Cladding is a linchpin in any construction endeavor. Exterior is both a building’s visual first impression and its armor against the outside world. Determining the right cladding contractor for your project necessitates a lion’s share of consideration. This carries from the vision of an architect during conception to the experience of an end user when the building is complete.
Choosing the best cladding solutions for the particular job and the right cladding contractor to execute them is a balancing act of function and form. Modern construction projects are vast undertakings.
There are many hands in the process of turning a blueprint into a finished building, and even more investment dollars that have to be spent throughout. The choice of selecting the right cladding contractor is relevant to these considerations, as modern design continues to place an onus on exterior.
To make the decision easier, here are eight valuable considerations to make when choosing the best cladding contractor for your particular job. These are the things to look for, as well as the hard questions you should be asking any potential prospect.
Eight Valuable Considerations for Choosing the Right Cladding Contractor
1. Style
The first thing to think about is style. Every cladding contractor is geared towards a particular strain of the market. A typical distinction is between modern and traditional cladding solutions. A contractor often is prone to one or the other, so a clear understanding of your project’s end goals goes a long way in narrowing the field of options. After a smooth and glossy look for your building?
You are looking for a contractor who deals in modern products, such as ACM and HPL. Wanting the old-school brick feel? A traditional cladding contractor will be better suited for you.
A look at a cladding contractor’s website and the way that they brand themselves will indicate what styles they are most amiable too.
2. Materials
After clarity on style comes the substantive decision of material. This stage is both creative and technical. A material should first draw your eye for what it can visually offer your design, and then its composition must accommodate the structural and protective needs of the final building’s environment.
Different cladding contractors deal in their own rosters of materials. You will want to have a semblance of what you are looking for prior to speaking to a particular contractor, but it is always good practice to remain open to the insight of the cladding provider themselves.
As specialists in the field, a good cladding contractor will take your building’s wishlist and its environment into careful consideration to help you find a satisfactory material. Here is a good test of a cladding’s contractor’s honesty.
As with anything else in construction, there is no miracle material, no universal panacea for a building’s needs and woes. Otherwise, we would have landed on the solution long ago, and all of our buildings would be made of the same thing.
Every contractor’s roster of materials is curated to accommodate a myriad of needs, based on the strengths and weaknesses of each individual product. An honest broker in the cladding industry is the one who compares pros and cons with you, based on the hierarchy of your unique priorities.
3. Resume
Talk is cheap. You want to see what the cladding contractor has accomplished in the market, to get a sense of the end result that they can offer you. A review of a contractor’s portfolio plays into the consideration of style and material previously discussed, but it will also indicate what sort of applications they are suited to.
The best insight into a cladding provider’s portfolio is one that looks for growth. What are the standout projects that represent the first time they encountered a new application or challenge? How has the end result developed between the latest exterior design and the one that preceded it?
What communities, neighborhoods, and industries have they worked in since their founding? These are a few questions to ask while looking at a portfolio.The cladding contractor that has exemplified advancement through their past work will no doubt be hungry to keep such a trend rolling with your project.
4. Scope
The process of cladding is multifaceted and requires work from an eclectic collection of specialists. Design, supply, fabrication, and installation are all distinct pieces of a collective puzzle. Is the cladding contractor in question optimized to move through all these stages with cohesion?
This is the question to ask, lest your building’s exterior be the result of a game of broken telephone. Logistical challenges lie between your vision and a beautifully clad facade. The design must have an understanding of what materials are available to source.
Fabrication needs exact insight from the original design and respect for the installers who will soon have to work with the products. Whether the cladding contractor handles all these processes in house, or they work with close knit partners, what is the relationship between A and Z?
5. Balanced Costs
For some, this consideration will top the list. Price point is the bottom line in construction. Cladding is a critical element in a building, so be wary of the cheapest options while still seeking value. As mentioned in the last section, there are many relay points in the cladding journey, so it is a good practice to deconstruct the total estimated cost of a project to ensure there is no bloat on the contractor’s part.
This is an investment of your well-earned money, so make sure it is being effectively placed throughout the budget, in quality materials and the labor of skilled artisans. The best cladding options are the ones that will protect your ROI. Thinking about cost beyond the installation stage is where the best solutions–and the contractors to facilitate them–emerge.
Maintenance and repair is the other end of a construction project, and represent costs that will determine the success of your building. The best materials for cladding are the ones that will mitigate the expense of upkeep, and reward your investment for years to come.
6. Play Well with Others
Peek into a construction site, and you are bound to see a wide array of moving parts. A day in the life of a contractor is a balancing act of objectives, often necessitating coordination between a variety of partners, third parties, and subcontractors. If your project sounds anything like this, the best cladding contractor to select is the one who plays well with others.
Look for continued partnerships in the cladding supplier’s body of work, for an indication of how they will synergise with the rest of your partners and staff.
7. Licencing and Safety
Safety first? This should be one of the first lines of questioning between you and a prospective cladding contractor. Review licenses relevant to the region you are constructing with, and ask what safety means to the contractor. Are workplace safety laws a mere obligation, or are they crucial tenants in protecting the wellbeing of everyone from installers to end users?
Safety in cladding means materials that are up to code, designers who compose buildings that counter hazards, fabricators who will not sacrifice quality, and installers who drill every screw out of respect for continued wellbeing. Anything less simply will not cut it.
8. Shared Vision
A cladding contractor should not exist simply to sell you something, but rather to collaborate with you! Passion is what drives you to construction, and expect no less from the company providing you with an exterior. Does the contractor’s representative light up with excitement over your vision in a preliminary meeting?
Do they jump at the honor of working with your team? Do they simply tell you what they think you want to hear, or do they help you build on your idea with their unique insight and understanding? These questions all boil down into one: am I a mere customer for or am I a collaborator to the cladding contractor?
The right fit for you will be the cladding contractor who is on board for your mission, and adopts your vision as their own. You will find that with the right partner, your original idea will grow in the light of the contractor’s specialized insight into the cladding process. With the right collaborator, you will arrive at a well clad exterior that is beyond your wildest dreams!
Conclusion
We wish you luck as you select the right cladding contractor, and less than subtly invite you to consider partnership with Wiedehopf for your next project. As an industry innovator in modern cladding solutions, our success has come from faithfulness to the standards listed above.
We want to hear your vision, and find the best solutions by which to serve it! Call our office at +1(905) 761 9791 to delve into what our two businesses can do for each other.
