Three Things Worth Knowing Before You Build

What are the most important things to know before starting a residential building project?

A residential project holds its budget and its schedule on the strength of its planning and its documentation, and on whether the architect stays involved through construction to confirm that the building matches the drawings. The budget overruns and timeline slips people associate with custom home design usually trace back to one of those failing early, which means the most consequential decisions on a house get made long before anyone breaks ground.

Where does the construction industry lose the most money?

The U.S. construction industry loses roughly $177 billion annually to labor spent on avoidable problems, with poor communication as a leading factor. Research from FMI Corporation attributes more than $31 billion of that to rework traced specifically to poor project information. A homeowner stays out of that number by working with a firm that treats documentation and communication as the product rather than as overhead absorbed between milestones.

Read the full FMI Corporation report

What is an acceptable mistake allowance in construction?

The National Research Council treats change orders arising from design errors and omissions of up to 5% of total construction cost as ordinary professional practice, which on a $2 million home means $100,000 in additional cost sits inside what the federal government considers expected performance. We produce document sets that often exceed a hundred sheets in order to come in under that allowance rather than to spend it, since the alternative is asking a client to absorb an industry average as though it were a law of nature.

Read the National Academies research guidelines

Why should an architect remain involved through the end of construction?

The architect is the party able to say whether what is being built matches what was designed, and to judge whether a proposed change is a genuine change or work already covered by the contract. Legal analysis of professional liability cases points to construction administration as the layer that prevents most common project disputes, which is why we stay through completion rather than handing over a permit set and wishing everyone well.

Read the professional liability analysis

If you are planning a custom home in Florida, or want a second read on a project already underway, we are glad to talk it through.