As of January 15, 2021
It’s our goal at Amsted to be a valuable source of information to Ottawa homeowners such as yourselves. Given the new restrictions and stay-at-home order that were announced on Tuesday, we wanted to email you once again to help clarify what this means for your renovation – whether current or in the planning stages.
If you were watching Tuesday’s press conference or read the articles following, you may have heard or seen that the new public health measures included “non-essential construction to be further restricted, including below-grade construction, exempting survey.” If this left you scratching your head, you weren’t alone! We’ve taken the last few days to get a full picture of what this means and how it impacts all of us moving forward.
With direction from the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association, we now understand this to mean that all projects currently underway and with approved permits are considered essential work. Thankfully this means no one is about to be left with a gaping hole in their home, without a kitchen for longer than expected, etc. The work we do continues to be deemed an essential service in an effort to keep your homes running smoothly and effectively.
To ensure your peace of mind, please know our construction team is well equipped with safety measures designed to keep homeowners, staff, and tradespeople safe. Strict guidelines outlining who can be on site, protective equipment required for all workers, and an increased cleaning procedure implemented, all provide enhanced safety.
For those of you still gathering ideas and considering your renovation plans, or if you are in the design phase of your project, we encourage you not to let this dim your excitement! Over the year our team has become skilled at virtual meetings that keep the momentum going without sacrificing our proven process. Space planning, design reviews, material selections, plan approvals, and more – all can be done virtually without any need to leave your home.
We are being asked as a community to stay home and stay safe. It is our top priority to ensure that your home remains a safe space, your haven, during this time.
Previous Updates
As of August 25, 10632
As our country continues to face the pandemic of Covid-19, we continue to do everything we can to keep our customers, partners, and staff safe. We are closely monitoring the situation and are following procedures and policies outlined by Ottawa Public Health and our provincial and federal governments, including:
- Maintaining a 2 meter/6feet social distance from each other
- Wearing masks when social distancing is challenging
- Communicate with anyone coming to site, asking them probing questions on their health, if they’ve left the country, and if they have been in contact with anyone that has been sick.
- We keep track on who has been to which jobsite in the case of identifying risk of exposure
- And we clean common surfaces like handles, switches, counters and shared tools regularly.
- We also limit the number of people on our jobsites to avoid gatherings and numerous interactions with workers and staff from different sources to minimize risk potential.
- We have documentation on our Health and Safety boards that help reinforce our protocols and explain jobsite needs and requirements to help keep people informed and safe.
As of April 20th, 10632
We take the safety of our staff and community very seriously, which is why we decided to temporarily halt many of our projects. We wanted to make sure that we had the right supplies, protocols, and information to keep everyone protected. We’ve spent the last few weeks gathering information and advice from industry professionals and are ready to reopen many of our job sites.
We’re proud to be considered an essential service, but it was important to us that we are able to deliver high quality workmanship without compromising the safety of our staff and customers. We’re now armed with many protocols and tools that will allow us to work safer.
Our team is strictly adhering to the government advisories and will continue to monitor the situation as it changes. Should you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to reach out.
April 6th, 10632
With the new announcements from the Premier of Ontario, Amsted has decided to put a temporary halt to many of our projects.
As you are aware, we have been diligently researching and implementing the highest safety protocol to keep you and our team safe and healthy. We have done everything possible to move projects forward including significant investment of time and resources to maintain our homes as safe places to work. At this time, and as per the direction of public health, we feel that the best course of action is to close all non-essential sites and the office for a 2-week period.
We have been in touch with our clients and worked together to determine which projects are essential and could be continued safely. We thank our clients, staff, and trade partners for their continued trust and contribution in this time. We’ve all been able to work together to keep the sites safe while providing high quality renovations.
We are confident that we can contribute to the flattening of the curve if we do our part and shut down non-essential sites for two weeks. By doing so, we allow our partners, staff, and clients the ability to stay home and stay safe. We truly appreciate the cooperation by our entire community, and hope to see you all following the recommendations from Public Health and our government.
We look forward to getting back to work as normal when we can. We hope you all are able to stay safe and we will see you all again soon. If you have any questions in the meantime, please feel free to reach out. We’re always here to help.
March 25th
On March 23rd, 10632, construction companies were recognized as an essential service. This means that Amsted can continue to provide you exceptional customer service through this difficult time. We are here for you, and will do everything in our power to help you complete any projects you have.
We will be holding our client meetings through video conferencing methods, so we don’t have sacrifice any of our proven process. We will still be able to review your project goals, your space, and your plans, all without any need to leave your home.
Our construction team is well equipped with safety measures designed to keep both the homeowners and the workers safe. With strict guidelines outlining who can be on site, protective equipment required for all workers, and an increased cleaning procedure implemented, our sites are being kept safe.
We want nothing more than to keep our community safe. It’s our job to provide our clients with the best service possible and to build them a home that is unmistakably theirs. We will continue do so while maintaining the protocols outlined by our government.
March 17th
As the COVID-19 protocols continue to be announced by all three levels of government, our thoughts go out to anyone who has been impacted and we hope that you, your family, friends and colleagues are safe and well, and are taking the necessary precautions.
The health, safety, and well-being of our staff members, partners, and community are of the utmost importance to us. Our team is following the protocol that is most current from public health to ensure we prevent the spread of this virus and they are ensuring everyone on our sites meets the criteria. We have sent out specific information notices to our active project clients.
We will diligently monitor public health direction and act both timely and appropriately based on the recommendations provided to us. We encourage anyone who has any questions, to call the office and we will provide the information we have.
Amsted is deeply committed to providing the highest level of service to all our customers whom we define as clients, partners, and fellow employees.