When meeting a deadline is critical, here is one secret of the trade to save significant time during pre-construction. Give your contractor a ballpark budget before design and/or they start estimating. A building owner can take a shortcut in the preliminary phase and get to construction sooner when they have collaborated with their contractor on the budget to save time on over designing.
Sensibly, we understand that sharing a budget feels risky because it shows the owners “full hand” so to speak in poker terms and he or she could feel like it reduces the opportunity to negotiate. However, for Design-Build Construction, by knowing our client’s budget we can design a building that can be accomplished within the owner’s expectations, rather than one that causes sticker shock and then adds time for redrawing and minimizing the scope. Without knowing the budget, it’s easy for an owner to continue adding to the scope when realistically, the budget won’t allow for the extras. Having an owner’s approximate budget at the start, helps us to provide valuable consultation to the owner regarding allowances for materials and finishes. We can come to the owner with ideas without delays. Additionally, knowing a budget for General Construction, lets us recognize if we are a fit the full service offering we provide (including insured contractors, precise estimates, guaranteed completion dates, warranty, full-time supervision, self-performed trades, etc.) to protect the owner’s interest, or if the owner is willing to accept a more risky and lesser value option elsewhere for their construction needs.
We’ve been estimating and constructing buildings for over 75 years and have a rough idea of what a competitive price for a scope of work may be, considering variables like the time of year, how busy our subcontractors are, and material pricing fluctuations to pinpoint a precise final price. Therefore, we can save everyone a lot of time if the budget is overly unrealistic for what we speculate the cost would be and the owner isn’t willing to make changes to their project. In turn, we can help them make a business decision before they spend any money on design or go through the estimating process.
Contact Dr. Michael Shepard at 800-WOLGAST to discuss your project and budget and to see if our services are well suited to design and/or build your business investment. In return, we will provide a competitive and accurate estimate and offer professional and comprehensive construction services! This is just one shortcut to construction and reliability that we can offer.
