June 2023

Greetings Friends,

Well, if you are a Boston sports fan, the past month or so has been disappointing. First, the Bruins tank after a remarkable season, then the Celtics couldn’t quite pull it off coming from a 3-game deficit to almost making history with 4 wins in a row. Unfortunately, they didn’t perform in game 7 how they needed to and now the players are golfing (and maybe woodworking) rather than going to the finals. Now the pressure is on the Red Sox. We’ll see what happens there. You see, both my parents grew up just outside of Boston so I was raised in a Boston culture. That being said, we still welcome Yankee, Mets, Rangers, Islanders, Nets, Knicks, Jets, and Giants fans to Parkerville. And all others of course, sports fans or not.

In our April newsletter, I mentioned our process of bidding on commercial work with general contractors (GC’s) or construction management firms (CM’s). Many contractors frequently perform both services. The primary difference is that a company acting as a GC will bid a project with several other general contractors (sometimes 10 different companies) and typically the low bidder gets the project unless they can be proven to be unqualified. When a company performs as a CM, they have typically been awarded the project by the owner with an agreement that they will get a minimum of 3 bids from each trade (woodwork, site work, electrical, plumbing, framing, drywall painting etc.), and agree in advance what their markup is and what their fees are for their own staff. From there, it is typically a transparent/open book relationship between the owner and construction manager. They are typically not searching for the lowest bids, but rather the 3 most qualified companies to ensure the client or owner gets a premium product. These are usually larger private or publicly traded companies the have higher expectations or standards for their environments. The CM also can consult with the owner and not necessarily go with the low bid if another company is more qualified. Most of our commercial work is with CM’s.

We very rarely bid with general contractors. Why? Because they hunt for low numbers to win the job. History has proven that when we bid on this type of work, we are generally 20-30% higher than the low bidder. We get beat by shops that are less qualified or have lower standards, are small with little overhead, or just don’t bid accurately. Most public and municipal work is done this way. If the millwork package is a little bigger (over $100K) our chances increase slightly because some of the small shops will drop out.

Our sweet spot is projects that range from $50K to $500K in value for millwork. Sometimes bigger depending on the type of work it is. For larger projects like this, it can take up to 2 weeks or more for our estimator to put our proposal together. We must research material costs and availability and get prices from our sub-contractors for the installation of our work (we self-perform on smaller projects), stone or granite, custom metalwork, glass, etc. It can be a considerable investment to bid on a sizable project. This is why we are so selective on what we bid.

GC’s want as many quotes as they can get, hoping to find the low numbers. They try and use us as a bidding service to gauge the market. A few years ago, we had a client that we bid on 2 or 3 projects a week and would almost never be awarded work from them. We no longer bid with them.

After we are awarded the project, we set it up in our system. We then have to produce a full set of shop drawings showing the architect and owner exactly how we intend to fabricate our work. Once approved, we can begin acquiring materials and begin fabrication. Some projects can go on for several months or longer. We were awarded a project this week at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY. Our installation is a year from now. On projects with a long duration, we invoice our clients once a month. Typically, they will not give deposits, so we have to be able to finance the projects for 2 months or more before receiving our first payment. When complete, we deliver and usually install the work.

Catching up on other news, we have finally relocated the 42,000 b.f. of material we purchased in Manchester, VT to Manchester, CT. Most of it is in our new building on the other side of town, which is not open to the public yet as we are doing code compliance improvements now. We are bringing wood here to our main plant to sell so we now have access to all the material, which is mostly cherry and walnut. Some pictures are included in this newsletter but you can see more pics on our social media. You may also see a picture or two of our new all-electric forklift as we begin to upgrade our current aging fleet of 6 older forklifts. The move from VT went quite smoothly, thanks in part to our employee Scott who owns a very nice new dual-wheel pickup with a diesel motor and a heavy-duty trailer that moved our forklifts around. A huge help.

We continue to be very busy with both projects and lumber. We have been short-handed like many other businesses so I appreciate your patience with us. We will do everything we can to accommodate your requirements.

As always, thanks for your patronage and continued support. We will continue to work hard to earn your business and trust.

I hope to see you at the shop.

Sincerely,

David Harris
President