In order to understand your project, property, and motivation behind completing a residential construction project, we usually start off the process with a 15-20 minute call. In this call we discuss your ideas, potential zoning constraints, and answer any questions you have about the design, pre-construction, or construction process. Next steps are created to fit your needs and then we progress to Step 2!

Based on our conversation and the additional information provided about the property, home, and your wishlist for the project, we craft a preliminary budget for you to review. These numbers are based on past projects completed that are in our project database and will carry a range to account for variations in project scope and the wide selection of finishes that you can choose from. The goal here is to give you a representative range to ensure that expectations are set before we go to step 3.

Many times companies will not give you accurate costing until you have designs in hand, but if you don’t know the costing for your project why would you invest in a design that you can’t afford? We cut through this whole “chicken and egg” song and dance by utilizing our robust database of projects to give you the clarity and confidence you need to progress to the design phase.

Once expectations are set with the preliminary scoping and budgeting, now comes an equally important step, zoning analysis and architectural design involvement.

For most substantial renovations and custom home building projects (including ADU’s) we will need to review the zoning bylaws for the property to understand what is and isn’t possible. We usually bring in one of our architectural design partners to review along with our own review to ensure that what you want to complete is possible. You do not have to work with the design partner who we involve in this step, but they are vetted by us and will provide you a fee proposal for getting the design and permitting process completed for you at your request.

We do not require our clients to work with our architectural partners, but we do vouch for their level of quality and service (which is why we work with them).

Note that usually our clients have a clear understanding of their financing options by this step, and it is recommended to consult with your financial partner to determine what your budget can be before going into the design process. BVM Contracting is partnered with a few financing partners that can help you understand your options!

Once you have chosen your architectural design partner (one of our vetted ones or otherwise), we attach ourselves to your design process which allows us to work collaboratively with you and your architectural partner to ensure that your design will work with your construction budget.

We help create an even more detailed scope of work and get more granular with the project costing so you understand where your money is being spent and so we can pivot when certain design decisions are causing the construction budget to increase outside of your budget.

Your architectural design partner will set-up your plans to submit for a comprehensive zoning review, which is usually when we start to build the more detailed scope of work for your project.

Once you have your zoning review completed (or have received your approval through Committee of Adjustment) the process of starting your construction drawings usually starts.

Sometimes (depending on how quickly you want to get the permits) you can combine the zoning review and building code review, but for clients that are not in a rush the steps should be completed separately.

In this phase, structural engineering, building code overlays, and HVAC design are all coordinated by your architectural design partner. Concurrently to this work happening, we are getting even more specific with the scope of work and are building a budget that will be as accurate as possible to the actual costs of the project. We are usually collaborating with the structural engineer, HVAC design team, architectural partner, and other necessary consultants to ensure that we have covered all of the bases and are creating the best value-per-dollar project possible.

It is usually in this phase that we are conducting site visits to our ongoing projects, you can meet more of the project team, and we can give you our Template Letter of Intent and Contract documents. We also provide references to past clients for every one of our projects! Note that even though this is the usual time that we conduct all of this we sometimes move up site visits to ongoing project sites and distribution of LOI and contract documents earlier in the process to make sure expectations are set. We have nothing to hide and enjoy being a transparent source of information for our clients!

Once the construction drawings are finalized, we make the necessary adjustments to ensure your project scope is accurate to the plans provided, then review the budget with you and determine if there is any value engineering that will need to be completed before the next step. Usually there are a few iterations at this step but utlimately what we are arriving at is the finalized scope of work that we send out to all of our subcontractors and vendors for finalized pricing.

At this step, and in order to ensure the client can start their project at their ideal start date, we have our clients sign a letter of intent. The letter of intent is a deposit that is made to cement the project into our project schedule while we iron out the final details of the project. The deposit varies by project size but can be anywhere between $5,000-$7,000 + HST. This deposit is put towards the construction budget once the project starts.

Once the Letter of Intent is signed, we then progress to fully procuring the scope of work with all of our subcontractors and vendors. This will usually require a site visit with some of our subcontractors and the process of finalizing everything usually takes between 2-4 weeks depending on project complexity, but once it is completed we arrive at a fully procured, fixed price scope of work and budget.

Any last adjustments that need to be made to the scope are made at this step, but if the client wants to make any changes after the project signing they can do so through change orders. Our scopes are meant to be dynamic and collaborative, so you will have access to it at all times and it is the central source of truth for your project!

This is what we were all waiting for! Now that you have your permits in hand and BVM Contracting as your Builder, you are all set to start your construction project!