Minneapolis, Minnesota – January 10th, 2012 -Castle Building & Remodeling is proud to announce that it is celebrating its 35th anniversary in the business of residential remodeling. Owner, Mr. Loren Schirber says “As the second generation of my family to own and manage Castle, I am extremely proud to see the company reach its 35th birthday. The residential remodeling business is a tough industry that faces lots of competition and low barriers to entry. With failure rates for small businesses at about 50% in the first five years, I am extremely proud of our team and that we have continued to persevere and grow profitably over the five years that I have owned Castle”.
Last year Castle completed 39 design projects and completed 179 remodeling projects including: Kitchen Makeover: 4, Kitchen Remodel: 18, Baths: 32, Basement: 7, Cabinets: 3, Attics: 7, Exterior Renovations: 21, Addition Shell: 2, Shed Dormer Addition: 2, Handyman Carpentry Projects: 28, Misc. Handyman: 32, Ice Dams: 5, Flooring: 11, Porch / Deck: 4, and Landscaping/Fence: 3.
Castle Building & Remodeling has been awarded the prestigious 2011 Angie’s List Super Service Award, an honor bestowed annually on approximately 5 percent of all the businesses rated on the nation’s leading provider of consumer reviews on local service and health providers. Castle was honored in two categories including: Interior Design & Decorating, Remodeling – Kitchen & Bathroom.
Noah Martin Castle Building & Remodeling’s Production Manager says “We are extremely proud to accept this award. At Castle we take pride in being the best value in professional remodeling. We work hard to deliver top design artistry and craftsmanship and take care to plan projects in advance so we can guarantee a better experience than our competitors. Receiving this recognition reinforces that Castle’s processes and procedures are working and do set us apart from the competition”.
“Only a fraction of the businesses rated on Angie’s List can claim the sterling service record of being a Super Service Award winner because we set a high bar,” said Angie’s List Founder Angie Hicks.
“The fact that Castle Building & Remodeling can claim Super Service Award status speaks volumes about its dedication to consumers.”
Angie’s List Super Service Award winners have met strict eligibility requirements including earning a minimum number of reports, an exemplary rating from their clients and abiding by Angie’s List
operational guidelines. Ratings are updated daily on Angie’s List, but members can find the 2011 Super Service Award logo next to business names in search results on AngiesList.com.
At Castle we know the kids really run most households. We are no strangers to working with growing families and seem to be consistently working with two or three couples who are expecting, just had a child, or are adopting and could get the call any day. Exciting times and expanding households lead to remodeling and that is why Castle created “Ruler of the Castle!” onsies in 0-3 month and 6-12 month sizes.
We also know that many young families own homes with little equity, yet still need to add space and remodel and that is why Castle offers many financing partnerships. Many growing families have utilized a FHA backed 203k loan that looks at the future value of a home after proposed improvements and lets you borrow against that value.
As your family grows and you get a new ruler of the castle and need more space give us a call.
All right all you jive turkeys we have a contest for you to put a caption with photo below. The winner will be featured in our Thanksgiving E-Newsletter and will win a Thanksigiving turkey (actually a $50 gift card to Cub Foods). The entry deadline is November 11th. All submissions should be emailed to info@castlebri.com along with a name and phone number.
Maximum of two entries per contestant. Once you submit your entry, it is considered final, and in most cases will be posted as is. We will not edit for typos, grammar or spelling mistakes. We will not save you and we are not your 5th grade teacher. We encourage poking fun in good taste, or at least in decent taste, but captions that are racist, vulgar, extremely crude, or otherwise offensive will not be tolerated. Please refrain from making fun of someone’s ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. Have fun!
