The things people ask before they call

A conversation and a walkthrough, at no charge. We look at the house, you describe what you want to change, and we give you a range drawn from comparable work. That range is a filter, not an estimate, and we will say so rather than let it harden into a number you remember six months later.

No. If you do not have one, we design and build under one agreement, which means the price develops alongside the drawings rather than arriving at the end of them. If you already have a design team, that is a different and equally good route — we price the design honestly and build it, and we deal with the architect directly rather than around them.

Our work generally starts around $150,000. Below that you are better served by a specialist trade or a smaller contractor, and we would rather say so on the phone than after you have spent time on it. That is not a judgement about the work. It is that our overhead — design, project management, a settled group of trades — does not make sense on a smaller job, and you would be paying for it.

Houston and the neighborhoods around it, with most of our work inside the Loop. We stay geographically tight on purpose. A project manager who can be at your house in twenty minutes is worth more to you than one who covers the whole metro.

At the end of preconstruction, when the design is complete, the work has been priced by the trades who will do it, and the contract is signed. That number is the price. Before then you get progressively narrower ranges: a wide band after the first walkthrough, a tighter one after discovery, and a number that tracks the drawings through design. Anyone giving you a fixed price before the design exists is either guessing or planning to recover it later.

Because it is real work — measuring, opening things up, checking the foundation and drainage, and establishing what the city and your deed restrictions will allow. A builder who does that free is either not doing it, or recovering it in the construction price of the clients who do proceed. We would rather charge for it and credit it against the design fee if you go ahead. About one in five discovery engagements ends without construction, usually because the scope and the budget do not meet. That is discovery working.

Yes. Ten per cent on a new-work job, and fifteen to twenty on a whole-home renovation of an older house. A contingency is not padding — it is the honest acknowledgement that nobody can see behind a wall until it is open. Unspent contingency is returned to you; that is what distinguishes it from a higher price.

A deposit at contract, then progress payments tied to completed milestones rather than to the calendar. You pay for work that exists. The final payment is due after the punch list is closed, not before. That ordering is the entire point of a punch list.

Sometimes, and it is the wrong question to build around. Kitchens and bathrooms recover the most; additions recover more in the inner Loop than further out. If resale return is the primary goal, say so early — it changes what we would recommend spending on, and occasionally it means recommending you do less.

A kitchen is six to fourteen weeks on site. A bathroom four to eight. An addition five to eleven months. A whole-home remodel seven to fourteen. Add three to seven months of design, permitting and preconstruction before any of those start. That front half is where clients are most often surprised, and it is the half that makes the second half predictable.

One project manager owns the job from contract to close-out, and a settled group of trade partners does the work. Not whoever was cheapest that month. You will meet the leads, and they will be the same people in month seven.

Structural work, electrical, plumbing and mechanical alterations all require permits. We file them and manage the inspections. Houston has no zoning, which surprises people into assuming there are no constraints. There are — deed restrictions, platting, setbacks, height limits, and historic district review. We check all of it in discovery, which is the cheapest phase in which to find out that what you have drawn is not allowed.

You can, and it is priced and signed before the work happens. What matters is when: the same change costs a fraction in design compared with construction. Every change order states the schedule effect as well as the cost, because a small change that adds three weeks is not a small change.

Two years on workmanship, plus whatever the manufacturers cover on the products installed. You get a document with a term and a scope on it, not a promise made on a doorstep. We also come back at the end of the first year to look at anything that has moved or settled. Most houses have something, and it is easier for everyone if we come and look rather than wait to be called.

Call us. We would rather hear about it than not, including when it turns out not to be our work — knowing what failed in a house we renovated is worth the visit either way. If it is ours, we fix it. If it is a manufacturer's, we deal with the manufacturer rather than handing you a phone number.