How to Find a Good Cocept Design Service

The free in-store service available from the Renovation Design Centres is a great way to start any renovation.  If you decide to proceed with your renovation, you may wish to use OakWood’s established Concept Design Service. 

“Our Concept Design Service is based on exact measurements that we take following an in-home consultation with a homeowner,” says Liptak-Satov. OakWood’s Concept Design service results in a highly detailed final proposal that is roughly 50 pages. “This provides a room-by-room summary of all material decision,” says Satov-Liptak. “It gives a homeowner a detailed roadmap that we or any qualified renovator can build to” she says.

In some respects, the free 30-minute consultation gives customers a taste for OakWood’s more comprehensive Concept Design service which is offered on a fee-basis (and refunded if customers choose to proceed with OakWood as their renovator of choice).

The OakWood Concept Design Service provides a final 3D renovation drawing based on all material decisions that is so real it looks like a renovation is complete.

Great for any type of renovation

Whatever type of renovation you are planning or dreaming about the OakWood + Randall’s Renovation Design Centres are just the ticket for quickly getting started. Here’s a partial list of the types of renovation you can get expert advice on – plus a free 3D-drawing, floor plan and cost estimates:

·               Additions

·               Attics

·               Basements

·               Bathrooms

·               In-law suites

·               Kitchens

·               Large renovations

·               And many others

Small is Beautiful

Careful planning and design can make even the smallest rooms look larger and inviting. The right materials, lighting, finishes, and colours can create the illusion of space and openness. Pedestal sinks provide a good option for small bathrooms. Mirrors add depth. Let OakWood’s designers show you some examples of small-room facelifts and help maximize your space.

Think Big

If you are planning a large scale remodelling or renovation project, the Renovation Design Centre 3D-drawing will be particularly valuable if not essential. See what your renovation could look like before you commit to the expense of tearing down walls and making any major structural changes.

Home Renovation Service For Your Home

OakWood and Randall’s have forged an innovative and unique partnership to offer Ottawa homeowners the most experienced renovation design service in Eastern Ontario.

What could your renovation look like? How long will it take? How much will it cost? You’ll quickly get answers to questions like these and much more in a half-hour consultation at one of four new OakWood+Randall’s Renovation Design Centers.

 

These Centres are the result of a natural partnership between two established businesses with over 100 years combined experience. Both companies have earned a reputation for exceptional customer service and enjoy an impeccable A+ track record with the Ottawa Business Bureau. 

“We are both family run Canadian businesses,” says John Liptak, President and CEO of OakWood. “We share the same business values and are focused on providing our clients the highest quality services and products possible. We both want to help customers transform their living spaces with a renovation experience like no other in this City.”

The new Renovation Design Centres deliver on that promise by making OakWood’s award-winning Design and Build renovation service readily available for the first time from the convenience of four Randall’s stores across the region: Glebe, Orleans, Bells Corners, and Barrhaven. 

OakWood’s comprehensive renovation service is a perfect complement to the wide range of quality window, wall covering products, and unique handcrafted Mennonite furniture available from Randall’s. Wherever possible, these products are incorporated by OakWood into an integrated renovation plan for customers through the new Renovation Design Centres.

Lee Martin, Owner of Randall’s comments on the combined value offered through the new Centres. “One of the toughest things for many of our customers is visualizing their finished renovation or makeover.”  Customers often come to a Randall’s store looking for advice on paint colours, finishes, or wall and window coverings, Martin says. “It can be very challenging to provide the best recommendations because they don’t always have an overall master renovation design to guide those types of decisions. In many cases they don’t have any plan at all,” says Martin. The new Renovation Design Centres, located within Randall’s will address this need.

Martin thinks the new Centres will create huge value for OakWood’s and Randall’s’ customers. “This will be offered as a complimentary service with no obligation to buy anything,” Martin says. The preliminary 3D-drawing alone will be worth the visit, he says.  “This will help them visualize their renovation and make better material and product decisions with greater confidence,” says Martin. “And it’s all free!” he adds.

Are You Doing Home Renovations This Year?

Early adoption of new technology helps drive this family run home renovation business to award winning success and double digit growth

Quality tools are essential for quality work in the Construction and Renovation business. That has always been an axiom. Today, those tools extend beyond wood chisels, utility knifes, and speciality power tools. If you are OakWood, Ottawa’s largest and most experienced renovation business, your “tool box” now includes cloud computing, tablet PCs, iPads, and construction specific customer relationship management (CRM) software that drives exceptional project management and attentive, high-contact customer service.

