Chalking can be the painter’s best friend and Seattle home remodelers worst nightmare.  Chalking is commonly used to hide imperfections, bad joints in the siding, and other moisture related problems.  The problem is that too many carpenters and painters rely upon chalking to “waterproof” the exterior of a building.  Here in the Pacific Northwest, the climate fluctuates significantly between the cold winter months and the hot summer months.  The rate of expansion and contraction varies substantially between the siding, windows, door and other exterior features.  It is unrealistic to think that chalking will maintain the bond between different exterior components for the the life of the building.  A majority of the exterior, water related damage that Construct has repaired over the years has been the result of a failure of previous craftsmen to properly install all of the components necessary to shed water from the exterior of a building.  Redundancy is necessary for a home in the greater Seattle, Bellevue and Kirkland area to withstand the harsh weather.  A properly installed window or door will shed water away from the plywood sheathing and interior of the home if the flashing and chalking fail.  The next time you are considering modifying the exterior of your home, please remember that the role of chalking is largely cosmetic on the exterior of a home.  Make sure you are working with a general contractor that is prepared to take the extra steps necessary to make sure that any water intrusion behind the siding of your home remains away from the plywood and critical framing components supporting the roof and second story of the house.  Failure to do so will lead to costly repairs is the near future 🙁

A common question that I have frequently encounter in social circumstances is “how do you choose a general contractor?” This is a very fair question. There are tons of general contractors throughout the Seattle and Bellevue area. The challenge is finding a general contractor that shares your vision for a project and is committed to realizing “the dream” on time and on budget.

In my experience, the best vetting process for a general contractor is to complete a total home renovation or building a home from scratch on your own dime. Remodeling has a reputation for being notorious for blown budgets. When a general contractor is on the other side of the table, they gain a increased awareness for managing the timeline and budget for a remodeling or building project. It is only then that they can evaluate the success of the home improvement project – has the interior living space been significantly improved; was the project completed on time and on budget; did the remodel significantly improve the market value of the home; did all of the craftsmen on the project follow industry best practices to ensure that the home improvement project will lead to years of trouble free enjoyment?

Next time you are looking for a general contractor, be sure you ask them about their experience to gain a better insight into their level of commitment to the project. Experience is the greatest teacher in the home building and remodeling industry – be sure that you choose a general contractor that has first hand experience for the project you are planning.

Construct Up is a full service general contractor that delivers top quality building solutions for clients throughout the greater Seattle and Bellevue area. We are a Design | Build company that partners with leading service providers and businesses in the greater Puget Sound area to make your residential or commercial building project a success. Contact the building professionals at Construct today for more information and see what we can do for you.

When it comes to Social Media for business purposes, the number one question on the minds of many owners and managers is what is the ROI? What does a Facebook like mean for sales at the end of the day? How many customers will read and respond to a tweet? What is the value of a share in Google+?  The fact of the matter is without a significant investment setting up an effective multi-channel attribution model using analytics, associating a dollar figure with a company’s Social Media efforts can be a real challenge.

At this point in time it is better look at Social Media as forward thinking community building.  More and more, a company’s website and online presence is the storefront that customers see when they interact with the business.  Being an option in the SERPs for all relevant keyword inquiries is a great way to establish trust with potential consumers.  Being active in Social Media is a great way to show up in the SERPs for more than just your website.  Facebook “likes” have been showing up in the organic results on Bing from other friends.  +1 have shown up in Google.  There is also every reason to believe that Facebook will be releasing their own Search Engine in the not to distant future to capitalize on the volumes of data that they are collecting on users.  There have been a number of articles including this infographic from Wordstream that demonstrate that Google’s adwords is generating over $100 million per day! Given this statistic isn’t it easy to envision Facebook rolling out a search engine for its millions of users.

Implementing sharing schedules for Facebook, Google+ and Twitter of relevant community and business news will get your company on track for a future that certainly will be ever more influenced by Social Media.  The key is to participate,  find where you customers are and stay one step ahead of the competition!

Today I had the opportunity to talk with a great local small business that has been struggling of late at getting recognition for being the leading local provider of a high-end service.  They were one of the earliest local companies offering this service and enjoyed many years of steady growth in sales as well as great placement in the SERPs while outsourcing virtually all Internet related work.  Fast-forward to today and things are different story.  There is a lot more competition and their strong showing in the SERPs is gone.  An obvious question arises; what happened and how do we fix it?

First and foremost, it is time for business owners to take ownership for the online presence of their company.  This is not to say the business owners need to take over all facets of a company’s online presence.  Obviously, we all need great partners to be successful online.  However it is important to hold various parties accountable and create a heightened level of transparency.  Which leads to the second aspect, establishing a community building campaign for all stakeholders/employees can share in a united effort to get positive comments and reviews online.  Employees are the face of your organization for many businesses – they need to be aware of online company efforts to create community and do their part.  Community building can appear to be a challenge depending upon your industry.  Imagine you own a plumbing company.  No one wants to be Facebook friends with a plumbing company and have their timeline consumed by pictures of recently cleaned drains.  Despite this, there are a number of opportunities for a plumbing company to capitalize on Social Media.  Every plumbing technician needs to be aware of the fact that every service call is a potential opportunity to win a new community member.  There is a huge reward online for great customer service.  It is up to management to make their employees aware of this and to incentivize them to go the extra mile and get community involvement from their customers.

Getting back to my meeting this morning, every customer served at this business was handled by one technician and was onsite for at least and hour.  What a fantastic opportunity for the technician to build “community” and encourage the satisfied customer to share their great experience with the various Social Media platforms or review sites.  This non-interruptive form of suggestion will surely produced for the business long-term.  Even if the customer chooses not to participate in the online discussion about the business, a seed has been planted and they will likely be more receptive in the future.  It most certainly will lead to greater positive client participation in an industry that has a customer base that historically only reports negative comments and reviews.

Comments and reviews are here to stay – the key is to educate your team to work together and to take advantage of the opportunity to build a robust online community.