Before you begin constructing your home, there are many elements that need to be considered in order to ensure the project runs smoothly and meets its predetermined budgets and timelines. These elements are often overlooked until after construction has begun, causing delays, budget overruns, and other issues that can be avoided beforehand through pre-construction services.
Pre-construction services can be an important part of building or improving your home, especially if you plan to use it as an investment. These services can help you secure the best possible materials and workmanship, ensuring that the end result will help you accomplish your investment goals and the durability of your home.
What are pre-construction services? What do pre-construction services cover? This article will discuss these questions and can help you understand the importance of pre-construction services for your home.
What are Pre-Construction Services?
To get you prepared for your new home’s building process, you’ll need to consider a few different things before starting the construction phase. Pre-construction services help you navigate the complexities of a construction project from start to finish and help you understand every step of it. Providers for such services may assign you to a pre-construction manager who will be in charge of guiding you through the pre-construction phase. This phase involves planning the entire project in detail—giving the owners and the contractors a complete understanding of how it works.
If you’re building or remodeling your home, you’ll most likely be getting pre-construction services from the company that will do the work on your house. Alternatively, you can work with a third party to take care of the pre-construction phase. While you can find plenty of information online about what these companies do and how they go about their business, it’s good to also see it in writing (in a proposal or brochure). This way, if there are any questions or concerns later on, you can refer back to this document to settle any issues if any services were not covered as promised.
Pre-construction services are vital to ensure a smooth transition from the design phase to the construction phase. Design Everest has been a trailblazing pre-construction service provider in California for over a decade. The experts at Design Everest have handled residential, commercial, and light industrial projects over the years and offer a wide range of services, including structural engineering, drafting, and construction support.
What is Covered Under Pre-Construction Services?
The types of services offered by the design and construction team are as diverse as the types of projects they work on. Pre-construction services can be provided as individual packages or as a package with construction services.
Here are some items you can expect from pre-construction services:
Defining Project Goals
The pre-construction process helps you clarify your needs and set goals. This includes setting a timeline to finalize the finishes and defining the scope of the project. This step will create a foundation for defining production process flows. The contractor will be able to point out any feasibility issues with the project and help you refine your vision.
Identifying Potential Issues
Certain features, like parking, might be difficult to incorporate into the design, or there may be a potential for flooding or erosion. You can even prepare ahead for any procurement delays of special materials/equipment. All of these issues can be addressed during the pre-construction phase.
Establishing a Budget
Knowing how much you can spend and sticking to it is key. Pre-construction services can help you evaluate costs and timelines, estimate materials and labor needs, and determine a path forward that will complete your project on time and within budget. A preliminary budget plan is based on whatever can be estimated ahead of time, based on the project goals defined in the earlier phases.
Finding the Right Talent
This phase also involves finding and vetting general contractors. An experienced contractor can help you find the right subcontractors for your development.
Approval of Plans
Your contractor will arrange meetings with local agencies to get all necessary approvals. A pre-construction design service can sketch out initial plans for approval and, if necessary, tweak them to accommodate buyers’ changing priorities and budgets.
Complete Construction Documentation
Construction drawings are essentially just drawings of your floor plan, elevations, and sections and specifications that describe the scope of work, materials, and construction methods used for the project. They’re detailed enough for contractors to build your house but designed so you can easily understand them. One set goes to your builders while another stays with you to ensure accuracy throughout construction. This step is arguably more important than most others, as improper construction documents have been known to cause serious problems later on down the road. For example, this will help you check if all the elements from the design were incorporated at all or whether or not they were done in a safe manner.
Pre-Construction Surveys
A pre-construction survey is an extensive analysis of the physical state of the property and its surroundings (adjacent buildings, sidewalk, landscaping, etc.) undertaken before any construction takes place. These surveys help contractors and architects pinpoint potential problems beforehand and help determine whether damage has occurred due to construction activities. These surveys help find major flaws like drainage or foundation problems. Smaller things like grading—leveling out uneven land—are also checked at this point so that site challenges do not emerge later during construction or after move-in.
When considering a new construction project, it’s important to plan ahead. As you approach each buildout stage, there are opportunities to lay a strong foundation for success. Proper planning can help you navigate potential pitfalls and identify any potential red flags early on. Pre-construction services may not be the most exciting thing to think about when planning a new building or renovation, but they can mean the difference between a well-planned construction project and one that can leave your resources in a lurch.
Design Everest
Work with the best pre-construction services provider in the state by partnering with Design Everest. If you want to learn more about the pre-construction services we offer or anything related to construction, please contact us today for a free quote and consultation.
