Project Management
Our project management system centers on a team approach comprised of owner, architect and builder. As the builder, we are also your advisor, consultant, and advocate to help ensure good decision making throughout the design and construction phases.
Successful projects with happy, satisfied customers begin with careful detailed planning. Attention to every detail is everything when building custom homes. Our projects are planned around client expectations and education. We believe that a well-educated customer to the home building process prior to the start of construction will help yield good decision making relative to expectations.
We at Platinum Homes go to great lengths in educating our clients relative to the construction process, decision making criteria, current market costs, product offerings and technologies. We require our clients to make certain vendor visits and informational meetings during the design process.
From design through construction, we strive to provide our clients with crystal clear communication as to scheduling, project progress, issues and required client selection deadlines.
Our field work centers around job site pre-planning with our key subcontractors coordinating with each other. Specific objectives are to create value engineering, eliminate re-work, reduce construction cost and eliminate customer punch lists.
Only experienced lead personnel and craftsmen are employed for meeting daily construction and quality control standards. Many of our mission critical field workers have been a part of our team for over 15 years. The owner, Mark Cucarola, oversees every project, manages detailed scheduling and project quality control personally. Quality control site visits are performed at least once each day during all construction phases.
Pricing & Job Costing
How much does it cost to build a quality, state of the art, energy efficient custom home? The answer to that is determined by many variables. This question is akin to asking how much a new car costs. A basic new car today can be had for under $20,000, while a premium upscale sedan can cost $100,000 or more. Each car will have four wheels, a steering wheel and engine that will get you from points A to B.
However, how they do that and the resulting driving experience for its driver and passengers will be significantly different. The premium luxury sedan will have performance, creature comforts, luxury and styling features that are void in a basic car.
The same can be said for building a luxury custom home. Construction cost per square foot depends on variables such as size, design complexity, volume and of course interior and exterior finish selections. Our experience has shown that typical cost to construct is 60 percent related to sheer size and complexity, while roughly 40 percent is attributable to interior and exterior finish selections. While this overall ratio varies somewhat from project to project, it nonetheless is a reliable metric for project planning purposes.
The Platinum Homes Costing & Pricing Approach
During the detailed design phase, we create a detailed cost estimate consisting of approximately 150 cost codes that relate to specific construction phases and sub-tasks. We spend over 100+ hours creating an accurate detailed cost estimate around plan set drawings and specifications. A ½ day budget de-brief meeting is held with our client to review major cost drivers, identify value engineering opportunities and further extend client education of the construction process. Our monthly job cost reporting system tracks all major cost categories, providing our clients with clear and concise project status detail.
We price our projects on a Simple Fixed Fee Basis. It is determined based on the project’s size, scope and complexity–not construction cost like so many of our competitors charge. We charge actual cost of construction plus our fixed builder fee. We do not add markups, charge hidden fees or add to our builder fees for “customer change orders”. We know our clients will have many decisions to make, and may change their minds more than a few times during construction. Regardless, our fees are committed to you up front at project beginning and will remain the same through completion.
We place ourselves on the same side as you, our client. We have every incentive to complete your project at or below budget. Our focus is on solid, client based decision making; and not that of managing our fees higher through upcharges, mark-ups or other industry gimmicks.
Finally, our client billing system provides back-up documentation for every dollar spent and cross references all our cost categories. Simply put, our invoicing system is very easy to read & understand. It also is completely transparent and audit-able for construction financing purposes.
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