TO MY REHABBERS WITH COLD WINTER CLIMATES!

[Paul Z.]

How do you handle your rehabbing business during the winter? I ask this question because I'd like to know how you handle dealing with exterior rehabbing, maintenance, and repairs in the dead of winter. Do you just change up your rehabbing strategy or do you stop flipping all together. I'm interested in all opinions and strategies.

My assumption is that your order of operations in regards to your SOW would be flipped (interior first then exterior last) assuming you're like me and work exterior-to-interior on most projects.

Any insight is greatly appreciated!! Thanks

Paul

[J Scott]

First, I find winter rehabbing in Milwaukee to be much cheaper than rehabbing in the summer -- lots of contractors out of work and not much prospect for retail jobs, so they're willing to work for much less than they are during the nice months (when it's tough to get contractors for less than retail).

As for order of rehabbing, during the nice months, we typically work on exterior and interior simultaneously, but prioritize the interior (since that generally takes much longer than the exterior work). In the winter, we prioritize the exterior, and we ensure that exterior work is getting done at every possible moment.

For example, last winter we had a house that needed to be painted, and we waited literally 6 weeks for the temps to rise to the point where we could paint. When the forecast called for 3 straight days above 45 degrees, we made sure our painters were ready to hitting the ground running that first day. Had we missed our window, it would have been a couple more weeks.

Good roofers will work in any temperatures, as long as there isn't snow on the roof. And siding/gutter/chimney work can happen pretty much anytime, as long as it's not raining or snowing.