Hi All. We are planning on a major renovation to include new kitchen, family room and expanstion of our current garage to 3 bays. We have our architect selected but wanted input on how much time to plan for each phase: design, bid and construction. Any thoughts? We live in Ohio, so weather is a concern. Would like to have access to our outdoor grill when our kitchen is in shambles.
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I do construction administration work for an architectural firm that does mostly commercial and industrial projects in the Chicago area. Last week, we picked up two new projects to be designed and bid in time for the beginning of next spring's constructions schedule. I would recommend the same to you. Start working on the design work with your architect now. You will undoubtedly want to make changes to any schemes that they come up with. Depending on the scope and complexity of your project, the design development drawings and the actual construction documents that the addition will be built from will require anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months to draft.
Bidding should take no more than two to two three weeks (probably less). I would also allow time for revisions just in case the budget doesn't quite allow for the plans to be built exactly as intended.
Don't forget municipal plan review and permitting time as well. I have one project that was approved for permit the day after it was submitted, while another was just approved more than two months after the initial plan submittal (and resubmittal).
A construction schedule is hard to determine without any detail such as site conditions, existing structure condition, a final design, finishes, material lead times, weather, etc.
Remember that anytime spent on establishing details, specifications, etc. during the design phase will result in bids that should be more in line with one another. While it may seem silly to think about things like what faucet is going on the kitchen sink, if it's in the drawings, bids should be comparing apples to apples. It will also help to eliminate some head scratching and on the fly decision making once you start construction. You don't want to start hearing "What are going to do here?" after the roof comes off.
Another piece of advice is to talk to your architect about these things now. He or she should have an idea of what the timeline will likely be based on their familiarity with the project and knowledge of the local trades.
Hope all of this helps a little.
Good advice--for building new and remodeling both.
There can be huge differences in the permitting timeframe (and the additional costs), depending on location. We're building a custom timberframe house in an unincorporated area in Arkansas, where the only permit required is for the septic system. We broke ground in April and will be done in December.
A friend is remodeling in Seattle, and we'll have completed our house before he even gets through the permitting process. His latest round with the city requires his architect to update the drawings to add egress requirements to the basement windows--not changing the windows, mind you, just adding a statement to the drawing.
Leigh
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