Give Us a Bid
I recently received an email from a woman who wanted to remodel the basement of her single story residence in north Seattle. She is a rather capable person who has a high powered job at the University of Washington. Her intelligence was reflected in the very detailed scope of work that she provided . . . a list of items about two feet long.
"My husband and I," she wrote, "would love to have you out to give us a bid/proposed schedule." She expressed a strong preference for not hiring an architect, if possible.
I responded with the below email:
Dear Friends:
Thanks for your detailed scope. This really helps.
Geoff (our estimator) and I are available any time next week.
The pricing workflow from now to the beginning of construction goes like this:
a. We take a look at the site, take photos, go over your scope list during a site visit. This is a couple of hours, no charge.
b. Geoff does feasibility pricing. This takes him 4 - 5 hours in addition to the site visit. We do not charge for this. The point of feasibility pricing is to provide "typical" cost figures for each part of your project. At this stage, we are not trying to give the lowest possible price. Rather, we are trying to establish a budget figure that we think will work for you, given the level of finishes, the amount of system - utility work, and any conditions such as water intrusion, rot, seismic . . . some of which apply to nearly all remodels.
c. After you have digested the feasibility pricing and adjusted your scope in light of these numbers . . . then we can do construction pricing. At this point, it is very helpful if we have drawings showing the as built conditions, the new floor plan, and the finish elevation for each wall.
Geoff will spend about 20 hours doing the construction pricing. His accuracy will depend in part on the quality of the drawings and specs he is working with. If there are no drawings, then Geoff will be making assumptions that will undergird his pricing. He will make an effort to list his assumptions, however, in most cases there will still be some items that you wanted done one way and Geoff assumed would be done another way. So, the results are more predictable if you have more detailed input for Geoff. The benefit of drawings is that they show the spatial relationship of the scope items. The interfaces will bring to mind a lot of questions that can then be answered prior to construction . . . rather than during construction.
d. After you have digested the construction pricing, we can meet to go through the numbers and you can take another pass at adjusting the scope to get the project to meet your budget.
e. If needed, Geoff will rework the construction pricing as you require to reflect the adjustments to your scope. This will be another 5 - 10 hours depending on the complexity of the project. There is no charge for this.
f. Then we sign a contract and get started. The work could be done without a permit, but we prefer to work with a permit, if possible. As you have noted, a stifi over the counter permit is possible . . . but you will need floor plans and someone will need to make a trip to DPD.
g. Our schedule is open, so we can start immediately.
h. During construction, we will be referring frequently to the drawings. If there are no drawings, then it creates some wasted effort in the construction process, which can make prices a bit higher and makes the results slightly less predictable.
i. Every time you bake a cake, there are some complex variables at work. Sometimes the cake comes out better than other times. In construction, we want a superior result every time . . . so drawings are a way of reducing the number of variables and giving you greater control over the end result.
j. I have design my own house, my dad was an architect, my mom worked for Sunset magazine, and we have worked with a lot of architects over the last 35 years. So, we can give you design feedback . . . if you need it . . . for no charge. However, it is inefficient for us to do the drawings ourselves. Every week DPD changes something small or large and it is easier for us if someone who deals with them every week does the drawings.
We could recommend an architect to do the minimum drawings required for a permit and / or submit the permit. Then, if you wanted, they could enhance the drawings with your design to facilitate construction. They charge $75 / hour.
We could recommend a clever high school kid who is a whiz at autocad and could do the drawings for a lower hourly price. However, he does not know the code items that the building department needs to have covered. So, he would take a lot of your time and the results would not be as predictable.
We have a staffer who could submit the permit for $50 if the drawings were ready to go and the info sheets all filled out.
Or, we could do the project without a permit and we could absorb the cost of design (client consultations during construction, back of the envelope sketches in response to construction needs, etc.) into our construction budget. Whatever approach you would like to take, we will do our best to create a successful project.
In Summary
We are expecting to invest 25 - 30 hours of our time to help you develop your project. There is no charge for this. The value you get from our work will be enhanced if you have drawings that we can work with. Drawings that you do yourselves will be better than no drawings . . . so an architect is one solution but is not absolutely required.
