By, Kate Hamblet
The Crucial Pre-Design Phase of Home Construction
If you’re renovating or building a new home and feeling a bit overwhelmed, you’re not alone! There’s a lot to the entire process, even before you start construction. But you can easily squelch that overwhelm by being prepared for the adventure ahead. Before construction begins, you need to figure out what you want to build and how it’s going to get done. This is the design phase of the project. But there’s a phase BEFORE the design phase that generally gets neglected. It’s called the Pre-Design Phase. Pre-Design is where the MOST IMPORTANT parts of the entire design process take place. Most people skip this fundamental stage of the design process because they aren’t aware of it or don’t want to do it. But skipping pre-design work is what derails many renovation and new build projects. This is the stage where you figure out exactly what your needs are for your home, figure out your budget, learn everything you need to know about your property and your existing home (if renovating) and put together your room requirements and project plan.
Doing the Pre-Design Phase will help you overcome the overwhelm, and get you properly prepared for the design and construction of your project. Here is my 10-step formula for nailing your pre-design work and setting your project up for success.
Get Organized Make a House Project Folder (I use Google Drive) to keep all house-related documents in one place.
Determine your goals Before you can successfully design your new home, you need to understand your goals and intentions for the project.
Document Existing Structures You can’t design a house before you know what the land is going to be like, so you’ll want to find the land before design begins. If renovating, you’ll need to measure and draw plans of your existing house so you can make the necessary upgrades.
Perform Zoning Code Research The zoning code tells you what you can and cannot build on your land. Study this really carefully to make sure you can build what you hope to build. Too often, this step gets neglected, and a homeowner finds out they can’t build what they just spent months designing.
Set Your Budget It’s easy to pretend money doesn’t exist when a home project is in the design phase, but that will only lead to major disappointment. Figure out how much you can spend now so you can design a home that’s in line with your budget.
Conduct A Site Analysis If a home is properly designed for its site, you can take advantage of passive heating and cooling strategies, wonderful natural lighting, views, and protect yourself from unpleasant things like sounds and bad views.
Create A Program of Spaces and Bubble Diagrams A program of spaces is the list of rooms you’d like to have and a bubble diagram is an easy way to start sketching out how the rooms will connect to each other. You’ll need to know what you want for rooms before you can get into the design phase.
Gather Inspiration Images Keep track of images you like so that you can reference them later in the design and construction phases.
Put Together Your Design and Construction Team The size, complexity, and budget of your project will help determine who you’ll have on your design team. Knowing who you’ll need on your team now will help you budget your money. It’s also a great idea to get a contractor involved before the design begins so they can be part of the design discussions.
Create the Project Schedule Create an outline of how long you think the design will take. It’s helpful to work backward from when you’d like to start construction. You’ll need to factor in obtaining the building permit, securing financing if needed, design consultant timeframes, and the time it takes to design the project.
Conduct A Site Analysis If a home is properly designed for its site, you can take advantage of passive heating and cooling strategies, wonderful natural lighting, views, and protect yourself from unpleasant things like sounds and bad views.
Following these 10 steps will keep your project on track and help you avoid a lot of costly mistakes. It also sets you up to go into the design phase knowing exactly what you want to accomplish with your project. This will speed up the design phase and provide clarity so you can avoid the overwhelm.
By, Kate Hamblet
The Wellness Architect Balanced Architecture
If you’re ready to take action on your home renovation or new build project and want more guidance, I invite you to check out my Healthy Home Design Toolkit. It walks you through each step of the pre-design process and guides you through design and material decisions for a healthy and sustainable home. Learn more about it here.