusting relationships with them. There is no room for horror stories
We are fully committed to every project that we do and involve excellent communication at all times: During the construction phase of our projects we have regular project meetings with our clients and we will always return their telephone calls and e-mails usually within a business day
We maintain realistic time lines and deliver on what we promise – without delays, overcharges, or hassles
We are a Licensed Contractor, very organized and have systems and processes in place that allow us to consistently deliver exceptional service and create delighted clients with every project that we take on!
We adhere to a strict Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct
POPULAR QUESTIONS
Why does a renovation project cost so much?
Robert Koci, associate publisher of Canadian Contractor magazine, is skeptical that the budgets you see on TV could be replicated in real life. “The show I tend to get caught up in most often is Love It Or List It. When I see their budgets sometimes I’m scratching my head. It seems like it costs half of what it normally would.” Koci says viewers should be aware that TV show costs could be lower because they might get donated materials and labour from contractors. “These shows are on really tight budgets,” he says. “The likelihood is they’re bringing in tilers and drywallers who are doing the work for the exposure.” (For a real breakdown of a TV budget, see “Warning: May Not Be Exactly as Shown.”)
In order to make a realistic budget for your own project, do research before you commit to a number. “Don’t set limits in your head if you’re not informed,” advises Tyrone Stanley, a carpenter and general contractor in Toronto. He says people tend to get anchored on a specific cost before they really understand the scope of the work. “They might think a kitchen renovation is going to cost $7,000, because they saw it on a TV show. Then later they realize that for it to be done correctly, it costs more, but they don’t want to do it right because they’re set on that $7,000.”
Renée Verret, a Toronto financial planner, advises her clients to start off by window shopping for materials so they know what they cost before they commit to a project. Then, she suggests, you should bring in a few contractors to get labour estimates. “We usually recommend people apply a 20% to 40% top-up on the labour quote because you never know what you’re going to run into in a reno,” Verret says. When you go out to buy the materials, make sure you bring your budget with you so you’ll stay on track.
What is the timeline for the project?
If you’ve ever taken on a home renovation project, you know one thing to be true: They can be wildly unpredictable.
Rarely do you end up making just one trip to Home Depot; rarely does your plan not get derailed by things like weak support beams and mold behind those Sheetrock walls; and rarely (if ever) does your contractor’s time estimate hold true.
Some of those renovation roadblocks can be avoided, but the amount of time your kitchen, bathroom or basement overhaul drags on all hinges on the size of the space and having some realistic expectations.
We asked Tom Silva, General Contractor for “This Old House,” to give it to us straight.
In general, what are realistic expectations for the amount of time it will take to gut renovate the following: Kitchen, bathroom, basement (to a finished space)?
This all depends on the size of the space. You can have some fun and do a whole gut in a weekend, but that is the easy part. If the plumbing or electric has to be upgraded, replaced or relocated, which it often does, then the project timeline will be significantly extended. In the best case scenario, [it will take] one month if you are lucky. Realistically, two to six months should be planned for.
What to Know About Budgeting for Your Home Remodel
The budget conversation — it’s sometimes awkward, often slightly uncomfortable and usually comes with a bit of anxiety. Because of the nature of construction, things often cost more than what homeowners think. There are endless debates on why that is, but the result is that we designers often have conversations with clients that end with an awkward silence. The silence usually means that certain aspects of their project might be out of their reach. And truth be told, we really don’t like being the messenger in these conversations. We want our clients to be satisfied with the process and get what they really want.
But the flip side of that conversation is that budget constraints can make a project better. Just hear me out. What we find is that financial considerations make our team and clients focus on what’s really important. That pressure helps edit down the myriad choices and allows a more coherent story to emerge. And it all comes back to sticking to that budget. Here’s how.
Establish Your Budget Early
We have been in situations where clients have not told us their budget until we have completed some of the initial phases of work. This, no surprise, can slow down the process. It’s like going to a personal trainer but not telling them how much weight you can lift, and so you spend time trying a few exercises to figure out what the proper weights are.
There are situations where homeowners generally don’t know what a new custom home or addition will cost, but a key part of the process is considering how much you would be comfortable spending on the project. Obviously spending $50,000 will produce a dramatically different result than if you spent $500,000. And what you spend will be influenced by a wide variety of factors, including neighborhood, type of project and level of finishes.
