We love partnering with healthcare providers—the industry is truly one of the great shining spots in our work. 

We value all of our clients, but one of our favorites has turned out to be Dr. Jeff Leech, who serves his dental patients in Murfreesboro. 

I remember when Dr. Leech’s father-in-law, Dr. David Sain, an orthodontist in Murfreesboro, told me  Jeff was  graduating from dental school soon and planning to open his practice in Murfreesboro.  Jeff had been eyeing a location at the corner of Memorial and Haynes Drive for a couple of years and felt it would be perfect for his new practice. 

It was so refreshing when I first talked with Jeff Leech and heard him say:   “Dow, If you need help with your teeth, I’m ready, but when it comes to renovating my office space I really don’t know what to do and when to do it so please be patient with me.”

I told him that is perfectly all right and that I was glad to walk alongside him and assist him in any way to get his office renovated.”  All he had to do was make his equipment vendor selection, and we took it from there, quickly and accurately providing the pricing he needed. 

Jeff and his wife, Jessica, really had their act together. They have high standards, and they want their patients to feel like they’re at home. The result is the finishes in their office are current, relevant, warm and functional.  After we finalized the finish schedule and color selections, the office went from good to great. Dr. Leech’s office is one of the best-looking interior projects we’ve completed.  Check them out at leechfamilydentistry.com.

If you have a rough idea about how you want your renovation/addition or new building to look and perform, but you need a little help to get your vision to reality, that’s where we shine.  We have built many healthcare offices over the past 20 years, and we understand the unique equipment, patient, back office function and aesthetic issues thoroughly. 

The day Bubba Woodfin and Jerry Lowry decided to use Dow Smith Contracting turned out to be a good day all the way around. 

Woodfin’s Memorial Chapel is a place the whole community likely visits and unfortunately, sometimes uses, at least once a year. I knew that this project would be a showcase of our work for generations.

I felt genuinely bad about the circumstances that created the need for Bubba and Jerry to call me. Their building burned down. It was a complete loss. They had planned on relocating, and this tragic event forced them to speed the move.

And, they were in a hurry! Bubba and Jerry are always serious in meeting the needs of their clients, and it was a real challenge for them—and their clients—when the main headquarters is literally a heap of ashes.

We jumped right in.  We helped the architect finish the plans.  We got the project permitted.

Bubba has high standards. He wants his buildings to reflect quality and care. And, Bubba wants a fair deal. Working with us, he got them both. The project was a success,  so much so that today Bubba calls us when he has any type of maintenance, repair or renovation. 

In fact, we recently completed the remodel and renovation of his Smyrna location.

We are always looking for new projects, but we never like getting those new projects when it means our past clients need our services because of bad circumstances.

Such was the case at Rush Truck Center, the Peterbilt dealership in Smyrna.

They were the victims of a severe windstorm that peeled up a portion of their roof.  Rush thought of us first since we had performed their renovations when they relocated here in 2006.

We immediately responded and got the building under cover so they could continue to operate and serve their customers.

Then the not-so-fun part, figuring out how much it would cost to repair the damage and then presenting it to their insurance company to pay for the expenses.

Dealing with insurance adjustors on large claims is one of the skills and gifts we have developed in our 20 years of business. Joey Rhyne very efficiently and accurately calculated the cost and spent several meetings and discussions with the insurance claims adjustor. Because Joey took care of this task for our cient, Rush Truck Center manager Sandra Wood was able to keep her attention and focus on her job responsibilities.

The work was completed in a very timely manner, and we have another satisfied repeat customer. We are not ambulance chasers, but we’re there to help you if your commercial building is damaged due to wind, fire or flood.

On the other hand, here’s another story, the story of someone who chose to trust Dow Smith Contracting Company early in the process. Silver Springs Missionary Baptist Church knew they needed more space, and their master plan called for an addition on the west side of their building.

After the completion of preliminary drawings, we informed them the project would cost approximately  $425,000. One of our competitors (to protect the guilty, we will call him Low Bid Construction Company) told them he could build what they wanted for around $300,000. At first, the church at first thought they had found a “great deal”!

However, there were a couple of individuals who instinctively realized the deal was “too good to be true.” After further examination of the estimate, Low Bid Construction Company did not include the proper amount of fire sprinkler systems and fire walls.

When the building committee calculated the cost of these components, the Low Bid Construction Company’s cost was about the same as Dow Smith Contracting Company’s cost. Once the plans were complete, the total construction cost of this project was $400,000—$25,000 less than what we initially told the church.  We agreed to build the church for $400,000. 

This is a rare case where the building committee was able to catch and reconcile two building estimates from two different contractors.

The learning is this: 

• You get what you pay for.
• There are no free lunches, just like we’ve always been told. 
• If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
• When you count the cost, be sure to count the true cost. 
• People don’t like surprises, especially surprises that cost them more money.  That’s why we work hard to accurately bid the project from the beginning. 

If you’re planning a new building, addition or renovation, and would like to discuss the proper way to plan, design & build your project, let’s talk.   

In our 20 years in business, we’ve learned this is a dangerous, no-win question, even though at first glance, it seems like a harmless, natural one. 

I’ve heard it said that sometimes you can know too much for your own good, and sadly, this has sometimes been the case when we give preliminary budget numbers to prospective clients. We’ve learned through experience and using good systems to produce real-world budgets, but many of our competitors have not.

In a recent water cooler discussion in our office, we came up with a long list of missed opportunities where we lost the project because the client thought he could get a “better deal” from someone else who had provided a lower estimate.

And the validation usually comes much later when many of those projects actually came in very close to the number we had given the prospect.   Also noteworthy is that these other contractors completed the project several weeks late. The quality of the work was questionable. And, the owner experienced painful conflict over numerous change orders. In fact, all too often, the total cost of the change orders made the total cost of the project right at what we told the client it would cost from the beginning. Throw in the stress, the shock of an ever-growing larger number, additional gray hair, and the cost of the time delay and you just have to ask:  did they really get a good deal?

The discussion calls to mind the following well-known Scripture:   Luke 14:28:  Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?