We believe in Relationships, Transparency, and Fairness, and structure our services around these core values. Good planning is the cornerstone of a successful project, therefore we offer preconstruction services during the design phase. Participation of the general contractor during the design phase develops the history and trust necessary for a good working relationship between the designer, owner, and builder.
DESIGN PHASE
We can help you to find an architect or designer to develop your construction plans. At that time, we can be hired on a preconstruction services contract to provide our advice related to constructability, cost, and finish selections. Although a real estimate is not possible to create without detailed plans and finish specifications, we can provide a conceptual estimate at the initial design phase to develop an order of magnitude cost.
The final deliverable in the preconstruction phase is a budget based on bids and material prices, plus detailed specifications for the finishes and materials that go into the project. We can help you to come up with the specifications or you can hire an interior designer to make finish selections.
The traditional method of contracting is to have no input from the general contractor during design and to hand over plans to a contractor for a free bid when the plans are ready to submit for a building permit. The contractor provides a bid that contains a number of allowances that serve as placeholders until finish specifications have been established. Note that such a “bid” is only as good as the drawings and specifications that have been provided. Any change to the drawings and specifications result in a change to the bid price.
Our preconstruction services process results in a construction budget founded in a scope of work that represents the actual project, as opposed to a number of allowances that are fleshed out during the construction phase. The budget forms the basis of our construction agreement. Establishing finish specifications during the budgeting process reduces changes during construction and provides a more accurate initial budget. We are also happy to create a free budget for you based on the specifications available in your plans.
CONSTRUCTION PHASE
We prefer a time and materials contract because we feel that this best reflects our values of transparency and fairness. We keep our fee low because we explicitly charge for our time to supervise and manage the project. This results in lower costs for projects that require less supervision and management time. The extremely detailed budget creates the foundation of an invoicing document that provides a biweekly budget update, as well as a cost to complete the project. This investment in management reduces surprises and helps everyone on the team to understand the budget status.
Our jobsite management is equally detailed, transforming the plans and specifications into a high quality project. Because we work on a time and materials basis, we keep in close touch with the homeowner regarding any changes that affect the cost or schedule. We do our best to beat both schedule and budget, although these are both subject to adverse impacts due to unforeseen conditions and changes. The homeowner can facilitate our budget and schedule performance by providing complete drawings and specifications before the project starts. The case study from which the sample budget and invoice come was completed ahead of schedule (5 months out of a 6 month schedule) and under budget (8%), in part because the homeowners were proactive with their decisions and rarely changed their minds once a decision had been made.