Cheers,
Scott
Scott Davis
Kinesis Construction, Inc
www.kinesisconstruction.com
find us on Houzz.com
"My husband and I," she wrote, "would love to have you out to give us a bid/proposed schedule." She expressed a strong preference for not hiring an architect, if possible.
I responded with the below email:
Dear Friends:
Thanks for your detailed scope. This really helps.
Geoff (our estimator) and I are available any time next week.
The pricing workflow from now to the beginning of construction goes like this:
a. We take a look at the site, take photos, go over your scope list during a site visit. This is a couple of hours, no charge.
b. Geoff does feasibility pricing. This takes him 4 - 5 hours in addition to the site visit. We do not charge for this. The point of feasibility pricing is to provide "typical" cost figures for each part of your project. At this stage, we are not trying to give the lowest possible price. Rather, we are trying to establish a budget figure that we think will work for you, given the level of finishes, the amount of system - utility work, and any conditions such as water intrusion, rot, seismic . . . some of which apply to nearly all remodels.
c. After you have digested the feasibility pricing and adjusted your scope in light of these numbers . . . then we can do construction pricing. At this point, it is very helpful if we have drawings showing the as built conditions, the new floor plan, and the finish elevation for each wall.
Geoff will spend about 20 hours doing the construction pricing. His accuracy will depend in part on the quality of the drawings and specs he is working with. If there are no drawings, then Geoff will be making assumptions that will undergird his pricing. He will make an effort to list his assumptions, however, in most cases there will still be some items that you wanted done one way and Geoff assumed would be done another way. So, the results are more predictable if you have more detailed input for Geoff. The benefit of drawings is that they show the spatial relationship of the scope items. The interfaces will bring to mind a lot of questions that can then be answered prior to construction . . . rather than during construction.
d. After you have digested the construction pricing, we can meet to go through the numbers and you can take another pass at adjusting the scope to get the project to meet your budget.
e. If needed, Geoff will rework the construction pricing as you require to reflect the adjustments to your scope. This will be another 5 - 10 hours depending on the complexity of the project. There is no charge for this.
f. Then we sign a contract and get started. The work could be done without a permit, but we prefer to work with a permit, if possible. As you have noted, a stifi over the counter permit is possible . . . but you will need floor plans and someone will need to make a trip to DPD.
g. Our schedule is open, so we can start immediately.
h. During construction, we will be referring frequently to the drawings. If there are no drawings, then it creates some wasted effort in the construction process, which can make prices a bit higher and makes the results slightly less predictable.
i. Every time you bake a cake, there are some complex variables at work. Sometimes the cake comes out better than other times. In construction, we want a superior result every time . . . so drawings are a way of reducing the number of variables and giving you greater control over the end result.
j. I have design my own house, my dad was an architect, my mom worked for Sunset magazine, and we have worked with a lot of architects over the last 35 years. So, we can give you design feedback . . . if you need it . . . for no charge. However, it is inefficient for us to do the drawings ourselves. Every week DPD changes something small or large and it is easier for us if someone who deals with them every week does the drawings.
We could recommend an architect to do the minimum drawings required for a permit and / or submit the permit. Then, if you wanted, they could enhance the drawings with your design to facilitate construction. They charge $75 / hour.
We could recommend a clever high school kid who is a whiz at autocad and could do the drawings for a lower hourly price. However, he does not know the code items that the building department needs to have covered. So, he would take a lot of your time and the results would not be as predictable.
We have a staffer who could submit the permit for $50 if the drawings were ready to go and the info sheets all filled out.
Or, we could do the project without a permit and we could absorb the cost of design (client consultations during construction, back of the envelope sketches in response to construction needs, etc.) into our construction budget. Whatever approach you would like to take, we will do our best to create a successful project.
In Summary
We are expecting to invest 25 - 30 hours of our time to help you develop your project. There is no charge for this. The value you get from our work will be enhanced if you have drawings that we can work with. Drawings that you do yourselves will be better than no drawings . . . so an architect is one solution but is not absolutely required.
Cheers,
Scott
Scott Davis
Kinesis Construction, Inc
www.kinesisconstruction.com
find us on Houzz.com
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