Why choose a landscape design build company?
Your landscape is part of your home just as much as the interior, so you want to be certain when you invest money into a landscape project that you have a clear plan and reliable budget. Picking a Landscape designer near you who can listen to your goals and priorities and translate them into a landscape that fits your needs while also inspiring you to spend more time outdoors is a critical step.
Additionally, you’ll want a Landscape designer in Sonoma County designer who understands the costs of building their design. A design build company is best suited for this process, as the design and installation team are all connected within one single company.
Advantages of a Design Build Company
There’s nothing more disappointing than spending time designing a space that costs far more than you expected, and a typical landscape client generally doesn’t have a great framework for understanding what something might cost without getting multiple bids from landscape contractors near you. However, during the design process, you don’t have that ability because there isn’t a plan yet created for a contractor to provide pricing. Clients are reliant upon their designers to provide accurate cost estimates throughout the design process to ensure the project is feasible to build.
Unfortunately, many designers or architects aren’t Sonoma County landscape contractors and therefore are only making their best guess at what it will cost. As experienced estimators, we’ve had countless clients present a set of plans to us and then have to break the news that it is far over-designed for their budget and can’t be built. No one wants to deliver or have to hear that news and it’s part of our mission to provide clear and transparent pricing throughout each step of the design process from concept to final plan.
Here is an example of a conceptual plan we created for our client with their wish list. It included a fountain, vegetable garden, flagstone patios and walkways, crushed rock pathways, and more. This was a basic plan in black and white without many details of exactly how everything was built, but it was used to provide a preliminary construction budget to the client so they could decide if they needed to scale down or not.
Turns out some revisions were needed including changing the size and shape of some patios and removing some items from the scope of work. We then modified the plans and rendered a color version with all planting and hardscape details included along with a final construction budget.
Every detail of the design is carefully thought out regarding how it will be built, considering all utility connections, elevation changes, and other details that a designer might skip over and expect the contractor to figure out on their own. This invites problems and unexpected expenses if not addressed early on in the design process. A design build company will ensure each detail of the construction process is considered, such as if the equipment required to build the landscape will actually be able to access the areas required for construction.
Most design projects require some amount of value engineering to bring the ‘wish list’ of items in line with the realities of the construction budget. Having multiple different teams communicating on how to bring the budget down gets complicated, whereas a design build company will have no problems quickly modifying the plans in a way that helps you reach your budget. A design build company will also have creative ways to modify materials, layout, or sequencing to help reduce costs and will be more flexible in making changes on the fly with you than independent architectural or construction companies.
Working with a full-service design, build and maintenance, such as Healdsburg-based landscapers, Inspired Landscapes LLC, gives you peace of mind that the pricing estimates you see during the design process are highly accurate and reliable. This is because your design team also plans to install it for you! A design build company is the best way to ensure every detail is accounted for prior to installation. Contact us today for more information.
