As the owner of a business, you likely have an office building where your operations take place.  Perhaps it’s just a small office where your immediate staff is.  Maybe it’s a huge warehouse where you store all of your products.  Whatever your office building or buildings may entail, there will come a point in time where you will want to undertake a remodeling project, either because remodeling has become a necessity or because you feel like your office needs a change.  When you are considering a remodeling project, here are a few tips from professionals in the industry that you should take a moment to consider.

Redecorating

According to Amy Boesen with Décor & You, “Redecorating can help a company portray its unique image to its clients and employees.  It can evoke a sense of warmth or sophistication, high-tech or homespun, stability or innovation or any other corporate values they wish to demonstrate.  It also shows the world that the business is moving forward rather than remaining stuck in the past with outdated or worn furnishings.”  Through her work with business owners, Amy has seen a number of trends come and go.  “A few things I have seen lately are modular furnishings that can be moved easily to accommodate the ebb and flow of activities within an office, such as “bull pen” areas where people can meet to collaborate on a project.  Another trend is toward decorating common areas in a style more evocative of residential spaces.  In other words, more warm than industrial.  But perhaps the most important trend is the “greening” of the workplace through the use of environmentally friendly materials and practices, such as the use of low VOV (volatile organic compounds) paints and energy efficient lighting and window coverings, to name a few.”

“Green” Remodels

Remodeling office buildings to be more environmentally friendly is more and more common these days.  Business owners not only want to be kinder to the environment, but they also realize that making these changes might cost them a bit up front, but will end up saving them money in the long run.  If ‘green’ projects are of interest to you, here are a few you might want to consider.
Lighting

Boss Electric is a local electrical contractor that is devoted to accountability and efficiency.  Jim Morrissey of Boss Electric says, “We are actively involved in light fixture retrofitting in coordination with OPPD.  This program gives rebates to businesses that receive lighting audits and have the retrofitting performed.  Retrofitting is the removal of T-12 lamps and ballasts in fluorescent fixtures and replacing them with high efficiency  lamps and ballasts.  The program doesn’t just involve fluorescent lighting, but incandescent light, high pressure sodium and metal halide fixtures.  The program offers extended warranty on the lamps and ballasts themselves and you are shown your rebate, price of the project and return on investment.  It will also show how much you will reduce your energy consumption, lowering your energy bill.  This program is a tremendous value for businesses who understand long term savings.  In addition to retrofitting, we can offer pricing and plans to help reduce light consumption through energy management.  Even if your business doesn’t have a lot of square footage, you can save considerable money over a relatively short period of time.”

Bill Swarbrick of Superior Lighting says, “We are sometimes invited to a remodeling project to take a look at the interior lighting piece and make recommendations on retrofitting the current lighting system to a more energy efficient system.  This new system may include LED lighting as well as removing the current T12 fluorescent system and replacing it with a more energy efficient T8 system.  This in many cases can cut your electric use for your lighting by 40% and OPPD sometimes provides rebates to help pay for the upgrade.”  One example of a local business they recently worked with is Atchley Ford.  They installed all new 2 lamp relight kits in all of the office areas, retrofitted all of the service area fixtures from T12 HO industrial fixtures to a 4 lamp T8 kit with a reflector and 5000K lamps, retrofitted all other fixtures with low wattage electronic ballast and T8 5000K lamps.  Their monthly energy savings after the upgrade was $748.43, their OPPD rebate incentive was $6,445.70 and their simple return on investment was three years.

Waterproofing

John Kuti with Western Waterproofing has a unique service that helps businesses be ‘green’.  “We can do a green roof, waterproofing and protecting on a facility,” he states.  “We can do a buried membrane system so you still have green space, which helps the environment.  This landscaping on the roof helps control the flow of water away from the building and keeps it from getting into the facility and the rainwater goes to your landscape instead of being lost.”  The company’s waterproofing services are excellent for any building suffering from age or weather damage.  “We restore buildings almost back to their original state and prevent further deterioration,” he says.  “We take care of masonry, do painting, caulking, sealing.  This preventative maintenance on the exterior of building can save you a lot of money and headaches down the road.”

Building Controls

Pat Killeen with Engineered Controls says, “If a business owner is considering a remodeling project, they should definitely consider the age of the mechanical and electrical systems in their facility.  In many instances, the mechanical equipment may only have a 15-20 year life expectancy.  Their current equipment may be more expensive to operate than they realize.  At the same time, they should also consider if the time is right to upgrade the control system in the facility as well.  With the ever-changing technologies in today’s commercial buildings, a system that was installed ten years ago could be upgraded to include numerous new technologies than a building owner would want to integrate into the control system.  These might include adding internet interface technology to the control system, remote interface via mobile telephone technology, graphical interfaces and metering equipment.  Additionally, building owners want their building to be more ‘green’, where everything is integrated, optimized and environmentally friendly.”

The benefits of technology such as this are many.  “Internet technologies allow a building owner/operate to view their entire building complex from anywhere they would have an internet connection,” Pat explains.  “This means even when they are away from the building, all the information of their facility is at their fingertips.  We are developing interfaces for our customers to use their mobile telephones to gain access or receive system notifications from their mobile telephones.  Relative to energy usage, we are offering a variety of metering products from Honeywell that will assist a building owner to understand where the real energy cost is in their facilities.  By providing sub-metering equipment (electrical, gas and water metering), a building owner can obtain real-time information on the exact cost of operating their facilities.”

