Some homeowners arrive with a full set of drawings. Some arrive with a room they do not like and no idea who to call first. Both are workable. What changes is the order things happen in.
We are architecturally driven, and the reputation we have is as the architect's builder. Here is what that means in practice when there are three parties involved instead of two.
Who does what
The rough division is that an architect resolves the structure and the space, a designer resolves how the finished rooms look and function, and the builder makes the drawn thing exist in an actual house that has its own opinions.
Those roles overlap in real projects, and on smaller jobs one person may hold more than one of them. The part that matters is that all three sets of decisions get made by somebody with the authority to make them. Projects go wrong in the gaps, where everyone assumed a decision belonged to somebody else.
When to bring the builder in
Earlier than most people do.
A drawing can be entirely correct and still describe something expensive to build for reasons that are not visible on the page. Where a wall sits relative to what is behind it. Whether a run of pipe has anywhere sensible to go. What the sequence between trades has to be for the work to happen in a workable order.
Bringing a builder in while those choices are still cheap to change is worth more than any efficiency found later. Once the drawings are approved and the work is scoped, that same conversation costs a redesign.
This is not an argument for hiring us before your architect. It is an argument for the three of us being in the same conversation before the drawings are final.
What building to design intent means
It means the drawing is the brief, and where the house makes the drawing impossible we come back to the intent behind it instead of quietly substituting our own judgement.
Every remodel produces at least one of these. A dimension that cannot hold because of what is inside the wall. A detail that assumed a floor was level. The question at that point is what the design was trying to achieve, because that is the thing to preserve. Solving it in isolation is how a house ends up with a room that works and looks like nobody was in charge of it.
We specialize in building partnerships with architects, designers and all the trades, which is a long way of saying the drawing does not stop being live once the build starts.
If you already have drawings
We build what they drew. If the cabinetry is already specified, that specification is what we build to, and we bring the tradespeople, artisans and suppliers in around a plan that is already made rather than restarting it.
Send what you have. Partial drawings are still useful. So is a set you are not sure about.
If you do not have an architect or a designer
Then the first question is whether your project actually needs one. Moving walls, changing the structure or reworking how a floor plan flows usually does. Rebuilding a room within its existing footprint often does not.
That is a reasonable thing to work out at a free in-home consultation before you commit to anyone. We would rather tell you the project needs a designer than take it on underspecified.
Talk to us
Murrayhill Remodeling LLC works in Beaverton, Portland, Tigard and Hillsboro. Oregon CCB #216870. Call (503) 522-8288 or use the contact page, and bring whatever drawings exist.