construction tips

1. Have your builder involved in your project as early as possible, right from the initial concept stages. Include your builder as a part of the development team to help control overall costs as well as shorten the project time cycle. Generally an owner hires an architect who then hires other consultants. Plans are completed and sent to various builders for pricing. Most project exceed initial budgets. The owner then asks the builder to help reduce the costs. This requires extensive cost reduction analysis/evaluation/component reduction or elimination, re-bidding to the sub-contractors involved and creation of new budgets. All of this costs money and time so early involvement of your builder will substantially reduce costs and time on your project. Consider hiring your builder on a design build basis to further reduce costs!

2. If you are thinking about expanding your operation you should always start with a feasibility study done by someone with real world practical experience. Your first question should always be, do I really need more space?

3. Develop a good planning team. Remember that changes made at the beginning are inexpensive to include. Changes made after the architect completes his plans can be costly as a design revision and since the plans are already filed for building permits the process will most likely be delayed. Changes made after the building process results in the most costly extras to the owner; they are usually very expensive and can seriously affect time schedules. Getting the project components that the owner wants in the plans before they are bid out the first time is the most cost effective way to control budgets and provide owners with the most professional service.