Winter is often an excellent season for contractors to make plans for the coming year. Many projects are complete or are nearing completion, and hopefully, penalty clauses have been avoided. It can be a slow time for new construction projects, and as such, you can be at a loss as to what to do next. Winter, however, is the time for refurbishments for many organisations. University and residential school renovations often take place during breaks when the buildings are not in use, like the impending Christmas break.
During Christmas break, universities often look to get their halls refurbished for the New Year. This is great, as refurbishments take a significantly smaller amount of time than entirely new builds.
However, refurbishments for university living spaces often include refurbishing the bathroom – shower included. Showers can be incredibly stressful to install due to the amount of time they take and the amount of tradespeople required. They are a headache for contractors, project managers and clients alike!
However, there’s a solution which is perfect for refurbishing cramped university spaces and giving you an edge when issuing quotes. Shower pods! They are a high VFM addition to your project that can save you time compared to installing a traditional shower, and will save your client long term on maintenance/repair costs.
Traditional tile and tray showers, while being cheap to install, are incredibly costly to maintain. This is due to the amount of breakage that can occur with one. On top of that, tile and tray showers get dirty quickly and are difficult to clean.
Shower pods, on the other hand, are easy to clean and arrive in a few parts, making it easy to manoeuvre it through small university hallways during renovations. Another thing that is incredibly useful about shower pods is that they are virtually leak-proof. Leaks can be the leading cause of complaints after building work is completed, nobody wants to deal with a leaky shower.
However, shower pods are also a fairly low-cost solution. What makes them better? They require almost no maintenance or servicing and are easy to clean. On top of this, shower pods are incredibly durable and can be designed to fit anywhere where a shower could be required. Shower pods also need no grout or mastic, which is a significant relief if you have ever had to deal with showers that use those materials. By quoting for shower pods you offer your clients a faster completion time and valuable savings on maintenance going forward.
When installing a new shower for a residential complex, clients often look for the most affordable options, not caring about the running or maintenance costs. This is partly due to wanting to pitch cheap ideas to clients and being afraid to lose them if they do not pitch the most inexpensive approach. However, as I have stated before, traditional showers are prone to breakdowns. The constant cleaning that these types of showers require to maintain their appearance and cleanliness adds up, along with tile and seal replacements. Once leaks start appearing regularly, it may cost a university estate less to refresh their complete shower stock than it does to keep fixing their old assets. A regular refresh is still a big cost – something that can be avoided through the increased life cycle of a shower pod.
In truth, the tile and tray approach is not cheaper for clients. The money in the estate budget to maintain showers could be spent on more important things if the showers did not require constant maintenance and cleaning. This gives you a good USP to offer when estate managers are choosing between two or more contractors for their project.
If you would like to learn more about our shower pods, please feel free to give us a call on 01483 532020. We also have a downloadable eBook called The Shower Pods Guide, which provides all you need to know about working with shower pods from a building contractor’s perspective. The eBook is free and can be downloaded here.