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 Focus: Home Quarterly Home builders adding technology to tool boxes Ray Glier Contributing Writer Face-to-face with your new windows, they look smaller. They look out of place. You're disappointed. Then you walk to the side of your house and the siding you selected does not go with the landscaping and does not exactly match your roof color. You wish you had known these things ahead of time. After all, buying a home or deciding how to fix it up is one of the most important decisions most people will ever make. Fortunately for homeowners, better foresight -- the 20-20 kind -- is becoming available through computers. Homeowners can see exactly how windows or siding will look before they actually go on the house, or keep tabs on the construction of their new home from remote locations. The technology boom has extended well into the home construction business, both for new homes and renovations. Homeowners or home buyers can get closer to the action with software and their desktop computers. Decisions involving thousands of dollars become easier. Help for new homes Atlanta's Construction Data Control Inc. (CDCI) has created software tools for the construction industry such as Job2Date. CDCI, which has provided construction tools to 14,000 firms across the country, thinks that software such as Job2Date eventually will be as important on the job as hammers and nails. Job2Date allows new home buyers to link up with the contractor and his crew at no cost to the home buyer. The contractor pays $95 a month and can link up to five parties to the Web page online. The software will allow the home buyer to have "Net Meetings" with the builder, as well as file requests for changes, said Dan Jacobs, executive director of sales and marketing for CDCI. The software also provides links to goods and services near the neighborhood for new home buyers. Allen Goehrs, a builder in Cold Spring, Texas, has used Job2Date to build three homes for executives 90 minutes north of Houston. The lakeside homes are custom-built, and the software allows home buyers in Houston to remotely observe the progress on the home every day. A superintendent takes digital photographs each day and loads to the Web site, where homeowners can view them. Job2Date helped remedy one problem that could have become a nasty issue in Goehrs' project. Using the architect's drawings, carpenters had starting framing for large windows facing the lake on the first and second floor. Builders found that the windows on the first floor did not line up exactly with windows on the second floor. The problem was discovered on a Tuesday, and instead of the homeowner driving 90 minutes to discuss the problem at that time, the homeowner viewed pictures on the Web and agreed to adjustments. "Not only didn't it hold up the job," Goehrs said, "but it saved the time and fuel it would have taken for them to drive all the way up here during the middle of the week." Goehrs also feels better for asking for "a draw" or more money from a customer because he can show them pictures at key junctures in the process, such as a finished foundation or the new roof. Jacobs said that CDCI has been asked by the National Association of Home Builders to present the Job2Date software at a Jan. 14-17 national conference. Digital siding and doors Job2Date is designed for new homes. But other technologies are being used in renovations. Alside, a siding manufacturer and distributor based in Akron, Ohio, is introducing a software called Design Master that allows customers to load a digital picture of their home into a computer and see how it would look with different colors of siding. The software also allows consumers to change windows and add trim accessories. "It helps a customer visualize what their home would look like with a particular siding or window," said Steve Jenkins, a sales rep for Alside's Atlanta office. "It's easier to see the trim accessories and how the siding might look with the particular color of your roof. It's just like trying to buy carpet. It's hard to visualize just from a swatch of carpet what the carpet might look like in a room of your house. This makes the decisions easier." Norcross' Peachtree Doors and Windows Inc. lets homeowners design entryways online. Peachtree Doors and Windows has upgraded its Web site with more self-help options for homeowners, as well as contractors. A customer logged onto Peachtree's Web site can look at a variety of transoms to see how each looks over different doors. Contractors also can check the Peachtree site for technical data on windows. Specs are easy to find, and the customer can shop along with the contractor online. If that's not digital enough, Ed Phillips, executive vice president of the Georgia Home Builders Association, said some builders offer virtual tours of homes. Prospective homeowners can "walk" into the center of the room and observe it from different angles. Home buyers also can walk out their front door and see the view directly in front of their home or to either side. Phillips also said manufacturers and suppliers are tied into a network where the consumer can virtually enter the bathroom, for instance, and check price and style of different accessories in the bathroom. "Technology is helping the builder do his job more efficiently," Phillips said. "And as far as products are concerned, there is a wealth of information available now for the consumer via the Internet." REPRINTED FROM THE ATLANTA BUSINESS CHRONICLE © 1999, American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved. |
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