Mayor Coleman & Ward Council Members,
I am a business owner in St. Paul and we are being forced to lay off our workers and leave our clients without working bathrooms while we wait for electrical inspections. We are running into major delays with scheduling electrical inspections in St. Paul and this is causing our projects to screech to a stop while we wait two plus weeks for electric inspections. Last Wednesday after several days of calling, our electrician finally reached some one and was able to schedule several inspections for September 9th. Electrical inspections are booked out about 2.5-3 weeks and building inspections are booked out over a week currently and this time frame is very difficult to work with especially on small projects like bathroom remodeling projects. On small projects we only have one work of week before needing our first building and electrical inspections. Every other municipality can normally schedule inspections with 24-48 hours advanced notice.
As one the largest design/build remodelers in the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and currently are in the process of remodeling approximately 10 homes in St. Paul and have quite a few more in the design process that are scheduled to start building soon. Because of these delays on several projects we are going to be forced to lay off our workers and send them home until the 9th and will miss our guaranteed completion dates which will cost Castle $40 per day per project. Some of our clients only have one bathroom and depend on Castle to quickly remodel their bathrooms so their life can get back to normal.
Please help. I would strongly encourage hiring more electrical inspectors, authorizing overtime, reallocating inspectors, or hiring outside support from the state temporarily to help alleviate the backlog of inspections scheduled. Alternatively in the past we have been allowed to take photographs of our work and email it to inspectors for approval. Minneapolis charges twice as much for permits and I would gladly pay more for a permit if we could get better quicker service. The remodeling market is regaining strength and we need your support to help us continue to perform efficiently and gain momentum.
PS – I would like to do what I can to help and would consider joining the Business Advisory Committee if I am eligible.
Loren Schirber
Owner/Business Manager
362 Snelling Ave. S
St. Paul, MN 55105
Castle Team Members Mark Benzell, Troy Sinykin, and owner Loren Schirber will be volunteering at the Minnesota GreenStar booth in the Eco Experience. If you are at the fair we encourage you to check out the Eco Experience find out more about MN GreenStar certification for your remodeling project and say hi. Team Member Mark Benzell recently finishedCastle’s second MN GreenStar certified remodeling project.
One of our missions at Castle Building & Remodeling is to help educate the public about remodeling. One area of the remodeling industry that is particularly murky and tough to navigate is typical project costs. Almost daily we receive a call that starts with “We are really early in the process and don’t want to waste your time but we are trying to figure out about how much it will cost if we do ……. to our home”. Castle Building & Remodeling is proud to roll out a new Project Costs section on our website, designed to answer this question for about 50 of our most common projects. Each project type has a page that looks like this and is linked to a PDF with a breakdown on project costs by category of work.
We have also added a page about Financing options Castle offers and a link to resources that provide low interest loans, rebates, and other incentives to remodel. Interestingly we are seeing a pronounced shift in attitudes away from financing and are seeing a return to the desire to pay cash for home improvements or repairs. We are still seeing clients who want to do things right and that will last (which can cost more), and then sometimes we are seeing them utilize a credit card to help stretch their budget (or maybe it is just the rewards points they are after).
Whether you need more info on project costs or financing options offered, please give us a call at 612-789-8509 in Minneapolis or 651-699-4164 in St. Paul.
Castle’s owner, Loren Schirber had an interesting conversation recently with Kurt Nowacki of Rock Solid Companies, when Kurt approached him about co-sponsoring the 5th Annual All Northeast Community School BBQ.
It was great to hear how Northeast schools, businesses and organizations like PEN and the Edison Community & Sports Foundation are working together on the BBQ. This Community BBQ will be held at Thomas Edison High School from 3pm to 8pm on August 25th, making it an easy dinner plan since its Open House night! Everyone is invited!
Castle’s philosophy is that without good schools in our communities, families leave the area preventing continued community growth in local businesses and other aspects of the community. Our schools are a very important part of our community and Castle Building & Remodeling is proud to be a sponsor of the event!
Mark your calendars…we’ll see you on August 25th!
Please click on the button above and nominate Castle to win a $50,000 hiring grant from Intuit (Quickbooks). Let the world know why you love us and why you appreciate businesses that are truly a part of your community. This could also help us win a $25,000 or $50,000 hiring grant!
