[New Construction, Additions, & Renovations]
What is the Process of Designing my new Home? First, we Listen. By listening to your ideas & concerns for your project we are able to establish a trusted line of communication and a baseline to begin design work. We want to understand the scope of your project from the site, budget, how you plan to use your home, what are the most important features, and construction timeline. By doing so, we are able to tailor our services & your design to fit your budget and goals for the project.
STEP 1 | Programming, Planning & Schematic Design
[ New Construction ]
Site Analysis - Understanding your site is crucial to the design of your home. We evaluate the topography & natural features, as well as utilities available to establish a location for your home that best suits your particular site. Additionally, we research zoning regulations & codes we must adhere to prior to design. With complex sites, we recommend a topography & boundary survey to be completed.
Design – Many times a client gets into design and finds out the rooms and spaces they thought they originally wanted are not practical to how they will actually use them. In order to accurately provide you a functional design for your home, we prepare various schemes and layouts to explore what works and what doesn’t for your home. This design phase typically takes the most amount of time, but is critically important. Remember, this is your forever home where you will live, not us. We are providing you our services and expertise to the best of our knowledge to bring your dream to life. Speak up if you see something you do not like, concerns you have, or ideas you would like to include or change. It is best to get the quirks of planning figured out during Schematic Design, as it is much more difficult to change plans later on. At this time, if you have a preferred contractor your plan on using, we like to bring them on board early to discuss concerns and establish a budget.
[ Renovations & Additions ]
Site Analysis - When renovating or adding an addition to your home our process is similar. We evaluate your site based on what is existing & what is allowed in your zoning ordinance.
Design – In these types of projects we will gather existing field dimensions and prepare base plans based on the existing construction of the house. Similar to New Construction, once we have base plans established we will also prepare various Schematic Design plans and layouts.
STEP 2 | Design Development
Once a final plan has been approved by the owner we discuss detail, energy efficiency, light & ventilation, and materials to develop your plans with more detail.
STEP 3 | Construction Documents
At this stage of the process we are assembling the Code Compliant Construction Drawing Set you will use for Contractors to bid on and use in construction, as well as the drawing set you will submit for you Code Officer for a building permit. These Documents include all necessary site plans, floor plans, framing plans, schedules, details, sections, elevations, and a complete building code review. At SMSA we pride our work on providing comprehensive and thorough drawing sets for our clients and contractors. If questions or surprises do arise we will effectively respond and correct the issues.
STEP 4 | Bidding & Contractor Selection
We assist in contractor selection through RFP’s / Bidding or selection based on qualifications and prior knowledge of a contractor’s ability and quality of work.
STEP 5 | Construction Administration
At a minimum we prefer to include visiting the project site on a regular basis during construction to conform the work is being completed in accordance with the plans and specifications. We also are available to resolve any construction issues that may occur.
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