Most people building a custom home for the first time hire twice. They hire an architect, wait for a finished set of drawings, then send that set out to three builders and wait again for prices. It is the traditional route, it is what most people assume is normal, and it has one structural flaw: the first time anyone with a calculator looks at the design is after the design is finished.
| Hiring twice | Design-build | |
|---|---|---|
| Contracts | Two — architect, then builder | One |
| When you learn the price | After drawings are done | While they are being drawn |
| Who owns an overage | Disputed | Us |
| Redesign after bids | Common — and billed | Rare, because it never got that far |
| Builder's input on buildability | After the fact | From the first site walk |
| Who you call at 7am | Depends on the question | Dale or Erin |
What that actually feels like
Say the drawings have a twenty-foot clear span over the great room. In the traditional route that span survives all the way through design development, gets bid in month seven, and comes back carrying a steel beam, a crane day and a number nobody planned for. Now you are choosing between the room you fell in love with and a redesign you are also paying for.
Here, Dale sees that span in week three and says what it costs. You keep it with your eyes open, or you find out that nineteen feet is free. Same information, four months earlier, while it is still just a line.
The honest case against it
Design-build gives up one real thing: competitive bidding. In the traditional route three builders price the same drawings and you take the best number. Here you are trusting one shop's pricing from the start.
That trade is worth it when the site is complicated, the design is unusual, or you want one phone number. It is worth less when you are building something conventional on a flat lot, where the drawings are easy to price and the bids will be close together. If that is your project, hire twice — you will probably save money, and we will tell you so at the first meeting.
It is also the wrong route if you already have a finished set of drawings from someone else. At that point you want a general contractor, not us.
“The part I did not expect was finding out in week three that the thing I wanted was expensive. On our last build we found that out in month eight, with a slab already poured.”
Priya R. — Tetherow, Bend
Not sure which route fits?
Tell us about the site and we will say plainly which one we would pick.
Start a build