Get Your Permits! Lowes Coupon Example

I was thinking recently on how so many people are catching up on old projects now that the housing market is stabilizing a little. It seems that all of the old projects are finally shaking themselves out. As many of you know we at Lowes Coupon do a lot of entitlement work in southern California. Usually larger projects but lately we have found ourselves doing a lot of single family infill completions. In the next series of posts I will cover some case studies. For example a customer recently brought me a garage he had built by who he says was a licensed contractor and who clearly built the garage without a permit.
For the sake of the readers lets cover several issues that were resolved – this will help you with your general knowledge of what to do and not to do.
First mistake was the owner did not check out the so called contractor – he failed to look anything up and is paying dearly for it. This happens time and time again. Somehow owners just trust the person in front of them and start handing over significant amounts of money. This particular homeowner I believe was won over by greed. The garage he was building was very large and tall. 40X40 with 12 foot walls with a gable that reached almost 20 feet all attached to a manufactured home of all things. For those that are “in the know” you cannot “attach” to a manufactured home but must leave a 1” breezeway between the garage and the home – but I digress. Anyhow he was getting the entire structure completed for $15,000. Now $20,000 would be reasonable for this particular garage but this was built during the housing boom. So really it should have cost around $30,000. $20,000 would be the price today. Even the best Lowes do it yourself training could not help you do this one. This one required a professional. Anyhow it was greed and a lack of thoroughness that caused this project to go downhill fast.
Second mistake was not pulling permits. Now properly addressing the first mistake would have cured this second one. Now we at Lowes Coupon are all for the do it yourself – but 20 foot gables on a 40×40 garage – well just pouring the foundation is a little much for anyone but true professionals. Permits are very important. I understand not wanting to pull a permit when you change out a toilet but trying to build a garage with a contractor you have not “checked out” is not wise. There is a reason that cities require permits. It is primarily for public safety. It is so that a trained person can not only verify that the structure was designed properly but also so you have a 3rd party coming by at various stages to ensure it is being built to the plans. These 3rd party verifications are critical to ensure public safety. Design flaws can take down anything. We have all seen the video of the bridge that began to sway and then eventually fell down before it was ever put into regular use? That was built with professionals but for some reason they did not “catch” the flaws. Getting a permit puts your design through “plan check”. “plan check” is more than just a hassle – plan check is there to check your plans. It allows someone to review your archetects work to ensure compliance with every single design rule. It’s like a spell checker – if you read your own work you can miss the same error 20 times over – but when another reads your work they can oftentimes correct what your overlook.
So that’s the lesson. Do not be taken in by a cheap price – you can pay a cheap price for someone to weed your garden but do not try to skimp on a 1600 square foot, 20 foot tall, garage. For that you are asking for trouble.
By the way we are still in plan check with this garage. It is going to cost $15,000 to fix at the minimum. First they allowed the structure to lean on the roof of the manufactured home. This is not allowed as a manufactured home is to be completely structurally independent of the accessory building, in this case the garage. Then comes the sheer wall. Sheer wall is very important to keep your building from falling – it allows extra support for the misc pressures on a building. Then there is the foundation. Yikes! Can I say that? They did not put any footings on th foundation. So basically there is a slab of concrete with a 40×40 garage on top that is 20 feet high and leaning on a mobile basically sitting on a slab of concrete that can slip at any time because there are no footings holding it in place – and this is California – one good Earthquake and this thing could easily come down and kill someone. So now they are talking about digging below the 4 corners of the slab to build 4×4 (that’s 4 feet by 4 feet ) footings 3 feet deep with rebar epoxied into core holes in the top foundation. I think the engineer is crazy and they should start from scratch. They are going to be spending a lot of money at Lowes Home Improvement and hopefully lowes has mercy on them and gives them a discount equivalent to a Lowes Coupon or even lowes coupons.
Lesson learned and hopefully you enjoyed the little case study – please, do things right the first time. It will save you a lot of hassle later.

