Building Your Dream Home: An In-Depth Guide with Broadway Design Build
Building a custom home is an opportunity to bring all of your dreams and visions into reality and I am often asked about the process. I hope the following will answer your questions about the steps required to build your own custom home. It’s my dream to build exciting architecture and create spaces that my clients will love and live in. I’m dedicated to my clients at every step of this process and if you too are looking to embark on this journey let me know.
I have outlined 8 phases of the custom home-building process:
Site Research & Documentation
Concept Design
Pre-Application Submission
Entitlement Approval (Schematic Design)
Building Permit Approval (Design Development)
Interior Design
Preconstruction Ordering (Finish Materials)
Construction
This guide intends to give you insight into each of these steps. Building a custom home is not only a financial investment, it is also a long time commitment. I am frequently asked about why it takes so long to design and build a home and I thought a guide would be helpful. *Note that some firms operate their business differently and this guide is specific to how my company steers the process. With that said, here is a look at the steps we would go through to design and build a custom home here in the Bay Area.
Site Research and Documentation
If you are at the very beginning of your journey to build a custom home, you are likely asking where do I begin? The process starts with thorough site research and documentation. In order to bake a cake you need a set of ingredients. So to get started on your long journey you’ll need to collect the following:
Boundary survey
Topographic survey
Geotechnical survey, also known as a soils report
Preliminary title report
City or County zoning research
Your vision for your future custom home
These reports and documentation can take months to gather so if you are serious about the project, I always tell people to get started sooner rather than later with collecting this information. Everything will become useful in the next phase when our team uses the information gathered to create some design concepts for you.
2. Concept Design
We use a concept design phase to answer the following question: What size and shape of a custom home can be built here within the budget you have? This includes:
Understanding your vision and goals for the home
Collaborative process with our team of architects, designers, and engineering partners
Using what we know about the site’s conditions and zoning constraints we design a few options that show the mass and location of your dream home
You will receive preliminary designs to show how the vision of your dream home can be realized on your specific site and within your budget range
The concept design phase is meant to show you what you can build with rough massing models and basic floor plans. At the end of the concept design you’ll know what square footage, type of foundation, general massing on the site and number of bedrooms/bathrooms. We think of it as a very educated sketch. If there is more than one option we can help you decide which way to move forward based on our knowledge of construction cost and timing.
3. Pre-application Phase
The pre-application is a process required by municipalities in which a preliminary design of your custom home is submitted to the city or county planning department for review. Considerable design work will be done based on the concept design you choose to prepare a set of drawings for the planning department.
We will engage with your local planning department
We design basic floor plans and exterior elevations that meet regulatory requirements and zoning regulations
The purpose of the pre-application is for the planning department to have early access to the proposed design and give feedback to address potential challenges before the design becomes too developed
The pre-application is a pared-down set of drawings and legal information
Typical feedback from the pre-application will be focused on zoning controls like setbacks, building heights, and any variances we may be attempting to get for your custom home.
4. Entitlement Phase (Schematic Design)
The Entitlement phase of your project begins with the approval of the Pre-application. To entitle a property means that you receive permission from the local planning department to build the style, size, massing, orientation, and interior programming of your dream home. In order to obtain that permission, we must submit the drawing package to the community and the governing planning board or commission for approval. The Entitlement process is typically known for the public hearings that are held to get neighborhood approval for your project. The Entitlement phase is quite long in many jurisdictions. For a custom home in the Bay Area we typically see 1.5-3 years. It's important to note, that the Entitlement phase does not include building permits as that comes after this period.
We refine your chosen concept design into blueprints with some amount of detail and we finalize
Style of your custom home
Floor plans and elevations
Site plan including utilities, driveway, curb cuts and home orientation
Landscape design
Window and exterior door locations
Exterior finish materials (Siding, Stone, Roof type etc.)
We submit a drawing package and application to the governing planning department
We send out the required neighborhood notification packages on your behalf. This is a requirement of most jurisdictions. The notification package includes the plans and elevations as well as descriptions of the project.
We hold neighborhood meetings with large format prints of your proposed home to allow neighbors the opportunity to come and ask questions and we field incoming requests for information
Lastly, there are typically public hearings and planning commission meetings where your project will be discussed and approved (Or contingent approval).
5. Obtaining Building Permits
Once your project is approved by the local planning department it is time for our team to work with you on finalizing the interior and exterior details. We bring your vision for the interior to light and draw all the details needed to obtain building permits. The bulk of the architectural drafting and designing happens in this phase also known as Design Development and Construction Drawings.
We prepare detailed permit drawings that include:
Structural Engineering
Civil Engineering
Electrical, Mechanical, Light Engineering (as needed)
Architectural plans, elevations and details
Title 24 calculations
Regulatory specifications (GreenHalo etc)
Specifications
Ensure compliance with building codes and regulations
We submit the drawings and applications for building permits and respond to all comments from the local building department
At the end of this phase, we will have an approved set of permits to build your dream home!
6. Interior Design
Now you might be wondering why interior design is a separate phase from the permit drawings. Primarily, the reason is that the building department does not worry about interior finishes. They care about the codes for where the electrical switches are (for example), but they don’t worry about what cool switch plate we’ll use.
The interior design phase will determine all of the finishes. Everything from flooring to door handles, bathroom faucets to kitchen cabinets. We use a master spreadsheet to track every finish you’ll need and stay organized.
Create a style for the interior based on your vision
Visit local vendors to choose appliances, tile, flooring, fixtures and more
Select finishes, and fixtures for interior spaces
Create the required shop drawings for all casework (cabinetry)
Compile all specification sheets for each item (for construction)
Provide a working budget for the materials
7. Pre-construction Ordering (Finish Materials)
Ordering finish materials is an often overlooked aspect of the process. At some point all of the finish materials you loved and chose for the home will need to be ordered, delivered, checked for damage in delivery or incorrect size/color, returned or exchanged and organized. We take care of this process.
Order all finish materials
Receive delivery & check for quality
Returns & exchanges as needed
All receipts and ordering information organized for your records
Some finish materials take months to arrive so our goal is to have the orders completed at the start of construction. This helps the construction process flow smoothly as we will not wait on products that get lost or stuck in the supply chain.
8. Construction
The construction phase will begin by either demolishing an existing structure on the site or by earthwork to prepare the site. The construction phases are aligned with the inspections required along the way. The phases of construction are generally as follows:
Earthwork and grading (site preparation)
Foundation
Rough framing
Rough electrical, plumbing and mechanical
Insulation and sheetrock
Finish Construction
Install all fixtures, finishes, wallcoverings, trim, paint
Final cleaning
The construction is inspected along the way by the city inspector, special inspector, architect, and engineers. At the end of construction, we will have passed all inspections and receive a certificate of occupancy from the building department. You are ready to move in!
In Summary
The standard response given to someone asking about the phases of a custom home project is that there is “pre-construction” and “construction.” While that is true at a macro level it does not help to understand the comprehensive and winding path in the journey of creating your dream home. My goal here was to give more detail into each of the 8 steps as I see them for the transformation of an empty lot to stunning works of architecture.
If you are looking for a guide on your journey to build a custom home in the Bay Area, we are here and eager to construct beautiful architecture. Contact Us.