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Charles Ross Homes

Hi, Daniel, I'm sorry for your experience. I wish I had $10 for each time an architect in these forums emphasized the need for an architect to protect you from a builder. That's fine, but who protects you from the architect in the design phase? In my experience as a designer/builder (all our designs are produced by architects), the potential cost reduction produced by "value engineering" designs is limited to 10% of construction costs. More than that will require major "surgery" to the design. To achieve a 50% cost reduction, the plan will look different from--alright, nothing like-- what you've fallen in love with. I think you'll find it more productive to start over, albeit emotionally difficult. For the benefit of folks still clinging to. the outmoded design-bid-build approach, I can tell you the OP's experience is not unique. In fact, the last competitive bidding our company did was more than a decade ago. The (architect-designed) plans were more detailed than any other construction project I've seen in nearly 40 years of commercial and residential construction experience. We invested 3-4 man-weeks estimating the project. We were the low bidder. However, our cost was almost 100% above the owner's budget. They promptly stopped payment on their final check to the architect. But that's another story. How do you avoid a similar outcome? Here's my recommendation: Cost Benchmarking Perform construction cost benchmarking before investing a single dollar in design. To this end, I recommend you tour homes under construction which are similar to what you have in mind in terms of design, size, amenities and quality and ask the builder about the cost to replicate the home on your property. Alternatively you can review plans and photos of recently completed projects in the builder's office. Benchmarking will equip you with real-world costs from people who actually build homes for a living and stroke checks for materials and labor. Architects don't do that. Preliminary Design If benchmarking suggests the likely construction cost is reasonably aligned with your budget, it's time to assemble your design team. That team should include your architect/designer, your builder, and the builder's team of trades and suppliers. If you're in the camp that architects design and builders build what architects design, then skip this step, and the benchmarking and go right to production of detailed construction plans. Pass go and pay $200.... Start by establishing the design objectives and sharing them with the entire team. Get the architect going on concept sketches and start to cull ideas so a preliminary plan or two can be developed. These should be simple floor plans and elevations with just enough detail to enable the builder and trades to produce reasonably accurate preliminary construction cost estimates (+/ 5% to +/- 10% error.) Review the preliminary construction cost estimate as a team in as much detail as you'd like to make sure nothing was missed. If the high error estimate (+ 10%) is outside what you want to invest in the construction, then fine tune the preliminary design and wring out some costs to get a +/-10% error within the budget. Detailed Design Once the preliminary plans and estimate track with the budget, you're ready to proceed to the detailed design phase. During detailed design, a lot of technical "grunt work" gets completed like sizing beams, choosing insulation, designing HVAC systems and other super-interesting stuff that will make for interesting discussions at cocktail parties (depending on your circle of friends.) Suffice it to say, you won't be too involved in that sort of stuff. What you should be doing is making selections of materials, appliances, fixtures, cabinetry, etc., keeping in mind the costs allocated for each in the preliminary design and estimating phase. The actual cost of each of your selections will be used to update the preliminary construction cost estimate and make it the basis for either a fixed-contract price construction agreement or a cost-plus construction agreement. Which is the right contract for you? Well, that's for another thread.

Reply to: Hi, Daniel, I'm sorry for your experience. I wish I had $10 for each time an architect in these forums emphasized the need for an architect to protect you from a builder. That's fine, but who protects you from the architect in the design phase? In my experience as a designer/builder (all our designs are produced by architects), the potential cost reduction produced by "value engineering" designs is limited to 10% of construction costs. More than that will require major "surgery" to the design. To achieve a 50% cost reduction, the plan will look different from--alright, nothing like-- what you've fallen in love with. I think you'll find it more productive to start over, albeit emotionally difficult. For the benefit of folks still clinging to. the outmoded design-bid-build approach, I can tell you the OP's experience is not unique. In fact, the last competitive bidding our company did was more than a decade ago. The (architect-designed) plans were more detailed than any other construction project I've seen in nearly 40 years of commercial and residential construction experience. We invested 3-4 man-weeks estimating the project. We were the low bidder. However, our cost was almost 100% above the owner's budget. They promptly stopped payment on their final check to the architect. But that's another story. How do you avoid a similar outcome? Here's my recommendation: Cost Benchmarking Perform construction cost benchmarking before investing a single dollar in design. To this end, I recommend you tour homes under construction which are similar to what you have in mind in terms of design, size, amenities and quality and ask the builder about the cost to replicate the home on your property. Alternatively you can review plans and photos of recently completed projects in the builder's office. Benchmarking will equip you with real-world costs from people who actually build homes for a living and stroke checks for materials and labor. Architects don't do that. Preliminary Design If benchmarking suggests the likely construction cost is reasonably aligned with your budget, it's time to assemble your design team. That team should include your architect/designer, your builder, and the builder's team of trades and suppliers. If you're in the camp that architects design and builders build what architects design, then skip this step, and the benchmarking and go right to production of detailed construction plans. Pass go and pay $200.... Start by establishing the design objectives and sharing them with the entire team. Get the architect going on concept sketches and start to cull ideas so a preliminary plan or two can be developed. These should be simple floor plans and elevations with just enough detail to enable the builder and trades to produce reasonably accurate preliminary construction cost estimates (+/ 5% to +/- 10% error.) Review the preliminary construction cost estimate as a team in as much detail as you'd like to make sure nothing was missed. If the high error estimate (+ 10%) is outside what you want to invest in the construction, then fine tune the preliminary design and wring out some costs to get a +/-10% error within the budget. Detailed Design Once the preliminary plans and estimate track with the budget, you're ready to proceed to the detailed design phase. During detailed design, a lot of technical "grunt work" gets completed like sizing beams, choosing insulation, designing HVAC systems and other super-interesting stuff that will make for interesting discussions at cocktail parties (depending on your circle of friends.) Suffice it to say, you won't be too involved in that sort of stuff. What you should be doing is making selections of materials, appliances, fixtures, cabinetry, etc., keeping in mind the costs allocated for each in the preliminary design and estimating phase. The actual cost of each of your selections will be used to update the preliminary construction cost estimate and make it the basis for either a fixed-contract price construction agreement or a cost-plus construction agreement. Which is the right contract for you? Well, that's for another thread.

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