A design/plan provides both the client and installer with a clear understanding of the project’s scale and details. It includes all the custom features you’ve chosen and serves as a blueprint for installation.

Without a plan, costs can quickly add up. For example, a client built a 12’ x 12’ patio without a design, only to find it too small once they added furniture. A plan would have considered the intended use and furniture, ensuring everything fit. Expanding the patio later is far more expensive than the cost of the plan itself.

A plan/design typically costs about 3% of your total project cost. For a $50,000 project, that’s around $1,500. If changes are made during construction that weren’t included in the plan, the cost to redo work could exceed the cost of the plan. Avoiding change orders through proper planning saves money.

For example, many plans call for natural stone steps. While they are beautiful, they can also be quite expensive. That’s why it’s crucial to choose the right color, texture, and finish that will complement your home. Natural stone steps come in a variety of options, so be sure to view them in person before they are installed at your property.

It’s common practice in construction to get three quotes for a project, and we fully agree with this approach. However, it’s essential to ensure that the quotes are comparable—apples to apples and oranges to oranges. This is why having a detailed plan or design is so important; it ensures that all contractors are quoting based on the same scope of work.

A red flag should be raised if one bid significantly undercuts the others. For example, if one contractor provides a bid of $30,000, another bids $31,500, and a third bids just $18,000, you should be cautious. Most companies operate with a 10-15% profit margin, so a bid that low suggests the contractor is either using subpar materials, reducing the scale of the project, cutting corners, or planning to ask for more money later. In any case, this kind of contractor should be avoided.