Have you seen the empty shelves in almost every store? Shopping online isn’t any better, as more and more items seem to be backordered. It’s happening almost everywhere. 

We’re being told “supply chain issues” are causing the shortages. 

It’s something we have to manage in the remodeling and construction industry as well, and our clients and prospective clients want to know how we’re dealing with it.

Business as Usual (Mostly)

The short answer is that for the most part it’s business as usual. Yes, some things are harder to get or take longer to acquire than before, but because of our process we can typically build our schedule around the new anticipated lead times. We try to set expectations with our clients early in the process to factor this into the overall time needed to plan and complete their project.

Make decisions, order early

To minimize exposure to supply chain disruptions, we encourage our clients to make firm decisions so that we can order long lead time items early then have a plan to store them until they’re needed. Many of our suppliers will warehouse fixtures, appliances, flooring, etc until we need them (often for months). For those that don’t, we ask that our client provide a space for storing what they can or we can keep certain materials in our office storage area.

Quick turnaround projects

If you have a project where you can’t afford to wait for that perfect light fixture you can always buy ‘off the shelf’ items that are good enough to get the job done or inexpensive enough to work as a stopgap measure until the part you want comes in.

Surprises

Even with the extra emphasis on checking lead times and ordering early, issues can still arise. Promised delivery dates can get pushed back or shortages appear seemingly out of nowhere. We’ve had some recent jobs where we suddenly couldn’t get the paint we ordered and another where window lead times went from 2 weeks to 10 weeks (and more) without warning. 

Fortunately, most of the time we are able to create workarounds to keep the job on track. 

Here at Kashas Design Build, we’ve turned our decades of experience into a process to make remodeling as delightfully uneventful as possible. 

Our team and systems are designed to prepare and execute our projects efficiently.

It’s why we:

• Have in-house designers to help our clients make the huge number of decisions a project requires. 
• Use 3d design capability to help clients visualize what their house will look like.
• Developed an office staff that’s organized and proactive, especially when it comes to ordering and confirming materials.
• Empowered our production crew to solve problems. 
• Secured facilities to store items when needed. 

All of these decisions were made to ensure we’re positioned to make sure our client’s projects run smoothly and efficiently.