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Without knowing a budget range, we could get through the first few meetings with clients and then give them a rough ballpark figure, which is sometimes double or triple what they thought it would be.
Don’t try to second-guess your design team by holding your cards close to your chest. Help us work with you to get the most value for your hard-earned dollars. Most designers don’t look for opportunities to waste money just for the sake of it. Sure we all want a great project at the end of the process, but we also want to make sure our clients are happy. So establishing your budget early in the process will be helpful to your team, as it will give them one of the key ingredients that will go into making a design you can live with.
Ensure Your Budget Is Realistic
It’s easy to look at TV shows and get the wrong idea about what things cost. In most cases those budgets are not realistic for a bunch of reasons, most of which revolve around how suppliers and trades price their services to be included on the show. There is an old project management saying that goes, “Price, speed, quality — pick any two.”
It’s not totally untrue, and it underscores that there are no easy trade-offs in a construction project. It would be problematic for me to suggest pricing in this article, as it varies substantially based on a number of factors, including location, number of trades in the area, level of finish, complexity of construction etc.
The budget number that most clients care about is the “all-in” number. That includes everything they will write a check for including moving expenses, fees and construction. (More about that later.)
Your design team can help you get a sense of what a realistic budget might be for your project; you can also ask friends who have done projects in the recent past, or check the Houzz Real Cost Finder.
Pricing tip: Pricing can change substantially in certain areas over as little as a few years, so be sure that the projects were completed recently for the best idea of pricing.
After you create your budget, subtract 20 percent. Construction being what it is, there are always situations that arise that will increase the cost, and those are hard to foresee at the beginning of construction. It’s a very complicated process involving many people and a lot of communication, so there usually are things that happen that will eat into that 20 percent contingency. The contingency should not be used for upgrades to counters or splashy fixtures.
On a recent project, our clients had to spend thousands of dollars to get their utilities hooked up again, as the electrical feed from the street was torn up by mistake. On top of that, since the utility’s own drawings said that the feed still existed, there was a three-month delay on top of the reconnection order so that the utility could update its drawings. Even though this these will never be seen, they were absolutely critical and had to be completed before construction could be completed.
Keeping a 20 percent contingency allows our clients to end up spending what they thought they would spend initially, and they can sleep at night.
Understand What You’re Paying For
Hard costs, fees, furniture — what is in the contract? Your design team will also help you understand what is in those budget numbers. Hard costs include the costs of the construction materials and fixtures required to actually build the structure. Soft costs generally include fees for permits, consultants and designers.
It’s important to establish what your team is referring to in conversation to make sure everyone is on the same page about budget numbers. For example, construction is often expressed in dollars per square foot to give a rough guide during planning. Generally this does not include appliances or soft costs. So it’s important to know that if your contractor says your new house can be built for $750,000, there are soft costs likely not covered in that estimate. Work with your design team to understand the costs and how they relate to a schedule, and how there are items you might not have thought about, to get an overall sense of what is required.
What if You Run Out of Money?
We have had this conversation with clients on more than one occasion, and truly it’s not easy for either the clients or us. It’s frustrating to hear how something that you’ve been planning for is out of your reach.
There may be opportunities to reduce costs by changing the scope of the project. For example, instead of fully constructing a basement bathroom in a new house, you might just rough in the plumbing so it could be finished at a later date. Or it could be possible to reduce the cost of fixtures and finishes such as flooring or faucets.
During a recent conversation with clients, we recommended that they wait before starting the project so they could gather more resources before proceeding. In the discussion we realized that it wouldn’t be possible to “de-scope” or redesign the project to fit their needs, so the best course of action was to delay. Was this difficult for all involved? Absolutely, but we felt strongly that starting a project that didn’t address their needs wouldn’t serve their overall best interests.
Whenever you are dealing with money, there is the potential for some uncomfortable conversations. But if you understand what you are dealing with early in the process, those conversations will be less stressful than if you’re standing in the middle of a half-completed project in the middle of winter wondering where all your hard-earned money has gone.
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About Us
Founded by David Belcher who acted as General Contractor on his first home back in 2001. DGB Contracting has established itself as one of the finest and most prestigious providers of construction focused interior renovation services and building.
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