Custom Home Building Guide
Custom homes are becoming highly desirable with people being drawn to features such as architectural highlights, heritage and history. The following is a guide to building a custom home that outlines critical elements of the design and build. Some of these elements include how to prepare for build, things to look out for, and how to enjoy the process. Our focus will be on the most common questions in areas such as design, construction, project management, and warranties that we encounter in projects that we have undertaken. The initial step is to know exactly what you want in the custom home. All you want is captured in the design process including the type of home and specifics of different spaces in the home. The design process sets the tone for the construction phase and informs what should be done. Design is the visual instruction manual for building your custom home.
Table of Contents:
- How to Start the Design Process for A Custom Home Build
- Custom Home Budgeting Process
- Mapping Out the Rooms Arrangement
- Designing A Home Office
- The Construction Process and the Project Management Team
- Why You Need a Project Manager for Your Home Build
- The Construction Start – Assembling The Build Team
- The Project Manager
- The Construction Team
- The Architect’s Role in A Home Design
- Obtaining Warranty On Your New Home
1. How to Start the Design Process for A Custom Home Build
How do you initiate the design process? There’s no prescribed way of approaching the design process. However, a few questions will be asked and a good designer usually asks numerous questions. The first question we ask is why you want to build a custom home? It may appear like a simple question but is not easy to answer. It is an important question which helps all parties understand the intended purpose of the new build. Design simply responds to the reason for the build. For example, a client who is a fine art painter wanted a custom home. The starting point for the design was a dedicated space to serve as a studio. The overall home design evolved around the performance of the studio. We have teams of architects and designers who will work on a concept to ensure that everything in the project aligns and meets expectations. Additionally, we understand that not all clients have full details of what they want. We’ll help them through the process by asking the right questions and discussing their options.
2. Custom Home Budgeting Process
You must know what to expect to be in a position to prepare a construction budget and understand different construction costs. These two things are entirely different with the construction budget being set by the client even before design commences. For example, if you want to build a custom home for $250/sq. ft., everything from design to construction must be within that budget. Construction costs are determined by time and location. That means building in winter or in a remote location will significantly add to the cost of construction. The cost of construction is specific to location and the availability of products and trades. The cost is significantly lower where there’s greater access. Other factors that come into play when preparing a construction budget are the construction type, materials, detailing, and finishes. The wide range of factors makes it difficult for contractors to offer a definite cost at the onset of a project. You must be aware of the costs involved in the construction of a new custom home. We have the following guide based on different types of projects that will give clients a good idea of what to expect and construction costs. It will help you be prepared when discussing your custom home budget with the architect or contractor. The following concept costs are based on the Greater Toronto Area and southern Ontario locations when building custom homes. Typical Subdivision Home – Approximate cost per square foot $180-$220 plus 5-7% for landscaping. Design costs 9%. Executive Home – Approximate cost per square foot $240-$300 plus 6-10% for landscaping. Design costs 12%. City Estate Home – Approximate cost per square foot $320-$380 plus 8-14% for landscaping. Design costs 13%. Modern Contemporary Home – Approximate cost per square foot $360-$550 plus 9-15% for landscaping. Design costs 16%. Modern Artistic Home – Approximate cost per square foot $450-$800 plus 9-15% for landscaping. Design costs 18%.
3. Mapping Out the Rooms Arrangement
After settling for a construction budget and determining zoning requirements, it is time to get the first draft layout. It is time to visualize how the spaces fit your lifestyle and other spatial arrangements. The stage is all about size and location of rooms such as where to locate the laundry room, size and location of pantry, and the location of kitchen. Make the decision on the main rooms – that is identifying the most important rooms to you especially where you will spend the largest amount of time. Yet another big consideration is the placement and size of the entry points to each of the rooms. For example, bedrooms are particularly vulnerable to door and window placement. Discuss with your architect before making a decision to get the best arrangements and where possible modify to suit your lifestyle.
