<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=2879590985550603&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">

Have a project you’ve been thinking about? Contact us for a consultation and estimate.

Contact Us
Basement Remodel in Ashburn with Statement Ceiling and Bar

What is Design-Build Construction? 

The design-build delivery system is a streamlined approach in residential custom home building and remodeling where a single entity, like Metro Building & Remodeling Group, handles both the design and construction phases. This method ensures seamless communication, consistent quality, and a unified vision from start to finish. Our clients benefit from a more efficient process, accurate budgeting, and timely project completion. With design-build, there’s no need to juggle multiple contractors, making the entire experience more enjoyable and less stressful through a cohesive and highly collaborative process.

What are the steps in the design-build process?

1: Meet and Discuss

2: Initial Ideas, Plans, and Estimates

3: Meet to Review and Select

4: Refine Plans and Costs, Meet and Agree

5: Construction

6: Post-Project Survey

 

At Metro Building & Remodeling Group, our step-by-step process ensures a seamless journey from initial consultation to project completion. Each phase is meticulously planned and executed to deliver a stress-free, high-quality remodeling or custom home-building experience.

You can read more below to get a more detailed understanding of our seamless process.

Basement Remodel Industrial

Learn About Our Design-build Process 

Step 1: Meet and Discuss


Our process begins with a meeting to discuss your project.

We will meet you onsite, look at the proposed work site, and take initial measurements. During this initial phase, we will learn about your priorities and preferences, including why you are remodeling as well as your wants, needs, and desires. Your existing home may have some unique opportunities or challenges, which we would like to learn about as well. Along the way, we listen very carefully to what you are telling us.

At this time, we will discuss an approximate amount you want to invest in the project and help to set a tentative budget for the entire project. We will discuss and address any questions you may have about your project, the process, and our company. If you would like to proceed to the next step, we agree to a set budget to develop design ideas and agree on an initial deposit amount.

Step 2: Develop Initial Ideas, Plans, and Estimates


The next step is to begin working on a design.

After your deposit is finalized, our designers take the time needed to understand how you plan to use your space. For example, if you are undertaking a kitchen renovation, our designers need to understand how you plan to use your kitchen, who will be in the kitchen, how many cooks are working together, whether they are left-handed or right-handed, and so on. In fact, we have a packet of information and a questionnaire that you can fill out as your “homework,” ensuring that we design a dream kitchen that truly fits your needs.

As part of the design phase, we create estimates of what the ideas and options will likely cost. These initial cost estimates will use placeholders called “allowances” for products, materials, and finishes you will eventually need to select, which can impact the cost of the project, sometimes significantly.

However, unlike some remodelers who use low-ball the allowances, we will use more realistic allowances based on the information you provided in our first meeting. So, if you want a luxury kitchen, the allowances used will be higher than if you are looking for a basic kitchen. This will help you make more informed decisions, based on more realistic cost information, about how to proceed with the subsequent design work and construction. Please read "A Note About Our Process" to learn more.

Step 3: Meet to Review and Select


We meet again.

We meet again to go over the initial ideas, plans, and estimates. We will discuss the options and you can decide which ideas and plan options you would like to move forward with refining further.

Step 4: Refine Plans and Costs, Meet and Agree


We now develop and refine the ideas and plans you selected in Step 3.

At this point, we refine the cost estimates and create a list of product and finish selections. We meet again and present everything to you for your review and discussion. If you have any questions, we address them. Once you have all the information you need, you’ll decide whether to proceed or not. Upon your approval to proceed, we prepare a construction agreement.

Step 5: Construction


We begin the construction phase of the project.

We start by finalizing and submitting plans for permits. Next, we schedule the project and have pre-construction meetings with our team. You complete making any product and finish selections not already made.

We meet with you and go over the details of how the construction phase will flow and you get to meet with some of the team that will be working on your project. We address any questions or concerns you may have before beginning construction.

Step 6: Post-Project Survey


Your feedback is vital.

While we are constantly communicating with you during the project, at the end of every project we ask you to complete an online survey performed by GuildQuality (GQ), an independent third party. GQ is the leading homeowner satisfaction company in our industry. They will ask you to rate us in key areas known to be important to homeowners. They then provide us with unbiased and unfiltered feedback so we know how well our clients think we are doing.

This critical feedback allows us to improve our services and process when and where needed. This feedback and improvement cycle is one of the many ways that help us set ourselves apart from the competition.

A Note About Our Process

To help assure our cost estimates are as accurate as possible, we use allowances based on the preferences and priorities we discussed in Step 2.

In Step 4, unless you have made all of the needed product, material, and finish selections, the cost estimates we prepare will have “allowances” for the selections you will make later. As you can imagine, there is a wide range of costs among different types and qualities of products, materials, and finishes.

Why do we do this?

Knowing most people are conditioned to go with lower-priced proposals, some contractors use allowances that are below what will cover the cost of the products, materials and finish selections you are likely to pick. In this way, those contractors hope to get homeowners to sign on the dotted line. But when those homeowners start making selections, their actual project costs can skyrocket.

 

Tell Us About Your Project!

Where We Work

We proudly serve the DC Metro Area, including parts of Northern Virginia and in Montgomery County, Maryland.

NORTHERN
VIRGINIA

McLean
Great Falls
Falls Church
Vienna
Ashburn
North Arlington
Fairfax

MONTGOMERY COUNTY,
MARYLAND

Potomac
Chevy Chase
Bethesda
North Potomac
Kenwood
Somerset
Burning Tree Estates

WASHINGTON
D.C.

Chevy Chase
Kalorama
Wesley Heights
Spring Valley
Georgetown
AU Park
Cleveland Park