Jackson Digney explains why you should hire a builder early in custom home design, not just an architect. Architects are great at creativity but can't calculate construction costs or manage the site. Meet builders in person before committing, and ask them seven key questions about their experience and approach to budget changes.
Did you know that designing and building a new home can require thousands of little decisions to be made? Often, each seemingly small decision can affect a myriad of different areas of your build, from engineering to the layout of the house and to the cost of building it. When you are working out the design of your new home, it's important that you have a team around you Like any team, they will have different skills to bring to the table and ensure that all the details are being considered. The common method for designing a new home is to sit down with an architect, largely in isolation from the builders, and work to design what you want built. While this seems like a very sound way to approach a design of a new home, did you know that a lot of architects, while being excellent designers and creative types, don't actually have a lot of experience in directly managing building projects. When I say directly managing, what I mean is being responsible for working out the costs in detail of a project by assessing all of the plans and specifications, then writing a scope of works and carrying out a builder's takeoff in order to calculate the correct price of the home, then following that through to on-site coordination and problem solving that is required to bring a stack of project documentation to fruition. It's not the architect's fault though, it's just that their speciality is in design and creatively expressing your wants, and that is what they are experts at. So who's the expert at calculating cost to build and then all the coordination and organisation that goes into actually building things? Well, you guessed it, it's your builder. One of the big grey areas One of the biggest areas you face as a prospective client is that you are often encouraged to get prices from a number of builders. Again, this sounds smart, but it's actually very risky. If all you do is blast 3 or 4 builders with your plans, what time have you put into getting to know the builder that you will eventually be working with? You're also asking multiple builders to spend upwards of 60 hours working out a price for your custom home for free. How much attention would you pay to a task that you were being asked to do for free over that period of time, with such a small chance of any reward at the end? There is a better way though, for both clients and builders, which helps you make sure that you only get a price from a builder you already like and trust. So how do you do this, and when? Make sure that you meet with your shortlist of builders in person as soon as you have your first set of preliminary quotes. plans and spend time hearing them talk about themselves and your plans. You also want to gauge a few things from them in this initial meeting. Are they interested in your ideas and plans, or are they trying to talk you into one of their standard plans? Do they offer any advice about how the plans you have could be altered to better suit your budget? What is their experience with working on architect-designed projects? Do they like working with architects? And you can ask them our 7 questions, and more on this guide You can then decide which builder you will work with during the design phase to make sure that your new home is designed under the watchful eye of someone with real-life, hands-on experience costing and building new homes. This also allows you to really get to know your builder before you commit to a building contract. It vastly reduces the chance of a situation Where you discover that you have a personality clash with your builder after signing a contract, and this can ruin what should be a fun and exciting experience building your new home. Make sure you don't spend upwards of $20,000 on design fees only to discover your dream home can't be built for the budget that you have. Work with a builder from the start. A professional builder will really know his numbers and be able to offer you and your architect practical, usable advice on how to get your build the way you like without blowing your budget. To help you pick the right builder, we have put together a guide of the 7 questions to ask your prospective builder before you engage them to work through the design process. Click the link below to download it now.