Technology drives superior project management

John Liptak, President and CEO, Oakwood attributes much of his company’s recent success to an unrelenting commitment to embrace new technology for home renovations and construction techniques. “We have always been an early adopter and are quick to embrace technology as a way to achieve new efficiencies, higher quality standards, and a competitive advantage,” says Liptak.

Technology underpins all of OakWood’s processes and helps drive the best planning and project management capabilities in the city. “Project management, and managing a project successfully from start to finish, is an area where I believe we really excel,” comments Liptak. “We have a full-time scheduler who helps manage all of our trades and suppliers and we have dedicated project managers who maintain constant communication with our clients.”

RhonaLahey, one of OakWood’s many satisfied customers comments on OakWood’s proven project management expertise. “OakWood actually completed our renovation a week ahead of schedule!” she confirms. “When I told friends about that, many of whom had also gone through a renovation, they were absolutely amazed. But their reactions to our new space were even better – ‘fabulous’, ‘amazing’, ‘unbelievable’,” she quickly adds.

Sub-contractors and customers benefit from state-of-the-art systems

Again, technology is the grist that makes the OakWood, an Ottawa Home Renovation Company, machine really hum. Each step in the OakWood Design + Build approach is supported by specialized processes, expertise, and computerized systems. Sub- contractors and customers alike benefit from the marriage of technology and the OakWoodhome renovation process. To punctuate this, a sophisticated CRM project management system supports all renovations with project schedules being updated every day.

“We liked the idea that they make use of project management tools and that the project schedule was updated weekly,” reports Dan Wayner, an OakWood customer. “We had no real surprises and all change orders but one were initiated by us so we ultimately had control of expenditures. Overall, ourhome renovation was much less stressful than we anticipated,” he adds.

Schedules can be accessed instantly, in real-time, by OakWood’s Production Managers in the field, who are equipped with state-of-the-art tablet PCs that are connected to the office’s CRM system. Similarly, OakWood Customer Service Representatives carry snazzy new iPads which are used to quickly show customers beautiful images of relevant renovations during the initial concept development stage of the design process. Do you want to see a super close-up image of what that Silestone® kitchen counter or specialty faucet looks like? No problem. With the touch of a finger, presto you are instantly looking at a close-up of the details you want to see.

Renovation Design Ideas

Ideas and inspiration

In about half-an-hour, a certified OakWood Renovation Design Consultant will work with customers – usually homeowners just starting out on their renovation journey. They’ll brainstorm, plan, and provide three cost options based on material decisions and the size of their renovation. Expect lots of ideas to get the creative juices going.

“For a homeowner who is planning any kind of renovation this is an amazing opportunity to jumpstart their thinking,” says Patricia Liptak-Satov, General Manager of OakWood.  “They’ll get a free 3D renovation drawing of one room, a complete floor plan for the renovation, and estimates that use our QuickQuote™ system which are accurate to within 2% to 4% of our final quoted price for completing the renovation,” she says. 

Once OakWood provides a final price for a renovation, a homeowner knows unconditionally what they will pay to the penny. “We never charge extras,” comments Liptak. “We plan everything right down to the number of electrical outlets in a room. The customer pays exactly what we quote. And they get their renovation plans on schedule when we promise it,” he says.

See what your renovation design will look like

The preliminary 3D-drawing of one room may well be the highpoint of the renovation consultation and one of the most valuable deliverables that a customer gets.  “The advantage of our rendering service is that it helps customers see what their renovation will look like before we begin any construction or start a tear down,” says Liptak. “This reduces their risks and helps avoid any surprises – we build exactly what they have already seen,” he says.

Bring rough measurements of the room you want to renovate and a design professional will quickly use OakWood’s proprietary CAD software to show you what your renovation could look like. In real-time, while you chat, OakWood’s renovation designer will expertly add different material finishes and products to give you a quick idea for the overall look – and narrow down the many design possibilities.

Want to make a change or move something around? No problem. The designer can do that in a jiffy. Best of all, any changes are immediately incorporated into an accurate cost estimate. “The beauty of our custom, in-house 3D software is that it is completely integrated with the entire renovation process. If you make a change on the design or add a different product – such as a window blind system – all changes are automatically updated and reflected in the cost estimate,” confirms Liptak-Satov.

