Category: Painting Tips

9/17/2019

The Best Apartment and Condo Interior Contractors in Dallas, Texas

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ACP Renovation was named THE BEST APARTMENT AND CONDO INTERIOR CONTRACTORS IN DALLAS, TEXAS by General Contractors Magazine. GC Magazine has simple goal:

"Our goal is to identify and celebrate the best general contractors in America. The evaluation methodology takes a range of criteria into consideration, which are weighted differently for different project types. Some common and important criteria include history of work, customer satisfaction, awards and recognition, background of the principals, quality of work and clientele."

Dallas offers residents and newcomers a lot of fun and exciting things to do. Not only is the job market brisk, but the city also has a great variety of academic options. As the cost of living in the city goes up, renting an apartment is a smart way to reduce expenses. Apartment living may seem easy, but over time, these spaces need remodeling to keep them functional and pleasant.
When you look at the Dallas market, there are a number of firms offering similar services. Finding and hiring the perfect contractor for your apartment needs may be a little confusing and time-consuming. To make it easier for you, our team has listed the top four apartment and condo interior contractors in the city. Each of the builders below was chosen based on a number of criteria. These include work history, style diversity, client satisfaction, and recognition from prestigious industry associations. Whether you need a new look or a general upgrade, there’s a contractor on this list that will help you.

ACP Renovation
Website | 972-241-2213 | 7750 N MacArthur Blvd. Suites #120-317, Irving, TX 75063

ACP Renovation opened its doors in 1978 as a new construction painting firm. Soon, it expanded its services to drywall, framing, and full exterior and interior rehabilitation projects. ACP’s portfolio boasts of a number of projects including highrise, mid-rise, and garden-style apartments.

As a leading builder and remodeler of multifamily homes, ACP is an affiliate of associations like the National Apartment Association, the Texas Apartment Association, and the Apartment Association of Greater Dallas. The National Association of Home Builders awarded the 2019 Multifamily Pillars of the Industry Award to ACP Renovation’s One Uptown as the Best High-rise apartment community.

Be sure to check out the full article The Best Apartment and Condo Interior Contractors in Dallas, Texas. GC Magazine is filled with the best of the best across the USA.

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3/1/2019

Why your painter is not your wallpaper installation solution.

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Back when wallpaper was all the rage someone had the ingenious idea of having painters installed wallpaper. This was done for efficiency more than quality. On a construction jobsite, the fewer different subcontractors you have the better. It’s not just about scheduling all these different subcontractors working in the same areas. There’s also an immense amount of backend work is involved with having a subcontractor on the jobsite. Every subcontractor on a jobsite has to be qualified to do their scope of work, bid the project, provide current Insurance certificates on file with the general contractor, submit payroll reports for HUD if required, attend weekly on-site job meetings, and schedule proper manpower to complete the work within the allotted time frame. It’s easy to see why general contractors would want fewer subcontractors on a project instead of more.

Typical wallpaper boarder used in many apartment leasing office in the 1990's.

When wallpaper was being installed in multifamily apartments in the early days, it was generally limited to small areas such as the bathroom furr down and boarders shitwith inexpensive paper. If the installation wasn’t exactly perfect, it really wasn’t that much concern because it was such a small area. Also, because of the low-cost wallpaper was being used it was cost-effective to remove incorrectly installed wallpaper and then reinstall it. Even when wallpaper was installed in large areas such as clubhouses and leasing offices it still was very affordable wallpaper. Before wallpaper fell out of fashion in the late 1990s a high dollar role of wallpaper was no more than $50 per roll. The paper that was being installed in the multifamily industry during this time was $5-$10 per roll and installation was $10-$15 per role. Wallpaper was extremely affordable. More importantly, wallpaper was a very affordable solution to faux finished walls that were popular during the late 80s and early 90s.

However, with all great ideas there are downsides to consider. The maintenance factor of wallpaper is something to be considered for the long-term profitability of a property. Wallpaper prints fall out of fashion very quickly and the maintenance of a wallpapered wall is time-consuming as well as costly.

First the fashion factor. When using wallpaper in large areas such as clubhouses, leasing offices and amenity areas the current look quickly became dated. The more elaborate the pattern quicker it fell out of fashion as well as rapidly changing color schemes in interior design. When a prospective tenant visits the property the very first space they see is the leasing office. If the leasing office appears out of date by a few years it ages the property in the prospective tenant size considerably.

Wallpaper used in kitchen as backsplash in apartment 1990's.

The use of wallpaper in small areas such as bathrooms had its challenges as well. Because of the moisture in bathrooms from showering and bathing the wallpaper will peel off the walls in relatively short time. Wallpaper installed in kitchen areas was damaged from cooking fumes that would cause it to appear or oily or discolored. Of course, you could just re-wallpaper these areas continuously, but this would require having a wallpaper installer come through install new wallpaper, but it wouldn’t prevent the same issues in the future over and over again. When reinstalling wallpaper you have to consider is the paper still available to purchase and for larger areas with only a small repair there’s a match factor with the dye lot.

