Whidbey Island Home Builders

Building It Right

Getting the best result

The objective for most people who build a new home is to get a valuable return on the investment and a home that fits their lifestyle needs. Value is created when your finished home is worth more to you than the cost of construction.

• Planning Your Project
• Preparing a Construction Budget
• Timing Your Build
• Sourcing and Delivering Materials
• Home Building Tips

Keep in mind that there are no shortcuts to achieving a successful result when building your home. It takes expertise, good planning and proper management to build your home right.

Planning Your Project

Building in any remote location has its special challenges. This is particularly true of Whidbey Island. All materials need to be brought a long distance to the building site. Proper planning is absolutely essential to keep costs under control. Making changes once construction has started becomes expensive and time consuming. It can also result in major delays if additional material needs to be manufactured, sourced and shipped.

Design and structural changes require expertise from professionals who have a good understanding of the specific project. Whidbey Island Home Builders has relationships with these kinds of experts and can get them to do the work required on a timely basis.

It is vital to prepare an accurate budget, which includes realistic estimates, which reflect the scope of work to be done. Whidbey Island Home Builders can help you determine what is involved in your specific project. We can also help you make good decisions so you can get a successful outcome.

Preparing a Construction Budget

Cost certainty in a construction project is a major concern for homeowners, builders and financial institutions alike. Whidbey Island Home Builders has access to the proprietary Custom Builder XPM ™ construction estimation software developed specifically for the custom home industry. It produces realistic budget estimates that take into consideration all the details of the project in a short period of time.

The ability to generate a realistic budget in order to get the required level of cost certainty is not only important for the homeowner. It also helps financial institutions validate homeowners and builders for construction loans. You want to make all the necessary changes to your design so you can finalize your blueprints before asking for price quotes. Making changes during construction will alter the scope of work and subsequently affect the budget.

Getting a fixed price on the entire project is generally not feasible due to the complexity of building a custom home. A combination of fixed prices and realistic allowances is the most accurate budgeting method. Simplistic finished price per square foot quotes for the whole project are not realistic in custom home building.

Whidbey Island Home Builders can obtain fixed pricing for the design and materials to get to the lock-up stage. This usually represents about one-third of the construction budget. Also the cost of framing the home can usually be fixed. Allowances for the remainder of the project can be determined once the homeowner has made a final decision on finishing materials and other items.

Timing Your Project

Taking your project to completion will depend on the size of home, location of property, complexity of construction, time taken to get permits and frequency of inspections. To determine a realistic occupancy date, Whidbey Island Home Builders uses a comprehensive work schedule detailing key milestones to keep the project on track. Each milestone is carefully planned to bring the project to successful completion and meet your projected occupancy date.

The Whidbey Island area is fairly temperate but the relatively large amount of rain that falls between November and February can make excavation work difficult. Concrete cannot be poured if foundations have become saturated with water.

The home needs to be designed and built to withstand frequent rainfall and windy conditions. This is why it is important to select the right building materials, particularly roofing materials and windows. The components must be designed and warranted to resist water penetration.

Obtaining permits may require that there is ample drainage, depending on the location of your building lot. Whidbey Island Home Builders has a thorough understanding of local requirements and can help you build the right kind of home for the area.

Sourcing and Delivering Materials

Whidbey Island Home Builders serves the Whidbey Island and surrounding area. We generally build within a one-hour drive from Whidbey Island, but are also experienced in serving more remote locations within the area.

Some of the area around Whidbey Island is relatively remote and includes a number of islands. This means that travel via the ferry system is required to access sites in these locations. Good planning is extremely important when building in this area to minimize transportation costs of materials.

In addition to local suppliers, Whidbey Island Home Builders has a preferential arrangement for the supply of building materials with major national suppliers. This means we can offer a wide variety of quality products that are not readily available and difficult to find locally. This allows us to bring in the right quantities and qualities of material at excellent pricing and in full truck loads to save on delivery costs.

Home Building Tips

Building a custom home successfully requires attention-to-detail and a working knowledge of the construction process. There are many tasks to be performed and this requires a combination of good management and skilled people.

Homes have become more complex over the years and building code requirements more stringent. As a result, more construction expertise is required. This is why most homeowners agree that it is safer to hire building professionals to complete their projects. In some cases, banks will require a proven general contractor.

Any construction project is a major undertaking in terms of both time and money. The objective is to get a valuable return on your investment and a home that fits your lifestyle needs. Value is created when your finished home is worth more to you than the cost of building it. This is best achieved by good up-front planning and then making the right purchasing and hiring decisions.

Getting ready to build

The building process starts with selecting the right design and combination of materials. Once these key decisions are made, you can start to plan your project in detail. It takes time to get ready for actual construction, as a number of issues need to be addressed before work can start.

There are many design possibilities and thousands of building components with different performance characteristics to choose from. To get the best result, it is important to choose someone early on in the process who is a design and building material specialist. This enables you to develop a site specific design that can actually be built on your property.

Hiring the Right People

Someone needs to act as the general contractor and be in charge of the entire building process. Some homeowners act as their own general contractor and hire builders and trades directly. Others hire a general contractor to look after the project.

You should select a builder who is qualified for your type of project and is available to meet your time frame. Getting someone who can find, manage and schedule the right people is also important. You can only prepare an accurate budget by obtaining construction quotes that are based on rates that apply at the time of construction. Evaluation should also be based on the expertise offered and the ability to finish the project. Selecting a builder based only on the lowest hourly rate is never the best choice.

Contractors who are not properly insured automatically transfer the risk of injury and damage-related lawsuits to the homeowner. A contractor's business liability insurance can protect you if your home is damaged by the contractor or his employees, or if he causes damage or injury to third parties.

Having a meaningful written contract with your builder is essential. The key elements are scope of work, procedures for changes, payment terms and provisions for sign-off at the time of completion. The construction contract should also address responsibility for work-related injuries, damages to third parties and property damage (builder's risk insurance).

Getting building permits

Home building is a highly regulated process. Building permits are required before construction can begin. The time it takes to get permits is dependent on:

• Availability of finalized blueprints
• Compliance with local building regulations
• Processing time by the planning department
• Seasonal planning department work loads

Apply for permits as soon as you have your construction blueprints because you can only start foundation work when building permission has been received. You can always delay construction, but you can't move forward without permits.

Preparing the building site

Once the land is cleared, the actual construction of your home can commence. This starts with excavating so that foundations can be formed and concrete poured when the weather conditions are right. It is important to get the foundations in place as soon as blueprints are available and permits have been obtained. Cement cannot be poured below freezing temperatures or other adverse weather conditions without special procedures.

Construction to Lock-up

When the building is at the lock-up stage it means that the home is now weatherproof and secure. The roof is complete with windows and doors installed. An inspection will take place at lock-up. This key milestone inspection will determine the structural soundness of the home and its compliance with building codes.

Finishing to Occupancy

When all of the exterior and interior finishing work is complete you can apply for a final inspection. Any deficiencies identified need to be remedied by you or your general contractor prior to granting an occupancy permit. You may be able to move in prior to receiving an occupancy certificate but you will need one prior to obtaining a mortgage, home warranty protection or selling your house.