You’re probably prepared to spend a significant chunk of change on your church building project. However, you’re likely also searching for ways to save money and steward your funds well during the construction process.
Fortunately, one of the best ways to save money on your church building project is to hire a design-build contractor that can complete your project within your budget.
Discover the cost-effective benefits of hiring a design-builder for your construction project—and why this money-saving solution is financially superior to the traditional design-bid-build route.
Why is a Design-Builder Better for Construction Budgeting?
There are two common approaches to planning and budgeting construction—the traditional process and the design-build process.
The traditional process requires you to hire two companies separately—an architect and a general contractor. Unfortunately, this method requires the building’s owner to oversee construction, which often leads to the project surpassing the original budget.
The design-build process uses one company, a design-builder, as the project’s designer, engineer, and contractor. This approach eases the building owner’s burden of overseeing the project since the entire team is working within the agreed-upon budget, timeline, and parameters.
That said, here’s a look at the specific ways the unique design-build process will help you save money on your church construction project compared to the common traditional approach.
4 Ways the Design-Build Process Saves Money on Your Church Construction Project
1. You’ll Receive an Accurate Bid.
Traditional: The design-bid-build route requires your engineer and architect to collaborate on a design before bidding the general contractor. Once you hire a contractor, they will build from the original plan created by the architect.
However, leaving the contractor out of the initial conversation may lead to an inaccurate bid. This scenario commonly occurs when the contractor later discovers design flaws in the architect’s plan that are expensive to change, leaving you blindsided with costly fees.
Design-Build: Fortunately, with the design-build process, the engineer, architect, and general contractor work together to create a construction plan for your project, constrained by your budget. This means you’ll receive an accurate bid agreed upon by all parties from the start, so you won’t have to deal with expensive, unexpected delays down the road.
2. You’ll Experience Seamless Communication.
Traditional: With the conventional construction route, you’ll need to pay someone on your staff to coordinate your project. You’ll also need to pay two teams, the designer and construction crew, to communicate project details between each other.
Design-Build: The design-build process saves valuable time—both for you and your contractor. First, you or a team member won’t have to serve as the middleman between the architect and construction team so that you can focus on ministry. Plus, you won’t have to pay for duplicate communication between the designer and builder.
Overall, the design-build process streamlines the flow of communication during your project to minimize labor fees and eliminate costly errors due to miscommunication.
3. You’ll Set a Realistic Budget and Stay on it.
Traditional: While your engineer and architect likely have an excellent grasp on design costs for your building, they won’t have exact cost estimates for materials and labor.
Unfortunately, when you hire a general contractor, you may be surprised to discover some materials are more expensive than you initially thought—and the project takes longer to complete than you planned.
Design-Build: Your design-builder will help you create an appropriate, realistic budget for the design, labor, and material costs for your project, so you can be confident your project will stay within budget before construction begins.
Plus, many design-build contractors also specialize in value engineering—a creative, organized approach to finding low-cost solutions for your construction project that help you achieve your goals and stay on budget. This process improves your church building’s quality for less by modifying design options, project scope, or operating costs.
4. You’ll Work with a Collaborative Team.
Traditional: Since the design team and building crew work independently, it’s easy for each party to make mistakes that result in costly change orders during the construction process.
Design-Build: When you work with a design-builder, you’ll experience coordinated oversight by the architect and builder throughout the design process, which helps you save money during construction.
Rely on a Design-Builder You Can Trust for Money-Saving Solutions
Churches by Daniels is a nationally recognized design-build contractor committed to helping pastors like you fulfill your ministry vision with cost-effective, hassle-free church construction. Would you like to discover the lasting benefits of using the design-build process for church construction? If so, download the latest issue of Rise & Build: A Design Build Church Construction Magazine to see how churches across the nation have used design-build construction to transform their worship spaces with lasting beauty and functionality.
