fort worth home builder

A Fort Worth home builder may seek to reduce the building budget by investigating alternative costings from an overseas manufacturers.  Typically the manufacturer delivers the prefabricated cabinets or windows which can then installed by local labor.

building budget savings through substitution

Transnational cost comparisons are often too good for clients to ignore.  Like everything else in the building industry contracts – ‘the devil is in the detail’.  The cost comparison on cabinetwork, window joinery or the like, are often not on a equally comparative basis.  The building components may not match the architectural specification/details supplied to, or even understood, by the overseas manufacturer.  Architectural details are drawn and described by the residential builder in english with references to the  International Building Code.   There is a significant amount of trust and faith in the overseas manufacturer‘s english language skills to ensure product compliance.  The product needs to arrive at building site and can be cost effectively installed.

contract variations due to inferior quality

A recently detailed an account where a client purchased Chinese window frames for a 65% saving. Unfortunately the Chinese window manufacturer misinterpreted window heights with the window widths.  The pre-assembled window frames did not fit the project’s already constructed brickwork openings which was a costly lesson for all.  The general contractor reported that all the windows were 0.5″/12mm thickness toughened glass. The general contractor had to double his labor for installation across the stories due to the frame and sash weights.  Other industry reports include aluminum windows leaking across multi-residential apartment projects. A Fort Worth home builder has also reported windows arriving unassembled which will effect profitability on any home building project.

successful value engineering

A Fort Worth home builder client’s potential budget savings by sourcing overseas manufacturers are often a false economy.  Overseas manufacturers aren’t competing on equal grounds as local custom cabinetmakers or window joinery fabricators just as the AT & T Stadium playing surface is vastly different to the Arrowhead Stadium Bermuda turf.  A Fort Worth home builder should approach overseas window joinery or cabinetwork procurement cautiously due to overseas anomalies.

Online purchases are here to stay with the rise of Alibaba and other B2B marketplaces. Builders require budget and program risk mitigation strategies when trying to procure Chinese prefabricated products to a domestic building sites. Consistent industry feedback suggests no amount of contract, drawing or specification information by a Fort Worth home builder matters if you’re not speaking the same, “…crack-a-lacking language…”