Remodel. The word alone can make homeowners shudder, conjuring up images of half-finished projects with runaway budgets and flaky contractors. But the folks at One Week Bath Inc. in Van Nuys say they have developed technology to change that. After 15 years of refining the customized software for his bath remodeling business, Chief Executive Matt Plaskoff said he has automated the design, ordering and pricing of projects, enabling the company to deliver them quickly, accurately and in line with estimates – in contrast to the stereotype. “I wanted to come up with a way we could go out to a client’s home and then design, contract and price a job at one sitting,” Plaskoff said. “If we’ve done our jobs right, the (completed) project is going to be on budget with the estimate.” Plaskoff’s software, internally called RMS, or sales Rep Management System, compiles customers’ choices about counters, mirrors, cabinets, hardware, tile and paint with the time and labor the software figures is needed to do the job. The program then calculates a complete cost and time-line estimate. The software forecasts installations, plumbing and other factors by pulling from a custom-built proprietary database of the company’s 2,500 past projects. The result, Plaskoff said, are projects finished on time and at a cost within 1 percent to 2 percent of the estimate – barring extreme situations or significant client-based changes. In keeping with the company’s name, it promises to complete a typical remodel job within a week from the time construction starts. “Ninety percent of the time we get to the end and the client says, ‘That’s what you told me on the phone.’ And 10 percent say, ‘It’s more than we talked about,’” he said. Changing perceptions Plaskoff and One Week Bath are in an industry with an image problem. More than a third of homeowners would rather move than remodel, according to a national survey, and even the National Association of the Remodeling Industry acknowledges remodeling has a “persistent, negative perception.” To reverse that, Plaskoff said he has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and the lifespan of his business to design its software with an outside developer. The first step in One Week Bath’s process is a phone discussion between a perspective customer and a sales person or designer. Together, they form a plan from photos of an existing bathroom, the client’s vision, any needed construction or plumbing as well as ideas for materials, finishes and lighting. The proposal is inputted into the software, which estimates labor, time and cost for the total project. If the owner agrees to the project based on the estimate, the designer comes to the home to discuss details and place product orders. The software’s newest version is Internet-based and offers numerous choices, Plaskoff said, in addition to providing an immediate alert if chosen items put the project over budget. “It’s a collaborative process in terms of selections and we’re able to educate the client as it’s happening,” he said. “So it’s not typically a surprise.” The software also includes pulldown menus that designers use for product and model names and numbers. That avoids mistakes that often occur when orders are done on paper, he said. Wrong products increase project time, costs and customer agony, and the software helps what Plaskoff refers to as the sale-to-production handoff. “The sales-to-production handoff is (typically) challenged and this makes it more seamless,” Plaskoff said. One Week Bath debuted the newest version of the software over the past year after six months of development. Customers now receive more detailed breakdowns, and product orders are immediately sent to purchasing, accounting and receiving, making the process faster. That efficiency helped convince Karen and Jim Bading to hire One Week Bath to remodel a bathroom in their South Pasadena home. “I was really dreading it,” Karen Bading said. For a kitchen and bath remodel about eight years ago, she spent days driving to different stores and searching online for vanities, sinks, cabinet hardware and light fixtures. This time, the designer used the software to show her options. “I told him what I wanted and he went online and found the tub I needed,” Bading said. “And I was able to do it at my kitchen table with a cup of coffee in my hand.” She said One Week Bath’s estimate came in within 1 percent of what her budget was for the project. Construction is expected to start this spring. Revenue forecasts One Week Bath’s software not only helps predict costs and schedules for individual jobs, it also helps stabilize the business, Plaskoff said. By predicting material and labor costs, the company can forecast revenue and earnings months ahead of time. Many contractors have jobs that make a lot of money and use them to offset those that lose money. “We can know in May or April what our profitability is going to look like because of the predictability of the system,” Plaskoff said. That’s a large part why One Week Bath has annual revenue between $7.5 and $8 million, Plaskoff said, while annual revenue for the typical remodeler is about $1 million. “There are very few remodelers that are a going to have the capital and the desire to create their own software to automate their business,” Plaskoff said. “None of what we do is normal.”
