About Us

Bowers Construction–Who we are, what we do, and how we do it.

Who we are:  We are a family owned and run business, registered with the state of Idaho, fully insured, with a million dollar liability policy to protect our customers and workman’s compensation insurance to protect our workers.  Ted Bowers has been in the construction business since 1974 and self-employed since 1980.  His wife Gini  manages the office, schedules the jobs and is a competent carpenter’s helper.  She also helps our customers with design and color choices. 

What we do:  We have a small but talented crew with varied skill levels and can take on many types of building projects from decks and porches to additions and major remodels. We can build outbuildings from Saunas to riding arenas as well.  We also specialize in custom finish work and have a unique portable shop system we can set up right on the jobsite.  We are also interested in alternative and green building projects with sustainable, recycled and healthy materials.

How we do it: When we receive your call, we come as soon as possible to look at the project and discuss it with you.  That is when you will probably receive this letter.  Depending on the type and scope of the project we will recommend either a bid or cost-plus approach to funding it.  In our bids, we take into account not only the work to be done but also the time to design with your input,  get to the job, set up our work station(s), gather materials, install safeguards (when needed) and keep a clean and orderly workplace.  On a cost-plus (labor and materials) basis, these same factors must be accounted for.  We charge our hourly rate beginning when we leave our shop in Kootenai Bay to come to the job and ending when we leave the site at the end of the day.  Weve also found that under certain circumstances we have to charge for phone calls if they become lengthy and frequent during evenings and weekends.   Currently, unlike many contractors, we don’t charge more than the actual cost of the materials, although we do charge our hourly rate to pick-up and handle them.  This way, if you have the time and capability to make material runs yourself, you can save money.   Also, we like to maintain a presence on the job until we finish.  Our policy is to stay on a project through completion, so you can depend on us to be there on a daily basis unless bad weather or unforeseen circumstances arise to prevent us from working. 

 Our policies: 

1.  Customer relations: We like to maintain a friendly professional relationship with our customers.  Since a major portion of our work is in or around your home, we keep certain factors in mind–the privacy of your home, cleanliness, and work hours that coincide as much as possible with your schedules.  Oftentimes, large projects in and around your home can be disruptive and introduce tension into your household.  It is our aim to keep this to a minimum and we will be discussing the best way to do this with you in the beginning as well as throughout the project.  We value communication highly in both our personal and professional lives and realize it is a day to day process.

2.  Money: On all of our jobs of a reasonable scope, we require a minimum material deposit to begin work.  This of course varies with the size and length of the project.  On cost-plus jobs, we ask that we get paid on a weekly basis on Friday.  Our payroll period runs from Wednesday through Tuesday, so that we can bill out the job to you on Wed. or Thurs. and pay our crew on Friday.  On bids we will work out a payment schedule with you and include it in our contract.

3.  Safety: This is a prime concern of ours and we take it seriously, both for our sake as well as yours.  This sometimes will extend the time it takes to do an aspect of a project but also increases efficiency because it allows us to focus our total attention to the task at hand without worries for ourselves or for our customers.

4.Photo reports for out of town customers: Via internet we send job site photos of job phases to you several times a week if needed.

Thanks for taking the time to read this rather long letter.  Hopefully it will prevent misunderstandings from the outset, but please feel free to ask for clarifications and to negotiate with us any disagreements you may have.

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