Free Seminar! “Building A Home: Help From The Ground Up”

November 14th, 2009

ent_seminar

Stauffer and Sons Construction will be hosting a seminar with Ent Federal Credit Union on Saturday, November 21st. This event is FREE and open to the public. Here are the details:

Building a Home: Help from the Ground Up

Saturday, November 21st

10:00am-12:00pm

Ent FCU’s Galley Service Center

4545 Galley Road, Colorado Springs, CO 80915 (Click here for a map).

Free childcare will be provided at the center. RSVPs are required, so please call (719) 574-1100 ext 6670, or register online here.

We’ll discuss all aspects of the home building process. Topics include:

  • Construction Loans/Financing Questions
  • Designing & Drawing Blueprints
  • Budgeting and Square-Foot Pricing
  • Site Selection
  • Buying The Right Lot
  • Grading & Excavating
  • Foundations
  • Framing
  • Plumbing
  • Electricity
  • Wells & Septic Systems
  • Layout Of The Home/Square Footage
  • Roof
  • Landscaping
  • Your Needs In A Home
  • And more

Free coffee and donuts will be provided. Come ready to ask lots of questions! We hope to see you there.

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How 1-Hour Mistakes Equal 5 Hours Wasted

October 29th, 2009

In the construction industry, mistakes happen. When they do happen, they can often be incredibly expensive, assuming somebody catches the mistake before the structure is finished. Remember the Leaning Tower of Pisa?

tower-of-pisa

Taking the time to do a job the right way wins every time. Our Stauffer & Sons field employees’ motto for years has been: “Safety, Quality, Speed“—in that order. Aside from safety, which is has top priority, we focus hard on quality over speed. Why? The following equation explains. Let’s use a common scenario in construction: building a wall.

Why every wasted hour actually equals five:

  • 1 hour spent building a wall, and making a mistake in it
  • 1 hour spent tearing down the improperly-built wall
  • 1 hour spent building a new wall, properly
  • 1 hour of time lost during tear down of bad wall
  • 1 hour of time lost while building wall the second time

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

= 5 TOTAL HOURS WASTED

When you’re having a home built, make sure your builder is putting quality over speed. Some builders have made a business model out of cranking homes out as fast as possible, to move on the next quickly. Stauffer & Sons works fast, but never places speed above doing the job right from the ground up. It is much more cost effective to do a job correctly the first time, because as the equation shows, it actually wastes five whole hours by spending one hour doing a job the wrong way!

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Posted in Structure, The Building Process | No Comments »

Results of the Solar Tour 2009

October 3rd, 2009

The SECRES (South Eastern Colorado Renewable Energy Society) Solar Tour 2009 was a success! This year’s theme was “RE-Powering Southern Colorado.” We got to meet many nice people and raise awareness of the LEED for Homes program in Colorado. This year we focused on two things:

  1. Our LEED Platinum home in Divide (we’ll be hosting an Open House around Thanksgiving of this year), and
  2. SIP (Structural Insulated Panel) building systems (a specialty building method for energy-efficient homes).

We were glad to be a part of this year’s tour, and will be back next year. Thanks to everyone who came, and a special thanks to Cliff Kotnik, Cathy Crawley and the very friendly UCCS staff and SECRES volunteers. You were great to work with!

Below are some photos of our booth:

Ron Jr. standing by our Structural Insulated Panel display and LEED Platinum banner

Ron Jr. standing by our Structural Insulated Panel display and LEED Platinum banner

Ken Matthews, our associate with Building Alternatives, Inc.

Ken Matthews, our associate with Building Alternatives, Inc.

This was our table. We had our Fox21 News clip on a loop, and had a signup sheet for our Open House this Fall.

This was our table. We had our Fox21 News clip on a loop, and had a signup sheet for our Open House this Fall.

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Posted in Green Building, Solar Energy, Sustainable Building Practices | No Comments »

Event: SECRES Solar Tour 2009

September 30th, 2009

secres-local-logo

SECRES (The South Eastern Colorado Renewable Energy Society) is hosting a Solar Tour in the Pikes Peak Region this Saturday (October 3rd, 2009) in Colorado Springs. It will be a great opportunity for those interested in Solar Energy technology to come and see it in real-life action!

Stauffer & Sons Construction will have a booth at the UCCS Recreation Center building (itself a LEED Gold building), where the event is hosted. Click HERE to view directions and details of the Solar Tour on SECRES’ website. UCCS will be the “information hub” where you can come and see the booths of solar vendors, talk to SECRES representatives, and purchase maps of the homes that are open for touring ($5 donation).

The booths will be open from 9:00am-1:00pm, and you can tour any of the homes until 4:00pm that night.. Come see us to learn more about our LEED Platinum home in Divide, Colorado!

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Q: Where Are You Licensed To Build?

September 15th, 2009

A: We are licensed as a General Contractor (”GC”) in the following Colorado counties:

  • El Paso
  • Teller
  • Pueblo
  • Park
  • Las Animas

Stauffer & Sons Construction is always open to building in new places, we are not intimidated by building outside our native El Paso County. In fact, over the years, we’ve developed a very strong system for building in remote locations. We’re happy to consider a job just about anywhere in Colorado. We’ve also worked out of state, in Wyoming and Kansas, on the occasional job that doesn’t require a full GC License.

