What Are the First Steps in Planning a Custom Build?
Set the budget envelope before any drawings exist
Design to the residual. Design to the hard number established at the outset for total project cost, and then subtract out all non-vertical construction items. Design to the ‘remainder’.
Work backward from the all-in number
These items should be subtracted from the headline budget before the architect starts designing.
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Land acquisition and closing costs, including any carrying cost during design
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Site work such as clearing, grading, retaining structures, and driveway length
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Utility connections, well and septic, or extended service runs
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Permits, impact fees, surveys, soils reports, and engineering
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Design fees across architecture, structural, and interiors
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A contingency of ten to fifteen percent, held separately and not treated as available funds
Expressing the remainder as a cost per square foot of remainder space will enable you to make a pretty quick assessment of whether or not your program will fit within that number at a sufficient rate for your intended market and finish level. The program will have to shrink down before Value Engineering.
Qualify the site before a floor plan is drawn
Many site constraints influence the floor plan more than owners realize. Topography, setbacks, easements, floor loads, and solar exposure all impact potential building forms and affect how plans develop. Most of these constraints are uncovered very early in the design process and end up driving many of the subsequent decisions with respect to alternate designs.
Due diligence worth completing up front
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A boundary and topographic survey with spot elevations and tree locations
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Zoning review covering setbacks, height limits, lot coverage, and any overlay district
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Geotechnical testing where slope, fill, or expansive soils are suspected
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Confirmation of utility availability and the cost of bringing service to the pad
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Review of any covenants, architectural controls, or review board approval process
Regardless of whether you are building in the Historic Irving Park neighborhood, Old Greenwich, or another Greensboro area neighborhood, it is also important to understand how Greensboro’s stormwater and tree ordinances will impact the placement of your home on your lot and the grading of your yard.
Translate how you live into a design brief
Seek to define your owner’s requirements as performance criteria and as a set of adjacency requirements (i.e. How spaces relate to each other). Listing out rooms will only serve to restrict the designer’s options. Describe your daily habits, the frequency of visits by your guests, the amount of storage you require, and describe failures from previous homes.
Separate the fixed from the flexible
The various aspects of design should be prioritized between two categories of design choices, structural/geometry vs. Finish selection. Items like ceiling height, roof form, window locations, etc. Are very expensive to change once the structural engineering has begun. Items such as cabinetry, tile, plumbing fixtures and paint are less expensive and can be selected at a later time. It is best to try to make complete selections regarding the structural/geometry of a house before starting to select finishes.
Sequence decisions against lead times, not preference
Each long-lead item in custom work should be mapped to the point at which it must be finalized to take it off the critical path. If you intend to build a custom home in Greensboro, it is worth confirming these lock points with a builder who already knows local supplier lead times before the schedule is published.
| Decision | Latest practical lock point | Consequence of slipping |
|---|---|---|
| Structural system and foundation type | Before permit submittal | Full re-engineering and resubmittal |
| Windows and exterior doors | At framing start | Dry-in delayed, often by months |
| Mechanical and plumbing layout | Before rough-in | Ceiling and soffit rework |
| Appliances and cabinetry | Before drywall | Blocking, electrical, and clearance errors |
| Tile, lighting, and hardware | Before finishes begin | Trade stacking and idle crews |
Build a timeline that accounts for approvals
Owners incorrectly estimate the amount of time for construction of their custom home but underestimate the time required for various approvals. Schematic design through construction documents (CDs) typically takes 4-7 months to complete. Permitting can take several weeks or even several months to receive approval from the various jurisdictions where required. Sometimes a review board is required and that can add a quarter to the above time frames.
Milestones worth tracking separately
Different activities have to be tracked by their completion dates, design completion, permit issuance, contract signing and start of material delivery. Each of these milestones has a different owner with different failure modes. The related events with the appraisal and the draws under a financed project must also be tracked with the same stringency and be coordinated with the lender’s reluctant schedules.
By developing your project in this sequence, you will be able to go through your decisions in turn, develop your plans in a coherent order, reduce the number of changes that are needed, develop a tighter set of bid documents and create a realistic construction schedule.
