How to reduce construction cost?

The word, “construction administration” should be changed to “construction budgets all the time!”

Today’s blog entry is the beginning of many entries that will describe one particular residential renovation project from our office, Studio Jonah.  It will focus on one phase of the project, Construction Administration (CA).  It is the stage where all the planned designs get followed and executed according to architecture design drawings our office produced  (building permit set).   

This particular project is atypical in that the client asked us to oversee the construction part of the project beyond the architecture design phase.  Although CA work is typically treated as part of the architect’s portion of work for bigger projects (commercial, institutional, etc.), many residential (smaller projects) clients tend to separate the work to “save” the cost thinking  that the design and construction can be handled separately:  design by  architect, construction by contractors.  However, these processes cannot be divided, but they need to be follow by one another to create one coherent project.  In the past, our office has seen the projects where we produce the design / construction drawings, however, the outcome of the construction has not been always followed with our design intentions.

Reducing the Construction Cost:

One of the biggest benefits for the client for this project is that the we spent  the chunk of  time on  discussing the construction budget  with the contractors/client– 5 different versions- and tightening the budget with clear wishes from the client) by  researching on the best materials, as well as the cost for those materials.   The outcome of our office spending time on researching materials/ cost has been outstanding:  getting informed about better construction materials/methods, as well as various material cost options have been beneficial to the client.     With the architect acting as a “client” to the contractors, the process of construction moves in a coherent manner and saving money in the process!

There will be more entries to follow on this project…