Residential Design and Remodeling
Residential design and remodeling involves designing living spaces that fit your lifestyle, tastes, and needs. When choosing a residential designer or architect, check their qualifications and past projects for a good match.
If you’re building a unique home, changing styles on an existing house, or making significant structural changes, consider an architect. They can draft official blueprints that contractors can build from.
Pre-Design
This step is crucial to understanding the project and setting it up for success. It includes many different activities like zoning ordinance analysis, building code analysis, programing, and a survey of the site. This information is then organized into a document known as a program. This program describes all the spaces of your new building, how they will be used, and their approximate sizes.
This phase also involves a cost analysis, including design fees, contingency, furniture and equipment, testing, surveying and other costs that may be included in your project. This allows the owner to have rough estimates for construction costs before proceeding with the design phases.
The pre-design phase lays the foundation for your remodel and is residential design and remodeling one of the most important steps in the process. It is the key to ensuring that your project is successful and that all parties are on the same page. This step often reveals many small issues that could cause major rifts in the construction process later on, such as cost or impracticality. This is one of the main reasons that residential design-build firms are so popular.
Schematic Design
Once the architects have a good sense of client goals and project constraints, they can begin exploring design options. This stage is often done with a lot of sketching and rough plan drawings rather than formal architectural plans, so the architect can quickly explore different possibilities to find what works best for the client.
This is also where the team may invite in consultants such as structural and mechanical engineers to start mapping out their work, or a cost consultant to help determine rough pricing for the project. The architects will also be able to use this information to help the clients understand how certain looks might not fit within their budgets.
It’s common to explore multiple options in the schematic design phase, but one will ultimately be chosen as a starting point for the design development phase. The goal is to settle on a concept that will provide a framework through which the detail-oriented work of design development can proceed. Throughout the design process, your architects will keep you informed of their explorations and work to answer any questions that come up.
Design Development
Residential design doesn’t just mean the freestanding single-family homes you see in suburban neighborhoods; it also covers any structure intended for human habitation. That means apartments, townhomes, cottages, mansions, and more. Each of these structures requires an architect to conceptualize the idea and bring it to life through all the architectural design phases.
During the schematic design phase, your architect will work with you to design what amounts to the bare bones of the building. They will also do a site analysis, precedent research, and analyze zoning and code issues to determine what can be constructed on your property.
This residential design process also includes layouts for plumbing, electrical, and heating systems as well as a full set of construction drawings. Depending on the project delivery method you choose (design-build, design-negotiate-bid, or design-bid-build), your architect may work with a contractor during this phase to determine cost estimates for material and labor. They may also prepare a draft of full specification sections for the structure and exterior.
Construction Documents
Residential construction documents serve as a comprehensive visual representation of all graphic hotel renovation consultant project details, including floor plans, elevations, sections, and engineering drawings. These drawings help stakeholders communicate their design intent, ensure compliance with regulations and building codes, and facilitate a high-quality construction process.
One of the most important aspects of residential construction documents are floor plans, which showcase the layout and dimensions of rooms, walls, windows, doors, and other architectural elements from a top-down perspective. These documents are used to obtain building permits, assist homeowners in understanding the overall structure of their buildings, and aid contractors in estimating construction costs.
Elevations are an integral part of residential construction documents, as they showcase the visual appearance and dimensions of a building’s exterior. These drawings are used to ensure compliance with building codes, facilitate coordination, and enhance the aesthetic appeal of the finished building. Engineering drawings are another critical component of residential construction documents, as they showcase the structural and engineering requirements for a building’s components. These include foundation plans, structural framing, load-bearing walls, beams, and columns.
Building Permits
A permit is an official approval from a local governmental agency allowing you to proceed with construction, renovation, or remodeling on your property. It ensures that your project complies with local standards of safety for land use, zoning, and construction.
During this phase, your contractor will create and submit a permit application and other required documents. This includes adding technical documentation to your construction documents that explains how the project complies with zoning and land use regulations. It also includes scheduling and passing inspections at various stages of the work, including foundation, framing, and electrical.
Some projects require a full permit that must be reviewed by your building’s architect and co-op board. This is most common for complex renovations like reconfiguring a kitchen or bathroom, removing walls and dropped ceilings, and new construction work. If your contractor handles the permitting process, they may even include this in the cost of your project. Otherwise, you will need to include an allowance in your contract for the permit costs. This process can take a few weeks to several months, depending on the complexity of your project.
