The difference between more traditional building and the newer, design-build method saves homeowners time, money and stress. The biggest difference is how the building or remodeling team is structured. With jobs taking months or often more than a year, it’s really important to focus on building a strong partnership at the outset.
Missing Door Openings
We’d all like to live in a perfect world but we’re human and that means mistakes happen. The construction industry has its mistakes so if you don’t hold it against me, let me share a story.
We’d all like to live in a perfect world but we’re human and that means mistakes happen. The construction industry has its mistakes so if you don’t hold it against me, let me share a story.
The foundation without door openings could have been avoided with a design-build company, if the design work involved the architect and the builder. Following a traditional design process, the architect drew up the blueprints and the homeowner gave them to the builder. Only after the foundation was poured, did the homeowner question where the doors (3 planned) were and oops, only the garage door was on the blueprint.
Delay while architect produced new drawings showing the doorways.
Waiting for the concrete company to cut away the door openings
Someone had to pay for the concrete work, approximately $800.
Someone had to pay for the concrete work, approximately $800.
… and don’t you think there was a bit of stress for everyone involved?
This story helps explain the difference between more traditional building and the newer, design-build method which saves homeowners time, money and stress. The biggest difference is how the building or remodeling team is structured. With jobs taking months or often more than a year, it’s really important to focus on building a strong partnership at the outset.
Homeowners collect ideas in a notebook, or now you can use Pinterest.
Homeowners buy a set of house plans or … find an architect to draw up their plans. Having done both, experience says there are benefits and drawbacks to each approach but that’s for another story.
Homeowners buy a set of house plans or … find an architect to draw up their plans. Having done both, experience says there are benefits and drawbacks to each approach but that’s for another story. Homeowners get bids from several builders or re-modelers. This is when you learn working with an architect is worth their fees, as they know which builders deliver on their promise!
Homeowners pick their re-modeler and then the fun begins. The homeowner gets to act as the middleman between the architect (design) and builder who knows (and their bid assumed) how to build and where to cut costs. Often the homeowner is clueless and when you realize something is not according to your blueprints, you have to decide if you want to spend the time to negotiate a compromise … which increases time, cost and stress.
Design-Build Starts with ONE Team!
With the design-build process, the architect and the builder work for the same company. Your building project starts with planning meetings that include you, the homeowner, the person designing your home and the person building your house. You are a team from the beginning, with everyone learning together what priorities are important to preserve as the design comes together within the homeowners budget – the company assigns one person as the project owner, relieving the homeowner of this pressure.
So what happens differently with design-build?
A cost-effective design gets created faster with collaboration among the team members.
Construction moves faster with fewer questions and problems to slow things down.
The timelines illustrate how one team working together from the start, gets the project done faster. When everyone works on the design together, quality improves and there are fewer change orders, so overall project costs are lower. There’s one person responsible managing all problems and concerns and it’s not the homeowner! This includes building permits or inspections, pre-ordering materials with long lead times, scheduling specialty sub-contractors, job site issues, change orders, etc. All of this adds up to substantial savings for the homeowner.
Tina Gleisner, founder of the Association of Women Home Owners connects homeowners with concepts, terminology and advice to build homes that support today’s lifestyles through the library and directory at http://www.HomeTips4Women.com,you can LEARN more about how to maintain and repair your home and more.
