When all washes out at the end of a typical project, in our experience we have found that anything you do not document in the construction documentation production process is simply a decision you are choosing to defer to someone else to make on your behalf (which does not turn out the way you want). With fully complete drawings provided by your architect you will better understand exactly what you are going to achieve and be able to obtain more accurate costs without unreasonable questions and change orders. Regardless, every decision on your project will eventually have to be made by someone and we feel the vast majority of them should happen together with your architect team at the ideal time without the added pressure of on-going construction and a site superintendant needing answers.
The more you consider, define, draw and document before construction starts, the more control you will have over the outcome or finished work.
We acknowledge that there are different pathways to building and suggest that under informed circumstances there can be a choice in the level of documentation your architect produces. As such, our 'tiers' of construction documentation quality varies in the time it takes to prepare and coordinate these instruments of service, as well as the cost and level of information they contain. These tiers - essential, standard and premium - are described generally as follows:
The 'Essential' tier of construction documentation includes as much information as possible in the time and fee afforded us to ensure minimum compliance with our code of ethics and life safety codes and regulations required by the authority having jurisdiction.
The 'Standard' tier of construction documentation represents a fully coordinated architectural expression and hierarchy of information that adequately provides what is necessary to communicate the design intent to a contractor and related sub-trades AND the authority having jurisdiction.
Our 'Premium' construction documentation process is designed to carefully catalogue and document ALL the decisions that are made and convey that information concisely to the entire project team: be it the client, contractor, consultants, approving bodies or anyone helping to construct your building project.
Nevertheless, within this framework clients have a informed choice to make. Some clients are able to carry a large contingency in lieu of the lower expense to complete fully coordinated construction documentation - often with the aim of speeding up the delivery process with a lower expectation for the execution of the final work and acceptance of much higher delivery costs.
Tiered Construction Documents*
Construction dollars are orders of magnitude higher than consulting costs attributed to producing higher quality documentation under calmer pre-construction phased of design and document production.
*Fees vary considerably depending on the scope of work and sub-consultants required. Please reach out to discuss your project needs.