To have units continually re-wallpapered during the make ready processed adds considerable turn time of the unit between tenant moved out a new tenant move-in. There is a very big difference in cost and time when doing make ready for the apartment units between wallpaper repair and paint repair. All apartment complexes have a paint account with a vendor to supply them there make ready paint on a continual basis with a simple phone call. Because of all the areas that are not wallpapered such as living rooms, bedrooms, closets, hallways, garages there is a significant amount of an apartment unit that actually has tape, bed, texture, and painted. The maintenance or make ready team already does drywall, tape, bed, texture and paint repairs in units. However, most maintenance or make ready teams do not install wallpaper. And unlike paint which is mixed specifically to match the current wall color, wallpaper in a particular pattern is only produced for a limited amount of time. Simply put you can always get the wall color paint remixed but you can always buy that wallpaper again.

3D Sparkly Glitter Fabric Wallpaper 2019

Wallpaper has changed greatly in the last 10 years. It’s no longer about vinyl or paper being applied to a wall to get a pretty picture in a floral print or even to simulate a faux finish stonewall. Wallpaper today is about adding texture and dimension to spaces. Wallpaper today is grass mat, actual cloth material such as denim and leather. Some extremely expensive wallpapers will have an elaborate embellishment such as goldleaf, crystals, rhinestones, metal studs and photographic murals. The most expensive wallpapers are custom ordered with the actual materials being matched two other items used during the design process such as fabrics for seating areas, paint colors or even rugs or carpet. These types of papers are used in the amenity areas, leasing offices, clubhouse areas, elevator lobbies and in rare cases corridors. Special order wallpaper generally has a lead-time of at least six weeks up to six months depending on the materials used and where is being manufactured in the world. A single run custom order papers depending on the material used can cost upwards of $1000 per roll.

Due to the vast amount of materials that are utilized to produce wallpaper today proper installation techniques are imperative. Most professional wallpaper installers today attend numerous workshops and training seminars hosted by the wallpaper manufacturers on proper installation techniques pertaining to their specialty wallpapers. Incorrect installation techniques have the potential to damage wallpaper. Most manufacturers require the service wall to be prepped prior to any wallpaper installation. Also utilizing the correct adhesive for specialty wallpapers, it Is extremely important. Installation of wallpaper without the appropriate adhesive for that particular wallpaper can cause the paper to peel off the wall or worse bleed through and discolored the wallpaper.

Due to the nature of new construction and the construction schedules it is imperative to have a qualified properly and trained wallpaper installation team. A professional wallpaper installation team will already have accounts set up with local wallpaper suppliers to ensure you the best possible price on the wallpaper. Professionally trained wallpaper installers are not only able to install wallpaper quickly but correctly the first time. This is important with lead-times on wallpapers at least six weeks and re-ordering wallpaper for incorrect installations is not an option when dealing with the new construction schedule. I have personally seen wallpaper installation delay a project by three months waiting forward re-ordered paper to arrive on site.

Of course, wallpaper today still faces the all same challenges as previously pointed out. Availability and maintenance going forward should be considered on every new construction project before the extensive cost of wallpaper is incurred new construction. On a recent project that ACP Renovation provided the tape, bed, texture, and paint the design team requested that the corridors to the apartment units be wallpaper. The corridors on this particular project measured 14,000 square feet on the floor space across 18 floors of apartments. The wallpaper that was chosen by the design team for this relatively small area was a high dollar custom run wallcovering. The cost of this wallcovering was $285,000 without installation. Installing wallpaper in apartment corridors is not a feasible solution for ongoing maintenance. First, with the corridors being such a small and narrow space there really is no grand affect that can be achieved with wallpaper. Secondly, the damage inflicted on wallpaper corridors in a multifamily apartments building is never ending. Unlike condominium buildings where owners take pride in an ownership of the building; rental spaces are treated differently by tenants. Ownership of a condominium has long term occupancy versus that of an apartment rental which could turn over every six months. Moving large items such as furniture in and out of apartments in the confined spaces of corridors leads to excessive damage to the corridor walls. With wallpaper there is no way to go back and touch up damage that has been sustained during tenants moving in and out. The cost to paint these same corridors during construction was less than $35,000 and that included both the material of the paint and the labor. The hard cost savings during construction on material and installation to the project owner was over $500,000.

There is also the cost factor of third tier subcontracting to be considered. A general contractor only benefits from subcontracting the wallpaper installation directly to a professional wallpaper installer. When you have your painter is installing your wallpaper we are hiring a professional wallpaper installation company as the third tier sub to provide this service to us and therefore to you. Simply put we markup somebody else’s work 30% to the general contractor.

Painters are painters. Just like the advancements that have been discussed with wallpaper the advancements in paint is even greater. Paint suppliers have increasing their portfolio of products in recent years. Painters are now responsible for not just painting drywall but also installation intumescent fire coating systems, sealing concrete surfaces, staining wood work both indoor and outdoor and specialty coatings for decorative metals utilized on buildings today. It’s just not feasible to have a skilled trade worker be trained properly in both paint coatings and wallpaper installation along with all of the required safety training by OSHA. It’s easy to see how a painter can spend more time in classroom environments than actually working on a job site.

In closing, the specification book that construction projects are based off of was designed by collective group of people over the years to make the building process more efficient. For general contractors and developers to try to combined trades under a single subcontractor tends to lead to issues more often than it does solutions.

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The Best Apartment and Condo Interior Contractors in Dallas, Texas

Why your painter is not your wallpaper installation solution.

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