Bring rough measurements of the room you want to renovate and a renovations design professional will quickly use OakWood’s proprietary CAD software to show you what your renovation could look like. In real-time, while you chat, OakWood’s designer will expertly add different material finishes and products to give you a quick idea for the overall look – and narrow down the many design possibilities.

A Few Kitchen Makeover Tips for Every DIY Enthusiast

Have you ever noticed how friends and family members always end up in the kitchen? The rest of your home could be a gem, but somehow the kitchen is a people magnate at any gathering. That’s why you want to get your kitchen makeover  right. Here are five easy ways to ensure a brilliant kitchen renovation that will be the envy of your neighbours!

Guide 1: Start with your needs

How will your family use the kitchen? Do you eat at all hours of the day? Do you have young children? Do you prefer a casual or more formal dining environment? If you are more casual about eating, benches or island bars may be the ticket. If you have young children, you may want to create a less formal look and use textured colours to hide stains and marks. Maybe you need to expand the size to create a bigger seating area and more space for kitchen supplies? Beyond simply “updating your kitchen”, you need to be specific about your needs and how you want to use your new kitchen. 

Guide 2: Do some research

Take a look at samples of different kitchen renovation styles to see what appeals to you. Visit kitchen renovation showrooms. Look at magazines. Get inspired. OakWood has an extensive online gallery to whet your appetite and jumpstart the concept design stage of your kitchen renovation. Pay attention to materials and finishes because this will affect cost. Key elements include cabinets, countertops, and flooring.

Guide 3: Kitchen Layout and design

Now that you know what you like it’s time to bring these ideas and elements together in a design. This is a creative process that blends many elements with the goal of creating something unique. Our concept design process always includes brainstorming on different options and “what if” scenarios. We take your ideas and add to them based on your needs and preferences. We can also create 3D kitchen concept designs to help our customers visualize their end solution before we start to build. 

Guide 4: Get a detailed plan

Once you have a concept design, you need a roadmap for making this a reality. A good plan links the design and what you want, to your budget. If you make a change to any design element, it will affect your plan. That is why any plan that’s worth its salt includes a detailed proposal, right down to the number of electrical outlets. 

Guide 5: Hire a “design-and-build” renovator

Unless you are a talented handyman, you’ll be hiring a renovator to do the work for you. Make sure they are a qualified “Design and Build” renovator. That’s because over 50% of kitchen design projects that start with a designer or architect never get built. The design drives the plan and budget. A design and build renovator will ensure these two phases are completely integrated and that nothing falls between the cracks from your concept to final construction. (See our free report on how to choose a qualified renovator).

Architecture 3D Concept Design Service

OakWood customers see their renovation before construction starts!

To ensure seamless integration between production and design OakWood has made a significant investment in a unique 3Dconcept design service. Driven by powerful Design software, OakWood can create 3D models of a project before any work is started.

The large investment in the OakWood Design Division has proven to be well worth while because it drives a very cost efficient yet highly engaging design phase from the customer’s perspective.  

“Our concept design service is part of a brainstorming phase that expertly blends ideas from our design team and the customer,” says Patricia Liptak, General Manager, OakWood. “We use it [Concept Design] to help customers quickly visualize their options while establishing an accurate scope of work document and budget based on final decisions.”  

The Concept Design process is led by an experienced Architectural Technologist, and helped by Interior Designers, who ensures nothing is lost between the design, the final plan, and the final build.  OakWood’s in-house Design Team will expertly blend the ideas and vision that a customer has for their Renovation with a design that works for the space being renovated. The process generally starts with drawing up the existing home or space and then showing the customer the concept renovation design in vivid 3D. These renderings can also be viewed by the customer on their home computer so that they can “wear” the idea before committing to a final solution.

The customer eventually receives a striking rendering that enables them to easily visualize their finished renovation project. This service is an important part of OakWood’s process for confirming exactly what the client wants in a final design while ensuring a high quality renovation that is completed on-time and on-budget.

Oakwood has the best green contractors

In addition to technology trends, OakWood has also been quick to adopt green practices as a way of doing business. And it actively supports the Canada Green Building Council mission to lead and generate the transformation to high-performing, healthy green buildings, homes, and communities throughout Canada.

