Four Costly Mistakes for Lighting Projects
The estimate from your contractor isn’t the final word on project costs. These four issues could drive up your project’s cost and hassle, leaving you investing more than you budgeted for.
Having a one-track mind: Don’t focus solely on the material cost of a retrofit. A simple swap may be inexpensive, but it offers the least potential for an upgrade. You may want to take the opportunity to delamp, look at different technologies, or change the look of the fixture.
Picking the wrong retrofit kit: It seems like a no-brainer, but it’s not uncommon to see a kit in a fixture not designed to hold it. While you may get great energy savings, the quality of light could be diminished dramatically, affecting customers, clients or workers who use the space.
Underestimating the time investment: Many factors can throw off your contractor’s estimate for how long the job will take, and some aren’t readily apparent from the outside – for example, a contractor may not discover that HVAC equipment or network cables are reducing access to old fixtures until he or she is opening up your ceiling. Know what is overhead to minimize unfortunate discoveries that drive up labor costs.
Overlooking code compliance costs: When a fixture is changed, the contractor has to bring the new installation up to current code, which can be a costly venture in some cases.