Building a custom house requires the advice and services of home builders in Houston, if you are building locally.
From an owner’s perspective, building a custom home is an exhilarating time in anyone’s life. In most cases custom home building will likely be a once in a lifetime event for them.
If this is the first custom home design you are creating or you are experienced at custom home building, the journey is a unique experience that will be both emotionally challenging and rewarding.
That is why you want to surround yourself with a trusted and knowledgeable custom home builders in Houston.
The house construction process begins with the selection of the home site. Finding the ideal piece of land for building a custom home normally takes some time.
Before purchasing the house lot, read the deed restrictions. They often contain house construction restrictions that can directly affect the custom house you wish to build.
Keep in mind that the building lot will dictate the general shape, height and positioning of the luxury house on the lot.
With the lot purchased and deed restrictions in hand, it’s time to begin selecting custom home builders in Houston and home designers.
There are 2 common delivery methods for the design and construction of your custom house. The first method is the conventional process of hiring an architect to prepare plans and having a small vetted group of custom home builders in Houston to bid the project.
This approach is called the design to bid delivery method. The second method is when you hire the luxury home builder to design the house plans that you intend on building.
This is called the design to build approach. The selection of qualified house designers and custom home builders in Houston do not need to be independently exclusive searches.
Design Build Approach
As mentioned, the design build approach is a process of the owner hiring the design build contractor to orchestrate building a house and designing the luxury house.
The design build contractor that are home builders in Houston that will facilitate the design, engineering and the schedule of values for the house designed.
The design build contractor is the single point of contact and the responsible party to the owner through the entire new home construction process.
This approach has a number of advantages to the owner over the conventual design to bid approach.
- This approach is a faster overall process from design to construction completion,
- Single point of contact and responsibility through entire process,
- Allows the owner to remain in control through entire process,
- Reduces the owner’s risk of architectural errors and omissions,
To learn more about the design build approach to custom home building visit the link.
Design to Bid Approach
Having an architect prepare your house documents for soliciting custom builder’s bids is a commonly accepted practice.
Although this process can take several additional months more than the design build approach, the owners can hire the architect as a construction consultant through custom house building process.
Although this approach has a natural tendency to pit your architect and builder against each other, rather than approaching this as a team.
If there are errors or omissions in the architect’s house plans, the builder will require change orders to correct them.
One of the of the things that frustrate owners with this approach is that architects are not familiar with the cost of construction and the home plans can lead to unexpected higher project cost than planned.
This will lead to a longer delays in the architectural phase process from value engineering, redrawing the plans and asking the bidders to rebid.
The owner also tends to get caught in the middle of interpretation disputes if the construction documents are not clear and will normally be responsible for the cost of architectural plan disputes that are not clearly defined.
Custom Home Plans
As with any custom home building process of designing a luxury house, it begins with collecting inspiration ideas to communicate with the house designer.
These design ideas are required for the house designer to understand the owner’s vision. Your house designer wants to know design features such as the architectural style, number of bedrooms and bathroom.
Other relevant early house design features are items such as ceiling heights, living area and kitchen location and master bath location.
Once your house designer blocks out the general floor plan, the owner can provide guidance on room sizes, you can discuss door and window locations.
The actual home plan design process is usually 3 phases, preliminary design, design development and construction documents.
- Preliminary Design – This phase includes the predesign meetings through the concept creation. This design phase goals are creating a working floor plan and 4 profile elevations. Custom home plans should have completed dimensions and be drawn to scale.
- Design Development – This phase continues the detail development of wall sections, kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, fireplaces, build casework and special architectural features such as ceiling, millwork trim stairways.
- Construction Documents – During this phase the house plans have been accepted by the owners, the house designer submits these plans to the structural engineer and MEP engineers for the design plan details for foundation, framing, HVAC, plumbing and electric.
At the completion of design development of the house plans, the luxury builder will prepare a schedule of values for the construction cost.
Provided the owner approves the construction cost, the custom builder and owner will move to a contract agreement.
If the construction cost needs to be adjusted, the owner and custom builder will conduct some value engineering.
Once a contract has been executed, the plans will be submitted for engineering and the owners and custom builder will continue selecting owner decorative home products, like exterior materials and colors, plumbing fixtures, cabinetry, flooring and any other items over the course of the building of a custom home.
If you need additional details about the custom home plan development process, please read our architectural building design resource.
Selecting Custom Home Builders in Houston
Most owners will select two or three custom home builders to discuss their custom-building project and to vet their builders.
Determining which of the select luxury home builders to interview is often the trick. The owner should begin by deciding which of the delivery methods best fits their needs.
If you are interested in the design build approach, you should make a short list of modern home builders to interview.
If you are more interested in directly hiring an architect, you should also make a short list of architects.
Researching the custom builders and architect’s websites is a good place to start your search. This allows you to conduct your research according to your schedule and the time to research the professionals that catch your attention.
Looking at their online portfolios and reading about their work process can quickly eliminate many of the professionals you are considering.
Once you have your short list of professionals it is a good idea to prepare a list of questions that are important to you.
We have provided the following questions to ask your builder as examples of subjects you may want to discuss.
Working with a Master Builder
A master builder is a designation that is granted to professional builders that have more than 20 year’s experience, has built more than 100 houses, has met the accredited continued education courses and maintains contractor insurance in good standing.
Once you have selected a master builder to work with, communicate your expectations and openly discuss how you will work together.
You are likely to be spending upwards of 18 – 24 months together, getting a working understanding of best effective methods of communicating and what to expect about progress meetings will go a long way in avoiding dust ups.
Your luxury builder should understand that house building is an emotional process to the owner and make the required effort to over communicate when there is a possibility of doubt.
On the other hand, your master builder in Houston should be a professional and deserves the respect for their advice and directions through out the process.
You can expect that something will go wrong during the design and building process. In most situations, your builder will address the issue and work to amicable resolve the matter.
If you like your luxury home builder and trust him to have your best interest at stake, work with him and make your custom home building experience fun and special journey.
Conclusion
Building a house is a meticulous and detailed process that has to be navigated with the best master builder that fits your needs.
From creating house plans to the timely completion of a quality-built house, understanding the process and risk of building a house is essential to meet your goals.
Your house builders will provide you the guidance and advice of navigating building a house and preparing your custom home plans.
For a detailed and deep dive into the custom home builders and building a house we direct you to visit our hyperlink.
