Know the number before you pay for design.
We price your project before we draw it. If design concludes and we can't build it for that number, you owe us nothing for the design.
Most projects die after the money is spent.
You option a parcel, hire an engineer, and spend six figures getting through design and permitting. Then the bids come back well above anything that pencils. The drawings are finished, the money is gone, and the project dies on the table.
That happens because design and construction pricing usually live in two different companies that never talk until it is too late to change anything cheaply. We put them in the same place and move the pricing to the front.
Three commitments.
We price it
Before design starts, we walk the site, work the earthwork and utility quantities, and issue a construction budget along with the scope it is based on.
We design to it
Design runs against that number. Every grade, alignment, and utility run gets measured against what it costs to build, because the people drawing it have built it.
We stand behind it
If design concludes and we cannot build the project for the budget we gave you, you owe us nothing for the design work.
Raw land to finished lots.
The number covers everything required to take the site from where it sits today to lots a builder can start on.
- Clearing and demolition
- Mass grading and earthwork
- Storm drainage and detention
- Water and sanitary sewer
- Roadway, base, and paving
- Erosion and sediment control
- Construction staking
- Record drawings and closeout
We have been on every side of the work.
Most civil engineers have never built what they drew. Most site contractors never drew what they are building. Our team has done both, along with the estimating in between, and that is the whole reason we can put a number on a project before it is designed.
When the same people who price the work also design it, the plan stops being a set of drawings handed over a wall. Grades get set where the dirt balances. Utilities get routed where they can actually be installed. Phasing follows how the equipment will really move across the site.
Pricing the job first also settles the question of incentives. We carry the cost of a design that overruns, so there is no version of this where drawing a more expensive project works out in our favor.
In sitework our team has estimated, designed, or built.
Lots engineered or built across the Southeast.
We can build it too.
Construction is delivered through our affiliated sitework operation, which means the people who priced and designed the project are the people in the field. If you would rather hold your own contract, we can serve as your owner’s representative and manage the work on your behalf instead.
What the number is based on.
The budget reflects the scope, survey, and site conditions known when we issue it. Changes you ask for after that point are handled as adjustments to the number, and we will tell you what they cost before we proceed.
Conditions nobody could reasonably have known about, like undisclosed subsurface material or a change in what a jurisdiction requires, get raised with you before design continues rather than after. The full terms, including how long the budget holds and what qualifies a project, go in writing before any work starts.
Answers, up front.
How does Budget First work?
We walk the site, work the earthwork and utility quantities, and issue a construction budget before design starts. Design then runs against that number. If design concludes and we cannot build the project for the budget we gave you, you owe nothing for the design work.
What happens if you miss the budget?
You owe us nothing for the design and we absorb that cost. Because the budget is set before design begins, the risk of getting it wrong sits with us rather than with you.
What does the budget cover?
Everything required to take raw land to finished lots: clearing and demolition, mass grading and earthwork, storm drainage and detention, water and sanitary sewer, roadway and paving, erosion control, construction staking, and closeout.
Do I have to use you for construction?
No. If the budget holds you can have us build it, or we can act as your owner's representative and manage the work while you hold the contracts directly.
How can you price a project before it is designed?
Our team has estimated, designed, or built more than $250 million in sitework and has engineered or built more than 3,000 lots. Pricing work we have already built is what makes the commitment possible.
Where do you offer this?
Alabama and Florida, where we are licensed and know the jurisdictions, the soils, and the subcontractor base well enough to price a job with confidence.
Have a site you want priced?
Send us the parcel and what you are trying to build. We’ll tell you what it takes to get it to finished lots.