About Us

Bowers Construction–Who we are, what we do, and how we do it.

Who we are:    Ted Bowers has been in the construction business since 1974 and self-employed since 1980 enjoying repeat business with established customers many who are now friends.
We built this web site to help our new "out of town" clients and to promote our young crew "Sandpoint Ecobuilders" who handle the remodels, additions, new small homes and structures. Our crew started back in 2006 part time and have passed the word of mouth test as we seem to be keeping them busy even in a down market, no surprise to me as look who they work for.:) That is when Ted becomes the general contractor, working with our team of dedicated sub-contractors. We are a family owned and run business, registered with the state of Idaho, fully insured to protect our customers and workers compensation insurance to protect our crew.
Ted is continually educating himself with new building techniques and is currently training in green building. His wife Gini manages the office, schedules the jobs for Ted and the crew "Sandpoint Ecobuilders" and is a competent carpenter’s helper.  She also helps our customers with design and color choices, currently educating herself in healthy home environment. Our son Dustin is a competent draftsman, working on his architecture license while working with local architects, focusing on sustainable green building, while handling basic design. He is very good at keeping this done in a "smart way" and continues to educate himself by working part-time as a laborer on our crew to see how designs go from paper to structure. He can make your dream come to life.

What we do:  We have a great talented crew with varied skill levels and can take on many types of building projects, from additions, major remodels, decks, porches and building small eco friendly green homes that we believe are good for our community. Our team of reliable sub-contractors perform work that they are proud of so that they can continue to live here in Sandpoint year after year as we do.  We specialize in custom finish work and have a unique portable shop system we can set up right on the jobsite. We can build outbuildings from saunas to riding arenas as well. We are interested in alternative and green building projects with sustainable, recycled and healthy materials.

How we do it: When we receive your call, we come as soon as possible to look at the project and discuss it with you.  That is when you will probably receive this letter, or we will ask you to read it on this web site.  Depending on the type and scope of the project we will recommend either a bid or estimate for a cost-plus approach to funding it. "Remodels are cost plus only" and will have a line by line estimate with reviews as the job moves along.  In our bids, we take into account not only the work to be done but also the time to design with your input,  get to the job, set up our work station(s), gather materials, install safeguards (when needed) and keep a clean and orderly workplace.  On a cost-plus (labor and materials) basis, these same factors must be accounted for.  Our policy is to stay on a project through completion, so you can depend on us to be there on a daily basis unless bad weather or unforeseen circumstances arise to prevent us from working.

Our policies:

1.  Customer relations: We like to maintain a friendly professional relationship with our customers.  Since a major portion of our work is in or around your home, we keep certain factors in mind–the privacy of your home, cleanliness, and work hours that coincide as much as possible with your schedules.  Oftentimes, large projects in and around your home can be disruptive and introduce tension into your household.  It is our aim to keep this to a minimum and we will be discussing the best way to do this with you in the beginning as well as throughout the project.  We value communication highly in both our personal and professional lives and realize it is a day to day process. Ask us about our email photo progress reports.

2.  Money: On all of our jobs of a reasonable scope, we require a minimum material deposit to begin work.  This of course varies with the size and length of the project.  On cost-plus jobs, we ask that we get paid on a weekly basis on Friday.  Our payroll period runs from Wednesday through Tuesday, so that we can bill out the job to you on Wed. or Thurs. and receive payment to pay our crew and sub's on Friday. We are able to manage from a deposit account also, please talk to Gini.  On bids we will work out a payment schedule with you and include it in our contract. (section removed for privacy, see hard copy) No hidden cost, ask us!!

3.  Safety: This is a prime concern of ours and we take it seriously, both for our sake as well as yours.  This sometimes will extend the time it takes to do an aspect of a project but also increases efficiency because it allows us to focus our total attention to the task at hand without worries for ourselves or for our customers. We ask that all cell phones be left in our cars or turned off while on job site. Some days we may all have cell phones on job, works great to cordinate Subs and material runs. Everyone knows to keep personal calls to lunch and breaks. Calls will be taken from 7:30 am to 8:30 a.m., lunch and breaks.

Thanks for taking the time to read this rather long letter.  Hopefully it will prevent misunderstandings from the outset, but please feel free to ask for clarifications and to negotiate with us any disagreements you may have. In our estimates Ted works hard to be as actual as he can and not competitive, so please feel comfortable to review any cost and how and why he arrived at that number. We do this all the time with are older established customers- that is the nature of the remodel business.
Sincerely,
Ted and Gini Bowers      208-263-5447

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