Can You Save Money or Time?

Do alternative materials and procedures save time and money? I'm not sure there's an easy answer here. Most of the products I've worked with cost about the same as conventional materials – some a bit more. This may be because some of these products just haven't been on the market that long.

For products made with recycled materials, it's possible that a shortage of available recyclable materials may develop. This doesn't mean there isn't enough to be recycled, but not enough people are coming forward and doing their part to recycle. When demand for the product is high and natural resources diminish, then the price goes up. I suspect in this case it won't be the demand that will drive product costs up, but a shortage of recyclable materials. My question is, how much of a demand can we put on recyclable resources before they dry up?

Generally, after a product has been on the market a few years, demand for it increases. Also, new facilities are built to produce the products from recycled materials, and manufacturers make production more efficient. Together, those factors begin to drive the cost down.

As for saving time, it's just like any new product that comes to the market. There's a learning curve; it takes time to understand the characteristics and the feel of the product. This means (in some cases) that it'll take longer to install these products, at least for the first couple of jobs. You can probably reduce that labor time once you've had the opportunity to install the product a few times. I know when I first started using TREX decking (a product of TREX Company, LLC), it took me a while to get used to it, especially handling a board 16 feet long. Once I'd worked with it a few times and understood its characteristics, I was able to cut my labor time, in some cases by almost 50 percent. But don't count on any alternative product necessarily saving you 50 percent on your labor. You may be able to save on the job costs for the overall project, but some savings may come from labor, others from less maintenance, while others come from fewer callbacks.

It's probably too early to tell whether or not installing alternative products is cost effective, especially for products that haven't been on the market that long. Only you can make that decision on your jobs. The records you maintain could provide valuable information for the manufacturer and also serve as a selling tool for potential customers. Not only that, it will help you to understand the products better and to evaluate whether you're really helping the environment and saving money with the new materials. Set your own track record when it comes to these products!

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