“Green building or sustainable building practices are a fast changing part of our industry,” comments Liptak. “New technologies and products are constantly being developed. “A good Renovator today will not only incorporate green practices into their way of doing business but also provide you with expert advice on how to design and build your renovation in a way that reduces the impact on the environment.”  

Proactive eco-wise practices adopted by OakWood include the use of sustainable materials and methods that use fewer resources to build, less energy to operate, and have a reduced impact on the environment whenever possible, and when economically feasible. OakWood offers a range of green material selection options in most product categories. Dual flush toilets are offered as one of five standard toilet options that are included in OakWood’s price. LED light fixtures are offered for a modest upgrade, and many other green options. “We also support suppliers and design professionals who share our philosophy and our commitment to the planet and that use sustainable and renewable resources,” says Liptak.

Like many “green contractors”, OakWood is constantly growing and learning in its commitment to environmentally sensitive building practices. “The good news is that green products are constantly being developed and improved, becoming more durable, affordable, and widely available,” comments Liptak. 

Tips for DIY Home Renovations

Focused on customer excellence

In addition to providing significant efficiencies,  sophisticated systems and technologies enable OakWood to provide far more attentive customer service. “No matter what we do during the project, we are always focused on ensuring an unparalleled customer experience from beginning to end,” says Liptak.

Debbie Oaks, an OakWood customer, confirms the highly attentive and professional approach: “I found everyone right from the initial designers to the last person out the door to be extremely professional, hardworking, friendly and very respectful of my home. The weekly meetings to discuss the work schedule, as well as any concerns I had were very helpful and kept me abreast of everything.”

Throughout the renovation process, OakWood ensures that customers see up-to-date scheduling information that is part of an overall Oakwood plan. This detailed plan usually includes all architectural requirements, design elements, construction and schedules, City permits and inspections.

Renovations Planning is the ‘heart and soul’ of OakWood

OakWood believes that planning and project management are two keys to renovation success. “Planning is the heart and soul of what we do” confirms Liptak. “The lack of a comprehensive plan is the number one reason renovation timelines and budgets get blown.” By carefully inserting construction focused, state-of-the art technology into their unique Design + Build process, OakWood has created an incredibly efficient planning and project management machine. “We have spent decades developing a unique and comprehensive Design + Build planning process that covers every facet of a renovation from start-up to final inspection, says Liptak.

26% year-over-year growth from Renovations in Ottawa

The technology investment to support these processes and systems has clearly paid dividends. OakWood has achieved remarkable 26% year-over-year growth for the past four years and powered through a grim economy with no loss of momentum. More importantly, technology enables process efficiencies that translate into real benefits for customers. “What impressed me over and over again was the ability of the OakWood Team to deal with each and every issue that came up in record time,” comments Bethany Johnston on their renovation experience.

Over 50 years of history in the home renovations and construction industry

While technology is certainly an important part of the OakWood story, the real foundation for the company’s success is history. OakWood has enjoyed three generations of Liptak family at the helm. The Liptak family has a long history in the construction industry, dating back to 1956 when John Liptak Sr. used his specialized skills to jumpstart a renovation business that continues to this day under the leadership of his son, John Liptak Jr. “I started working in the industry as an apprentice in the early 1970s and became the youngest licensed carpenter in Ontario at 18 years of age in 1978,” says Liptak. “I like to think that being a licensed carpenter first and then a business owner combined with over 32 years of onsite business experience has given our company a decided edge in the marketplace,” he adds.

Experience drives technology investments

Ultimately it is a half-century of experience in the construction industry that enables OakWood to carefully apply technology to continuously improve the business.  In many cases, technology is deployed strategically to support or improve time honoured best practices that harken back to a bygone craftsman era. Not surprisingly, the real driver for technology adoption and continuous process improvement actually comes from the youngest member of the family: Patricia Liptak. 

“My daughter Patricia joined our business in a full-time capacity as General Manager a few years ago after finishing a degree in Law and Business,” says Liptak. “Patricia has really helped to formalize and improve the systems and processes that we have been refining over the last 50 years,” he admits. “I am a really practical guy who learned this business from the ground up. Patricia learned it professionally and that has helped us incredibly. She is the next generation that is coming. Watch out!” he says.