Unfortunately in the residential construction industry there is a lot pricing work that is done for free, and further more when it is done it’s often inaccurate. This leads to major inefficiencies during the building process.
Clients particular selections for the likes of the bathroom and kitchen areas, cladding, roofing, external joinery, outdoor spaces, and how they interact with the living spaces of the property are so important to get clear on as early as possible. Our belief is to pick your Builder at the same time as you pick your Architect design team. This will enable you to form a cohesive team working together to deliver the best possible outcome for the client.
The issues that we encounter at the first viewing of a project when plans are complete, is that it’s often over budget becoming more costly to redesign with constructability in mind. If involved early enough a Builder can add value and still meet the flair and design that’s desired. Having input to the details of how it’s constructed has a massive impact on the labour and product selection. Having a scrapbook of space, size, and look is a great place to start the initial discussions to draft up the first run of Concept Plans. There are 250,000 variables in any one building project, therefore the selection of the Builder and Architect is crucial. You need to be sure you can deal with them in challenging times, which often don’t present themselves until well into the project. We believe communication is the key to success! Confidence in the abilities of the site, production managers through to the guys on the ground is something grossly overlooked when decisions are being made on who is best suited to carry out a particular project.
A well thought out and planned building project is stress-free, and should be an enjoyable experience for all involved. Unfortunately in many cases it is quite the opposite. This leads to blown budgets, poor quality finishes, and a lot of re-work currently at 22% (mostly unpaid). For our industry to be better tomorrow than it is today, we need collaboration and an awareness that there is a way to achieve high quality enjoyable projects for less.
