Who’s Who: Award-winning Chermak Construction of Edmonds

Published 5:12 pm Tuesday, August 3, 2010

EDMONDS — Chermak Construction in Edmonds is gearing up for a 30th anniversary celebration this month. But the company that specializes in remodels has had many other things to celebrate over the last several years.

Chermak is an eight-time winner of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties’ Remodeling Excellence award. The company is a six-time winner of the Building Industry Association of Washington’s Excellence in Remodeling award.

Seattle Business magazine chose Chermak as one of the 100 Best Places to Work last year. The company was also a finalist for the Puget Sound Business Journal’s Best Workplaces in Washington award two years in a row.

Qualified Remodeler magazine named Chermak to its Top 500 Remodelers in the Country list two years in a row. The company ranked at 137 and 112 in the nation respectively. Chermak was also featured as the publication’s Remodeler of the Month in July 2008.

Chemak also made the Top 50 in the Pacific Northwest list from Northwest Home magazine two years in a row.

These are just a few of the honors that Chermak Construction has gathered recently. And this was done while the country was in a period of recession.

Company president Howard Chermak believes many elements have made his firm stand out in the industry. Foremost is a willingness to take on projects of all sizes — from handyman work to full remodels.

“The tendency in our industry is to niche or to go into a particular type of remodeling,” Chermak said. “You tell us what it is you would like to do and we would like to provide that service at a reasonable cost.”

“We’ll screw in a light bulb or we’ll do a two million dollar project,” said his wife and company administrator Judy Chermak.

Something else that Chermak strongly believes in is using a lead carpenter system in which one particular carpenter is assigned to a project from start to finish. Added to this, the same person in the office is also assigned to a project from start to completion.

This tandem system offers increased communication and greater continuity for both clients and the company. Customers know who to speak with and can feel confident that their project is being properly monitored from start to finish.

The Chermaks also believe that confidence is inspired by the standard of employees at Chermak Construction.

“We have gentleman carpenters,” said Judy Chermak. “It’s just a stellar group of guys in the field. I tell them they have to be part psychologist too.”

Because having part of a home torn up is often upsetting, the Chermaks want clients to have full confidence in their workers. Courtesy and understanding are vital to trust and satisfaction.

High standards from employees and subcontractors are one of the reasons that Howard Chermak prefers to keep most of his jobs in Snohomish and King counties. He’s able to cherry pick his subcontractors from a pool of individuals he knows well.

“We know the subcontractors that are better directed towards remodeling because it is a very different business model from new-house construction,” he said.

In new-home construction, subcontractors usually work alone at a home site and don’t often meet the people who buy the home. With remodel work, the subcontractors work within the client’s home. They interact with them every day.

How subcontractors relate to the client can affect the perceived outcome of a job. For this reason, the Chermaks chose to join Drug Free Business, a nonprofit that helps businesses maintain a drug-free workplace.

“It allows for random testing and a path to follow if anything is out of order,” Howard Chermak said.

Another tool used by Chermak Construction to ensure every project is successful is something they refer to as a “brain trust.” These are large meetings featuring all employees.

Each project is highlighted and put under the scrutiny of a collection of staff people, all with different backgrounds and areas of expertise. In this way, problems can be identified before they occur and customer satisfaction is assured.

“The collaboration adds elements of sophistication to a project,” Chermak said. “When we have an architect who designs a project and we put a team together to make that vision come true, that’s when the award happens. It’s not just one person, it’s a whole team.”

As much as Howard Chermak would like to give all the credit to his team, his wife believes that he has a quality that is vital to the award winning firm.

“I believe that the reason this company is successful is because Howard has a huge heart and is extremely fair,” she said. “He understands win-win. There has never been a win-lose with Howard.”

Howard Chermak shrugged off the compliment. As far as he’s concerned, fairness either to customers or employees is simply how a business should be run.

Chermak Construction’s anniversary celebration, entitled Honoring the Past and Committing to the Future, is scheduled for Sept. 24 and will feature an Edmonds Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting.

On the Web

More information can be found at www.chermak.com.