It’s no secret that remodeling your home can be a stressful process. It can also be a confusing one. Clients often don’t know where to begin the process or what it involves, and sometimes they struggle figuring out exactly what they want out of it. That’s why it’s so important to pick the right company, and people, for a job of this size. When searching for a company to remodel your home, there are two different approaches you can take. You can either hire a design/build team or hire a designer or architect that will then bring in a builder, contractors, and subcontractors. These options are not created equal, and your decision can affect the success of your next remodel.
Design/Build vs. Traditional Approach
When you hire a design/build team, the design and construction services are contracted by a single entity. The design/build contractor or firm is responsible for all of the work done on the project and essentially manages the work of the construction companies and contractors. This type of team typically consists of the clients, the construction manager or general contractor, the architect/engineers, and subcontractors and suppliers. This process is used to help minimize risks for the clients, as well as minimize the project delivery time.
The more traditional approach to a remodel involves hiring a designer or architect that then brings in a contractor. In this process, the designer or architect doesn’t necessarily communicate with the contractors, so the clients have more of a responsibility to communicate with each one individually. This also involves having multiple contracts.
Benefits of a Design/Build
Charleene’s Houses, LLC is a design/build firm, and we’ve had much success with our clients using this process. Here are just a few of the reasons why you should choose a design/build for your next remodel.
- Single Point of Contact — When you undergo a home remodel, it’s best to minimize your stress as much as possible. Having a single point of contact is a great way to do that. The clients only need to deal with one person, as opposed to multiple. That one person is accountable for the entire project, including communicating with the rest of the team on behalf of their clients. This includes communicating about timing of completion, the project cost, and how the end result looks, among others. This also allows for a single contract.
- Teamwork — Collaboration and trust go hand-in-hand with what makes up a successful team. With everyone working together from the start, the team can produce a high-quality remodel for the clients. Clients are an important part of this team, it’s not just the designers and contractors. This allows clients to have much more control over their project.
- More Efficiency and Faster Project Delivery — With everyone working together as a team, things won’t fall through the cracks because they’re involved from start to finish. Design/build teams have typically worked together before, if not regularly, so they know how to get things done in a timely manner. The process can be more streamlined and allows room for more cost-effective options. There are fewer disagreements between contractors or designers on how things should be done or how they should look. If this type of scenario does arise, however, the single point of contact handles it, not the clients.
- Project Guide — Having a design/build team gives the clients a sense of direction throughout the entire remodel process. They know all of the steps that need to be taken in every type of remodel, and ensure that nothing is missed by managing the chaos. They not only act as the single point of contact, but they’re there to help the clients through any stress they may experience by providing comfort when/if the project becomes challenging at any point.
- Stay on Budget — With the traditional approach to hiring for your remodel, you may have to negotiate multiple times throughout the process to ensure your project gets completed. This means that your out-of-pocket costs could rise as the project moves forward. With a design/build team, this is all figured out at the start. With that, staying on timeline helps to maintain the budget. Clients avoid costly change orders that often come from bouncing back and forth between design and engineering teams.
- Customization — When you work with a design/build team, they have the ability to quickly produce custom products for your space, as opposed to mostly using prototype replications. With the clients being such a big part of the team throughout the process, they can work closely with everyone to create unique designs that you won’t find anywhere else.
Our Design Process
Being a design/build firm, the experts at Charleene’s Houses LLC know how to consistently provide clients with great care by taking the time to listen and understand their needs. By doing this, we can create a plan that fits with their visions and help them bring it to life. Our firm uses a four-phase process, which begins after speaking on the phone to determine if we’re a good fit to work together.
Phase One is the free consultation. This phase includes meeting one-on-one, in person, for about one hour to discuss clients’ visions and answer any and all questions they may have.
Phase Two is when the design begins. We create blueprints, elevations, and renderings to achieve the vision. It’s not uncommon during this phase to make revisions to blueprints and designs. We want to make sure we get it right, so this phase is critical.
Phase Three involves finalizing everything prior to beginning construction. This includes budget, designs, signing the construction agreement, scheduling the build, and pulling permits, such as zoning, for the project.
Phase Four is the final phase, and arguably the most exciting! This is when the build can finally begin. It starts with demolition and moves into construction. This part can get pretty messy, so we like to ensure that things stay as clean as possible. We achieve this by cleaning up the project area daily and using zipper walls to block off any areas that aren’t included in the remodel. During this process clients can expect to see someone from our team every single day. This helps us keep on track with the timeline and allows us to jump in immediately if there are any issues that come up along the way.
If you’ve been on the fence about starting your next remodel, or have simply just been putting it off for not wanting to deal with the stress, then our design/build firm might be the right choice for you. We’ll be your single point of contact throughout the entire process and take care of all the difficult stuff for you that comes up along the way. Our process helps to ensure that you can stay on budget and complete your remodel within the timeframe agreed upon at the start of our journey together.
Still not sure? Take a look at our portfolio to see some of the beautiful remodels we’ve already completed for other clients — many of which have even become repeat customers! Give us a call at 443-797-2813 to contact us online get started on your next remodel today.
