Rob writes:
>>So what people have conveyed to me is based on a scale.  If a Restoration
is
$1,000.00, then a Preservation must be $2,000.00, and a Conservation has to
be $5,000.00, while a remodel is about a $1.00.  >>

I would not discount "remodel" down to $1.   $1 might be what I call
"general trades practice"--the guys with a pickup, a dog and a staple gun,
no wait, they lost the staple gun on that job last year.

"Remodel" has now been highly organized to generate far more dollars than
$1 would allow. I've been to a couple of the National Remodelors
Conferences, and these guys don't work for straw. They figure what it costs
to do the work (poor, fair or good, makes no difference), take labor &
materials, mark up to cover the cost of doing business, add at least
50-100% and send out the bill. At least half of them are shifting into
speciality "installations" of "products" (tack on gutter covers, bathtub
liners, etc. all made of plastic) where the markups are 100-200%. Lowes(t)
and Home De(s)pot are becoming a big part of the game, where markups are
1000-2000%. So, "Remodel" isn't $1 anymore.

Myself, I always do the best I know how, take my own labor and materials,
mark up enough to cover the cost of doing business plus 15%, never mark up
the labor of others, get paid for
everything I do and collect on all my billings. I make about $50 to $500 on
your scale above. I find real preservation (saving what you've got) is more
like $500, than $2000. In any case real preservation is often less than
restoration (recreating what once was). But that's just me. When you're
talking with the folks who know the difference between preservation and
restoration, and if you talk the talk that those folks talk, and walk their
walk as well, you probably do mark everything up to $2000. After all,
you've got to sit on all those committees and boards plus keep up with the
pro-bono work and political contributions. (Not that there's anything wrong
with that.)

The vernacular meaning of "restoration" is anything done to an older
building (ala Bob, Norm and Steve), all you have to do to restore your
house is buy the stuff, they don't even care if you install or not.

>>We get a lot of, "Historic Preservation?  Sounds Expensive."  And I
say "Yes, it does cost more to do it right".<<

One of the guys in my Business Side workshop at  The Preservation Institute
said that since the last workshop he had done well by dropping all
references to "historic, restoration, and preservation". As a result his
marketing is a lot easier. He still thinks of himself as a preservationist,
but never lets on.

John

John Leeke,
American (BP) Preservationeer

--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>