Any advice for working with contractors and designers?

3 years ago

My family has been working with a designer/architect co. to remodel the ground floor of our house. We have a contract, and we set an 85K budget for the buildout prior to the design process. We were told we could loft the ceiling for about 20-25K so we increased the budget to 115K. We have paid our designer over $8k in total for these services, which include time spent choosing finishes, etc. Recently, we received an estimate from the designer's preferred contractor for 36% higher than our target budget.

We emailed our designer to ask questions for clarification and to express our concerns about the budget--more than 40,000 above the amount we discussed. We received a long reply about how "budgets are not set in stone" and that it's the designer's "professional duty to follow the desires of the clients" even if that increases the budget. I should note, we made no specific requests or demands and left the design up to the designer, only answering questions about our general preferences when we received messages. We were not told that any of the options given to us would increase the budget so drastically. The designer stated they were upset that we don't trust them and that they are ambivalent about continuing on the project.

Are we being unreasonable by holding firm to our original budget plus an additional $7,000 to replace the HVAC system, which the contractor just informed us would be necessary in order to realize the floorplan for the design? Is there a standard percent overbudget that is reasonable to expect in such circumstances? We've the 15% or even 20% but our designer is telling us that 36% over is totally normal. Is this true? On top of that, they've said they would have to charge us should we want a scaled-back design.

Have you experienced this with a contractor or designer before? Are there any methods or strategies or suggestions you have for a situation like this? Thank you!

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Comments (3)

kempek01
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
Since the designer knew your budget, they should have attempted to come closer to it, offering suggestions or options that would achieve that. And now you would say to them that you understand it is their professional responsibility to follow the desire of the clients":, which INCLUDES the budget. And then say, what are the options to get to the budget? And remind them that they knew the budget.

If the designer didn't know the budget, well, it's not fair to have an expectation that they would come anywhere close to it. But, as a reasonable person, you already knew that! And that doesn't apply here anyway.

How hard to hold to your budget depends on you. You may be able to scale back finishes enough to get to a number you want. Or ditch the lofted ceiling. That would cover most of your overage.

Since you were given options, you should be able to go back and select Option B without too much effort on their part.
Andrew Grodner thanked kempek01
PRO
Joseph Corlett, LLC
3 years ago
Your designer is a crook. This is why you start with a General Contractor. He knows how much things cost and how fast costs are rising/falling. A good GC has connections for designers he's successfully worked with. That's the developed relationship that's worth paying for.

A GC can tell if the designer is in the ballpark from a sketch on the back of a napkin from when they have lunch, not 8K worth of useless dreams.
Andrew Grodner thanked Joseph Corlett, LLC
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Charles Ross Homes
3 years ago
Hi, Andrew,

I'm sorry for your experience.

Budgets are often busted when design and construction are approached as sequential tasks. It sounds like that's what happened in this case. Designers and architects don't purchase construction materials and trade labor as part of their day job. Even if they know the costs of past projects, using them to infer the cost of your remodeling project is risky--even when costs aren't escalating as they currently are in the covid-19 world.

That said, I believe your designer has a professional obligation to deliver a design which can be built within a reasonable margin of error-- say 10% or even 20% of your original budget. If they've failed to do that, redesign should be at their expense.

For others who would like to avoid a similar experience, I suggest you'll stand a much better chance of achieving your budget objective if you put together a team of architect/designer and contractor before beginning design. The contractor can provide some real-time estimates to inform the design. That way you don't spend a bundle on a set of plans that end up in the recycling bin. Or you can take your chances with the tired, old ABC approach (architect before contractor.)
Andrew Grodner thanked Charles Ross Homes

Any advice for working with contractors and designers?

Comments (3)

kempek01

Joseph Corlett, LLC

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