ESTIMATING A GARAGE WITH SIDING

The building supply company that I work for(TOTEM BUILDING SUPPLIES) is one of the best places I know. To be able to work in an atmosphere that is both professional and fun is truly a unique experience.

I say professional because of the way the company treats and trains the associates that work for them. They have a training facility in two cities. They train the new associates on product knowledge for all sections of the store during a two week session. They also train for one week on how to build and estimate for decks, fences and garages. Because they have been doing it for so many years , the company has this down to a fine art. Since we are so good at estimating we sell an incredible number of decks, fences and garages. We have a program in the computers for certain sizes of each product. The reason we are so good though is because we can modify any one of these packages to suit individual needs. For example , we can change the size of a garage and modify all the materials needed to build that garage . We can add or subtract studs, sheathing, windows and siding . We do it all and we do it right. USUALLY. As in any job, inadvertent mistakes can happen. Even I, Alphonse, have been known to make one or two.

I think the worst was about four years ago. I was doing an estimate for a gentleman during our annual garage promotion in April. At this time,anything that is bought with the garage and or is necessary to build the garage is GST free. This includes things like saws, ladders, hammers, insulation, the garage package itself,drywall and siding.

Fortunately, for me and my customer,when we sell the garage a garage, we check to make sure any changes that have been made are correct. I had made some size changes to the garage and consequently , I had to make changes for the sheathing and siding. This is not difficult and you don't have to be a brain surgeon. You pull the garage up in the computer, add the SKU# for the sheathing and how many pieces. You do the same for the siding. Pull up the SKU# for the siding and how many pieces you want. I had done all this perfectly.....or so I thought.

I was off for the next two days. When I came back everyone kept laughing at me and would not tell me why. Their were some little asides about siding but nothing specific.

Finally, someone told me that my customer had come in and purchased the garage and set the delivery up. One of the salesman, going through the estimate, noticed the mistake I had made. It saved the customer quite a bit of money.
Now you have to realize that each product in the store has an SKU number. Everything. If you put in the wrong number, the wrong product is put on the invoice. That is why we check them so carefully. The inadvertent mistake I made? I had accidentally transposed two of the numbers and instead of selling the customer siding, I had mistakenly sold him:


88 BONE TOILET SEATS to side his garage