Customized Entertainment Rooms
It becomes a big challenge to find a home that will entertain family and dinner parties. What is commonly available tends not to be up to expectations. Building a custom home can help focus on creation of customized entertainment rooms with a clear separation of private and public spaces. The private rooms will be removed from the eye line of the public and are accorded the space that they require. With custom homes, you have a selection of finish materials based on what you want and their durability. The selected finishes should also be in a position of withstanding high foot traffic within the home. In fact, entertaining is a big factor why people have built custom homes for more than 100 years. That fact can be seen in modern day estate homes characterized by large dining rooms, grand foyers, kitchens hidden away from eyesight, and large enough driveways for guests to park.
Incorporating Hobbies into Home Design
In the present day, people are increasingly working from home. It makes lots of sense to build a custom home with a big consideration to your hobbies and creating the required spaces. It doesn’t matter whether it is an art studio, woodshop, a gym, greenhouses, or a garage for your car collection. From a planning perspective, the spaces to accommodate any of these purposes have unique requirements in terms of power outlets, lighting, and even environmental controls.
4. Home Office Design
With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions, people are increasingly building or renovating home offices. In most instances, planning a home office puts consideration into factors such as proximity to entrances to address business visitation. Separate entrances are required for home offices where visitation is required. Access to other areas of the home should be limited and where possible partition is installed to separate your home from the workspace. Other critical details to consider when creating a home office include the placement of a desk and screens in relation to windows to avoid the challenges of glare, proximity to power outlets and support for your desk space, and location of amenities such as bathrooms/restrooms within the home. Proper lighting is yet another important consideration to ensure that you are not straining your eyes. Lighting should serve you well in the workspace both during the day and even when working late into the evening. Office lighting sets the mood every time you walk into the home office and may impact productivity. Ensure your lighting options will help manage fatigue and maximize productivity over the course of the day. Home offices were previously not popular but with the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are making adjustments as they shift to working from home. Keep in mind that employers will asking about your work environment when hiring to evaluate how efficient and committed working from home. Talk to us for more information about the design process for a custom home office.
Family Needs and Preferences
The most prominent reason why people want to build a custom home is to get a home that meets family needs. For that reason, custom homes present a unique challenge since the architect must invest their time into fully understanding the needs of each family members. Not only must the architect understand their immediate needs but also predict their evolving needs into the future. The design of the home will seek to address these two areas. Design is the first stage of a custom home build. You must answer question: why a custom home? Custom Homes has a detailed and interactive questionnaire that helps our clients figure out why the want to build a custom home. Call us today and we’ll have a team ready to help with the design and construction of your dream home.
5. Construction Process and the Project Management Team
The second stage of the custom home build is the construction process and commences after the conclusion of the design process. We’ll help you plan the construction and introduce the project management team. Each project is unique and needs to be managed effectively to minimize delays and cost overruns. From our experience in the industry, it is important for the project management team to be involved from an early stage where possible from the design process. Although construction proper will not start over the next few months, get the project management/construction team involved right from the design process. The contribution of the construction team to the design process help in preparation of construction budget and in planning processes around electrical, mechanical and structural systems. Good familiarity of the project will ensure that the construction process is smoother and faster since it provides insights into project details such as expected detailing and finishing.
6. The Importance of a Project Manager for Custom Home Builds
The involvement of a project manager early in the design process ensures that they gain a good understanding of decisions and choices made as well as overall project. The rationale is to have the project manager understand the design and even contribute to the process. Active participation in the design process reduces hiccups and delays in the construction phase. Early involvement of the project manager helps in creation of a strong relation with the architect which is critical to achieving project efficiency. Late involvement of the project manager means that they are a step behind. They will be spending lots of time attempting to understand project bearings, project needs, client expectations and wants. Duplication of effort tends to occur making the entire process messy, frustrating, and highly expensive. The project management team needs to have all the required information. The earlier the client makes a decision on who the project management team will be, the better the quality and outcome of the custom home project. Custom Homes has constituted a talented and experienced project management division. The benefits of an effective project management team cannot be overemphasized right from the start to the completion of the project. Integration of a project management team helps fast track responses to issues that arise at construction site. It has allowed an agile response and communication with our clients and propose solutions that align with initial design and for effective coordination. For all your inquiries about our in-house project management services, you can reach us via email or simply call.