Lowes Home Improvement – Savings Ideas

This post is going to summarize much of what this site is about. Of course I oftentimes discuss the wonders of Lowes Home Improvement and how I much prefer their market plan over their main competitor, Home Depot, while keeping their selections and service on par with the Ace’s and Osh’s of the world. The great mix that is Lowes. But here I am once again going to focus on the what most are interested in – saving money. It’s not just a Lowes Coupon it’s a combination of smart shopping, planning ahead, and knowing when you are over your head. At the end of this post I will cover some ways to really leverage your lowes coupons as well as magnify your savings.

Have you planned your job before hand? Even a simple job like painting a fence takes a little planning and you can save a lot of money. For example if your fence has graffiti or other markings you want to put a thick primer coat over it. Remember thought that you do not have to primer the entire fence, well sometimes you do and other times you do not. You may just need to buy a quart of Kilz for the problem areas and then paint the rest with a single coat – that saves a lot of money!

The lesson is that you need to take a step back and think about what you are doing – thoroughly. If you are doing a job that requires a special tool, try borrowing the tool. Even a $15 tool can add 10% to a $150 job and oftentimes it is the little things that add up to a lot. Thinking ahead will also cover you in wasteful purchasing. For example 5 gallons of any paint usually costs about the same as 3 gallons of the same when purchased by the gallon. So do some math and determine how much paint you need. If it is anywhere near 3 gallons you may be better off grabbing the full 5. Same price yet you will have enough for touch up of for that extra coat in hard to cover areas. And with the extra you will not ruin the job by trying to spread the work out too thinly.
Another thing to remember is to shop shop shop. Look around at what you are purchasing and make certain it meets your needs. Sometimes vanity lights look exactly the same but one is $10 cheaper than the other – I do not know why – but $10 is $10.
Many of us scoff at saving $10 – I mean just grab the item and be done with it. But that is a quick way to losses. The other day I bought a medicine cabinet for installation in a fixer I was doing. The one I choose looked exactly the same to me as all the others but it was $8 cheaper. This takes practice but really, $8 then add that to the $10 for the ceiling light – are you understanding this? It all adds up – to A LOT!

Saving money by hiring someone is sometimes the best choice. I know it is counter intuitive but if you know someone that has a specific skill set – offer to hire them. If the job is small then you should be OK as long as it is someone you know that is expert and is accountable to you. If you are short on connections there is no shortage of contractors in any community weekly. They usually advertise “no job too small” – interview a few of them – go the extra mile and call a reference or two and hire them.. Never pay in advance and always hire licensed individuals. I know it is cliché but hiring non-licensed individuals works out sometimes – but your risks are far greater than simply hiring a licensed contractor. Surprisingly enough the licensed contractors can oftentimes be hired for as little as the non-licensed ones if you haggle over price a little.

Now let us cover a little on leveraging that precious Lowes coupon you have obtained. There are a couple of ways to amplify your savings. Of course we already covered shopping around for bargains and comparing prices. This is a skill that takes effort but worth its weight in cold hard cash. There are 2 primary ways you can leverage you coupon into additional savings. #1 find a friend that is a Realtor. They can purchase Lowes gift cards for a 5% discount. Purchase the gift card through the Realtor and then use your coupon – now you have saved 15%!! OR….. Purchase gift cards online through reputable sources that have an unused balance on them. Now I have never done this, I never bought from a Realtor either, but I have seen online where you can buy unused store credits for about 10% less than the value of the credit. So if it is a credit of $100 I have seen them sold for $90 and even sometimes less. Buy unused credits, use your 10% coupon and now you have saved a total of 20%! Now most of us will never go through that much trouble but the option is out there. In fact if anyone tries it let me know how it works for you – I would love to highlight the story and even plug your business if you would like.
Either way enjoy saving money and always Shop At Lowes!!!! They are the best!