Issue 01
Field reporting on the money, code and craft of American remodeling, for the crews who document the work.
regulation and compliance
Lead safe work practices are not optional on most homes built before 1978. Here is what firm certification, containment, and three years of records actually require of a remodeling crew.
8 min read
practical guide
A change order is a contract amendment, not a text message. Scope, price, schedule impact, and a signature before the work starts are what make it collectible.
8 min read
comparison
Each pricing structure moves risk to a different party. Compare how fixed price, cost plus a fee, and a guaranteed maximum handle the unknowns behind the drywall, and who eats the overage.
8 min read
mistakes to avoid
The margin usually leaves on items nobody wrote down: subfloor rot, vent routing, an undersized circuit, and a shower pan detail. Here is where bathroom bids quietly go underwater.
7 min read
case study
Follow one homeowner complaint through intake, mediation, investigation, and citation at a state contractor board, and see which documents decide the outcome at each stage of the file.
7 min read
trends and outlook
Homeowners holding cheap mortgages renovate instead of moving, and the median American home keeps getting older. Both forces shape which jobs fill your schedule over the next few years.
8 min read
checklist
Everything a sheet of rock covers is a future argument. Work this list at rough in: blocking, nail plates, vent terminations, and a photo of every bay before the insulation goes in.
6 min read
numbers and benchmarks
A fifty percent markup is a thirty three percent margin, and that gap has closed plenty of shops. Work the arithmetic of labor burden, overhead recovery, and billable hours on your own numbers.
7 min read
field report
Plan reviewers send back the same handful of items week after week. A morning at a municipal permit counter shows which missing sheets, dimensions, and forms return a remodel to the drafter.
8 min read
Every article here is written for the crew that has to defend the work later. If you would rather show the job than argue about it, ToolboxProof turns your jobsite photos into a dated before and after report the homeowner signs.
Request a ToolboxProof demo for your crewMost payment fights on residential remodels trace back to work that was agreed verbally and never written down properly. Our guide on writing a change order that holds up covers the scope, price, schedule impact and signature that make an amendment collectible.
How to Write a Change Order That Holds Up When Payment Stalls
Then work outward: the eight other pieces in The Punch List each take one part of it further, and every one links back here.