Landscaping

It’s easy to neglect to take your outdoor space into consideration when you’re planning a remodeling project, but make sure you are thinking about this space, too, as it has a large effect on how others view your office and how much enjoyment you and your staff get out of it.  Curb appeal is very important to your company, especially if you have the type of business where clients or customers are visiting your location regularly or if you’re in a high visibility area.  Even if you don’t have a lot of drive-by or walk-in traffic, having impressive curb appeal just gives the impression that you care about your business, that you are diligent and that details matter to you, which are important impressions to make no matter what type of business you are in.

Working with a professional landscaper is very important, especially in a commercial setting.  They will be able to work with the contractor involved in your remodeling project and make sure the landscaping changes that are being made are practical, sustainable and serving your best interest.  They will also be able to assist you with an ongoing maintenance program or put you in touch with another company that can so your outdoor office space will continue to look well-kept throughout the seasons.

Construction Clean-Up  and Recycling

If you are having a major project done at your office, two issues that will probably become important are clean-up and recycling.  Deffenbaugh Industries can be an invaluable partner for this area of the construction process.  Deffenbaugh offers 10, 20, 30 and 40 cubic yard rolloff containers for your disposal needs and also provides stationary and self-contained compactors for all commercial applications.  They also have skilled personnel who are available to help you determine which container is best for any size project.

Deffenbaugh also takes pride in their ability to meet the recycling and collection needs of your business.  When you are doing a major remodeling project, there can often be a large amount of waste.  Deffenbaugh staff can help you collect, process and recycle a number of materials, helping you divert significant tons of materials from area landfills.

How to Choose a Contractor

Unless all you have in mind for your project is a few coats of paint and some new furniture, you’ll definitely want to work with professionals to help with your remodeling project.  Whether you’re looking for a contractor who can take care of everything from start to finish or you’re simply looking for a concrete company to pour you a new parking lot, you should choose those you work with carefully.  Here are a few tips.

Gather a list of names  

After you’ve decided what type of professionals you’ll need to complete your project, you should write down a preliminary list of candidates.  Get these names from friends, family and co-workers who have had good experiences with these companies or from local construction associations who can recommend reputable companies in the field you’re needing.  Once you have a preliminary list, you can begin meeting with the candidates to determine which one best suits your needs.

Find out their experience and training

You’re going to want to work with professionals who are skilled in their field and the way most people become skilled in their field is through training and experience.  Ask the candidates about their educational background, special classes they have attended, how long they’ve been in the business and any other questions that might help you to determine their skill level.

Make sure they’re insured

Professional contractors should have the proper insurance and licensing that is required in the areas they perform work in.  If something goes wrong during your project and someone gets injured or property is destroyed, you don’t want to be responsible for paying for it and you certainly don’t want to get sued.  If a contractor is properly licensed and insured, you will not have to worry about this.  All reputable contractors will be more than willing to show you the documentation of their license and insurance.  If they refuse or seem uncertain, you’ll probably be better off choosing a different contractor.

Ask for references

Asking for references is good idea no matter what type of professional you are looking for, but becomes crucial when you’re searching for a contractor to do a large renovation of your business.  Ask for references of businesses they have worked with in the recent past or are currently working with.  Call the businesses and ask them questions about the quality of work the contractor performed, how easy they were to work with, if they had any problems with them and any other questions you’d like to know the answers to.  You might also want to go take a look at a project that has been recently completed and one that is in progress so you can get a feel for the contractor’s work and for what their work space looks like while they are on a project.

Sit down and talk with them

Simply sitting down and talking with a potential contractor or other professional you are thinking of hiring can sometimes tell you more about them than anything else.  By having a conversation about your proposed project, you can find usually find out how you’re likely to be treated by the contractor if they come to work for you, how willing they are to work with your ideas and how well you get along.  If there is a personality conflict right from the beginning, you’ll probably be better off looking for a different company to work with.  While you are visiting with the potential contractor, make sure you’re talking to the right person.  You could be talking to an owner who would not even be involved in your specific project when you should be visiting with a foreman or other member of the company who would actually be doing the work.

When the Project is Completed

Unveiling of Remodeled Space  Unless yours is the type of business that has enormous amounts of walk-in traffic, it’s likely that mostly people won’t even know you invested in a remodeling project unless you tell them.  You’ve likely put a lot of time and money into the project, so why keep it a secret?  Announce the completion of your project on your website, in your monthly newsletter, in a press release and anywhere else you can think of.  You should also plan an open house or party and invite colleagues, clients, potential clients and others in the industry to come and check out what you’ve done.  Make it a whole day and include refreshments, a formal ribbon cutting ceremony and tours of the building.  You should invite those professionals who worked with you on the project not just to give them a chance to show off their work and to show your appreciation, but also so they have the chance to network and get to know those you do business with.

Maintenance  It would be a shame to let your remodeling project go to waste by failing to maintain it.  That’s why it’s important to keep your ‘new’ office looking and performing its best.  Do this by hiring a commercial cleaning company to clean on a regular basis and also by keeping in touch with the service professionals who may have installed new technology or other additions to make any adjustments, repairs or upgrades that are necessary as time goes on.

Your office should be the pride and joy of your business.  It should provide a pleasant atmosphere in which you and your employees can work each day and should be an impressive venue for clients or potential customers to visit.  Remodeling projects, whether done of aesthetic, practical or environmental reasons, should always be well thought out, planned and should incorporate the expertise and services of professionals in the industry.  By taking these tips into consideration, you can be assured that your project will go as planned and provide the return on investment you expect.