Below is a chart of where we currently hold GC Licensing. We’ll be adding to these in the future.

counties_we_are_licensed_in

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Posted in About Us, Licensing | No Comments »

Office Under Construction!

September 14th, 2009

Here are some photos of our new office as it’s being finished. Last week, we completed the framing, and this week we’re putting up the drywall.

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Here’s the back room where we’ll have a few small offices.

back_room

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This is our front office, with communications center on the left (copier, fax, etc), bathroom in the middle, and coffee bar on the right.

main_room2

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This is the main conference room. We’ll be adding a round table for discussion and a photo gallery in front of the windows for a fully-lit nighttime display.

conference_room

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We’re Moving!

September 5th, 2009

We’re excited to announce that Stauffer & Sons Construction is officially moving office locations! After spending five years in the former “Chrissey Fowler Lumber” building on W. Vermijo Ave, we’re now moving two blocks north. Our new location is in the south end of “Giuseppe’s Old Depot” across from Antler’s Park.

Here’s our new address and phone:

76-L South Sierra Madre Street

Colorado Springs, CO 80903

Phone: (719) 440-3255

Fax: 1 (888) 838-1859

This is our new street address, as well as our new mailing address, so please update your records accordingly. It is still under construction, and we haven’t opened yet, but we will have a Grand Opening when everything is complete. This is tentatively scheduled for mid-october of this year. (Check in again later this month for more details.)

our_new_office

Our new space is a better fit for us, and once completed it will have several new features, including:

  • Espresso/Coffee Bar
  • Round-Table Conference Room
  • Wi-Fi Hotspot
  • Projector Screen for Presentations

Check back for progress photos as we finish construction!

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Posted in About Us, News | 1 Comment »

Interview: 10 Questions With The Better Business Bureau

September 5th, 2009

bbbseal

Our good friends at RemodelConnect have shared with us a part of their interview with the Director of Business Development for the Southern Colorado BBB. We’ve condensed it down to 10 Questions and Answers. Hopefully these can help answer some of the questions and misconceptions you may have about the Better Business Bureau and what Accreditation means. Stauffer & Sons Construction is a BBB Accredited business with an “A+” rating, and we’re happy to say that we have zero complaints against us.

[Begin]

Question 1: How exactly is the BBB structured? Is there just one Nationwide Better Business Bureau Database, or do you have local offices?

Answer: The Better Business Bureau of Southern Colorado is governed by the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB). The CBBB governs all the BBB’s in the US and Canada.  Colorado has four locations. The Better Business Bureau of Southern Colorado services 25 counties in southern Colorado.

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Question 2: Is the BBB run by the government? Or are you a nonprofit?

Answer: The BBB is not affiliated with the US Government. Contrary to popular belief, the BBB is not a regulatory or legal agency.  Your second guess was right–the BBB is a nonprofit, neutral, third party organization whose mission is to create confidence and trust in the marketplace for both consumers and businesses.

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Question 3: What is it exactly that the BBB is looking for when checking on a contractor?

Answer: When a business applies for BBB Accreditation, they must meet certain qualifications and commit to upholding the BBB Code of Business Practices. Our staff then verifies that the company has been in business for a specified length of time, has a physical location, maintains their industry’s required licensing, and can substantiate their advertising. The BBB team also checks the company’s references they provide.  The final approval of BBB Accredited Businesses is given by our local BBB Board of Directors who actually live and work in the community.

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Question 4: Just about everyone knows that the BBB is a “complaints center” for consumers with bad business experiences, but what is the “BBB Accreditation” you’re referring to?

Answer: It is true that consumers and businesses can file complaints businesses with us. However, we’re not just looking at the fact that a company has a complaint filed against them–we’re interested in how that business handles it. One of the factors that distinguishes a BBB Accredited Business from an unaccredited business is that a BBB Accredited Business has committed to working through these issues with consumers or other businesses. If a BBB Accredited Business is concerned that someone is going to file a complaint, they can proactively contact the BBB. When that happens, we will call the consumer, as a neutral third party, and can sometimes get to the bottom of a conflict before a complaint is even filed. We are often able to re-open lines of communication between parties.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted in Better Business Bureau, Researching Your Builder | No Comments »

Leed Home on TV

August 18th, 2009

Earlier this month, Fox21 news visited our site to check out our LEED™ Platinum home in Divide, CO. Here’s the video clip that ran that night.

Click HERE to sign up for a Green Building Seminar we’ll be hosting in September.

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Email Newsletters

August 14th, 2009

Earlier this year, we launched a new service for our past and previous clients—a quarterly newsletter via email. These newsletters have been a big hit, and we’re able to share helpful photos, testimonials, articles, upcoming events, and more with our clients. Some past topics of discussion have included:

  • How To Hire A General Contractor
  • Green Building Techniques
  • Which Kinds Of Remodels Build Home Equity The Fastest
  • How To Build A Home, From Start To Finish
  • Upcoming Seminars, Conventions And Other Shows
  • Interviews With Previous Clients and Building Industry Professionals
  • Reasons Why Construction Projects Go Sour
  • How To Not Let Your Remodel Ruin Your Life

newsletter

We send out four newsletters per year, and we respect your privacy. We will never sell or rent your information to anyone. To sign up for our newsletter, simply visit our signup page at www.staufferandsons.com/newsletters.

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