It been a while since I’ve posted but in my defence it has been a busy summer. We’ve been kept quite busy with both residential and commercial construction over the past few months. In fact this very morning my partner and I were discussing if the present volume of work would continue or if we will we start to feel a slow down due to the stalled US economy and the problems in the Euro-Zone. It is a good question and an important topic to consider. Personally I think that even if we do experience a slow down in the coming months it will be tempered because of the demand for high quality workmanship and solid value.

It is pretty typical that when markets tighten there is added pressure on the price of all commodities.  The increased competition for sales almost always drives prices down. In our industry this can be a good thing when all sectors of our supply chain look for savings and then pass them along. It can be a bad thing when the the increased pressure causes a decrease in the quality of products or services to try to reduce costs. There is no value in saving money for a product which is inferior. This is a difficult lesson to learn and one that I personally experienced back in the early 1990s.

Prices were dropping and in an attempt to save some money on tile for a project I ordered some material that had been heavily discounted by one of our largest suppliers. Big mistake. The product was not up to the standards that we required and the costs incurred to try to produce a quality floor with a less than adequate material quickly taught me that I didn’t not get the value I had expected. Value and not price should be the driver in all purchases. Compare all aspects of what you are getting when you are shopping for materials or contractors that will supply you with finishes that you expect to have or use for a long time.