7. Assembling The Build Team
Up to this point, a lot of planning and numerous decisions have been made and it is time for the project to start taking shape. All along your dream home has been on paper and needs to come to life. The architect has concluded the design stage and all fundamentals have been addressed. The project manager is familiar the design and is ready to commence the construction process. What remains is the identification and bringing together of the people to work on the project and to decide the construction path.
8. The Project Manager
The project manager is responsible for the sourcing, obtaining and scheduling of any construction approvals from architectural/design teams, client, and consultants. Following collection of all required approvals and permits, the project manager will hire and schedule all work on the project. It is therefore the role of a PM to keep the project on track. No simple task at all as they have to keep in contact with everyone working on the project for prompt and accurate updates. The most important role of a project manager is to find the right people for the project and to ensure that they get all necessary information with regard to their work. Additionally, the project manager must conduct follow ups to ensure work is completed according to home design and provided information. Where completed work fails to conform to custom home design, the project manager must double back to ensure work is acceptable. It is help confirm that the built area doesn’t interfere with work moving forward. It is evident that the work of a PM is rigorous. He/she must ensure that any completed work doesn’t interfere with future work on the project. Where possible, they must recalibrate to find accommodations to compensate for the as-built segments.
9. The Construction Team
When hiring and assembling a team for the construction process, there are a number of factors to consider. Besides evaluating individual costs, you will definitely be looking to establish likelihood for future engagements. Consider the following in making a decision: How did you find us? How long have you been in business? Is the quoted cost plausible for the next time you need their services? Today, there are renovation websites that serve to connect homeowners with contractors and even have reviews. The tried and tested way of finding a contractor who built the custom home in your community and asking about their work. Some of the best referrals are from your architect who is well aware of who can complete specific types of builds. It is recommended that you vet contractors together with your architect to settle for the right one. The contractors must be able to show samples of their work as well as discuss challenges and solutions encountered. Evaluate the character of the contractor and the project they are fronting as similar to what you intend to build. Always ask for a list of references from the contractor to learn what their experiences were.
10. Role of an Architect in Home Design
In some instances, the project manager may rely on the architect to provide construction details and clarifications at different stages of the custom home build. Retaining the architect and other consultants for the construction stage for smooth communication. The architect will be providing input whereas the PM executes. The architect offers support to the PM with relevant construction details whenever necessary.
The Final Approval Process
Having discussed the roles of all lead consultants in the construction process, what are the roles of the client. The client has a critical role in all decision making process of a custom home build including design approvals, cost approvals, changes and change order approvals. Without prior knowledge, these tasks can be daunting. However, the consultants can help you analyze every decision and arrive at the best possible answers. The construction plan must accommodate ample time for the client to make decisions. There should be leeway provided for evaluation of information by the client and decide. All meetings should be scheduled with a prepared agenda and should start with the summary of previous decisions. Having such a process will help the client in informing, organizing and keeping you in control of all build stages. The construction process becomes smooth and exciting.
11. Getting a Warranty for the New Home
Your custom home is now fully constructed and is ready for occupation or are already living in it happily. Now what happens if the roof leaks and the cause is solely due to a roofing job that wasn’t completed properly? How do you get the problem solved? The direct answer is it depends on the choices that you made as you evaluated and hired construction teams. Warranties are given dependent on the kind of relationships you had with the architect, project manager, contractor, and trades. All warranty considerations begin from the hiring process. Another way to approach warranties is through a splitting of the project manager’s fee so that a post-construction fee is included. It helps to have the project manager or architect involved for the duration of the warranty period. For example, the principal fee for the project manager can be reduced by 12 percent to be paid out over the next 12 months at 1% per month post occupancy. All that come down to negotiations and having reasonable expectations from both parties.