Should You Hire an Architect and Construction Company Separately
“Should you hire an architect in Lahore and a construction company in Lahore separately, or should you hire a design-build firm to design and build your space all in one? “This is a quite common question.
Design-build firms and architecture firms often make fun of each other in a friendly way. Architecture companies are said to not know how things are really built by design-build firms. I’d also like to drop my comparison of a general practitioner and an expert in medicine: just because my general practitioner could do surgery on me in a pinch doesn’t mean I shouldn’t see a specialist.
Putting aside jokes, what are the real differences? This is going to be very slow, and I will do my best to keep it helpful and fair.
When you Hire an Architect and a Construction Company Separately, what do you get?
You hire an architect and a building contractor individually after interviewing and choosing them. The party you choose first should be involved in choosing the next party, if possible. Each has its own contract with you, but they work together to make sure that the design and vision of a place are in line with how it can be built.
Why is working with an architect and construction company separately a good idea?
- Because they are separate people you hired separately, you can put together a team where you “click” with everyone.
- You can put together a team of experts to help you solve a certain problem. You might find a design-build company that does great building work but doesn’t have anyone on their team who has designed projects like the one you want to build before. As long as you hire your artist and builder separately, you can find people who are good at both.
- An architect hired on their own can help you look over your contract with a construction company and give you information about how their prices and terms stack up against those of other companies. This extra benefit checks the quality of the work and protects you.
- Since you hired the architect directly, they can give you information about the building site and reassurances that things are being built according to the plan they helped you make. Design-build businesses are trustworthy and honest, so that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t do these checks themselves. However, it’s always good to have a fresh pair of eyes look things over from a different angle..
Architects and construction companies send work to each other, so both of them have a reason to make sure you’re happy. As an architect, a contractor must know how important it is to be fair and honest if they want to work with us and have our clients encourage them. We stop giving them work if they aren’t. It’s that easy.
Problems that can come up when you work with an architect and a construction company separately
We don’t need all of these people on the team for some small tasks. Of course, there are times when you don’t need the specialist team.
- It does cost a little more to have a different architecture team look over things with fresh eyes.
- Most of the construction companies we work with and all of the ones we suggest are good to work with. But when two teams don’t work together every day and have different methods or goals, it can be hard for them to talk to each other, and things can even get hostile. It might take longer and get sticky if you do this. When putting together your team, trust and good communication go a long way.
- Many architects and people who want to become architects work for years to learn how things are made before they go out into the field. As much as possible, firms bring less-experienced staff on-site to get around this problem, but we’re still seeing less than a designer in a design-build company. There are times when we can’t bring that level of consistency to the table.
- An engineer is always 6 to 9 months behind on what it costs to build something. We can see trends in the cost per square foot, but we’re not in the trenches like contractors and building workers are, so we can’t see how prices change every week. This can be lessened by doing a lot of study and keeping track of project costs, but architects don’t see the day-to-day price changes that could help you figure out how much construction really costs.
What do you get when you hire a design-build company?
In the design-build world, you only have to interview one company that does everything. Usually, they have two different teams, but it can be the same team that builds your project. The same company handles the whole process, from the initial idea to the final building.
Why hiring a design-build firm a good idea?
- You just need to pick one firm!
- Design-build companies are great for small jobs with short deadlines.
- We hear a lot that when you work with a design-build team, you get real-time price information as the plans change. This should give you a better idea of how much the whole job will cost before you start building it.
There should be fewer surprises during building if the design team works closely with the construction team the whole time. That means changes can happen less often while the building is being built, and solutions can be found fast.
Issues that come up when you work with a design-build company
You only need to find one company. Make sure you get along with everyone on the team. You might fall in love with the architect but not the construction lead (or the other way around). Also related to the last point, it’s harder to put together a team where you love every single person. Of course, it does happen, and you shouldn’t rule out design-build firms as you think about what’s best for you and your job.
- I think that better understanding of construction costs should start from the first day of the planning process. But I don’t always hear that, even at design-build firms that are much more aware of those costs.
- Smaller, more integrated design and construction teams might not have the time to deal with tough design problems on very difficult projects. Sometimes, the schedule for building is set ahead of time and can’t be changed. With separate teams, you can make sure you have enough time to make the idea perfect before moving forward with it.
- As we already said, architects and general contractors get referrals from people they’ve worked with before and trust. Since we both send a lot of business to each other, we want to keep our relationships strong. One homeowner isn’t always the same size of referral pool, and if things don’t work out with the design-build company you hired, it can be easier to burn bridges.
- This comes down to a personal choice in the end. When we’re not quite the right fit for the type of job or the schedule, we often send potential clients to design-build firms. When the time is right, they can be a great choice. If we’re not the right fit for the job, we’ll gladly send it to other architects who use the traditional plan.
As with any choice in a building project, I suggest you do some study. You can call both types of companies and see what works best for you. There is no one right way to do this. The only bad way is to do it without knowing what your choices are.
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