One of our most asked questions is “How long will this take?”. There are many moving parts to the design and build process. What we can do is speak to OUR processes and do our best to help others along in their process. If you are a new client or considering working with us, this will be a post we will continually refer you to so we are all on the same page and is occasionally updated based on our work load, code changes, permitting changes, etc.
Introduction:
There is quite a bit of work that goes in to this sort of pre-phase of our time together. We have done our best to communicate with you as our potential client and partner in designing your renovation or new construction project. We also do small commercial retail and restaurant/ bar projects. The following is a general outline of who, what, how and when things will happen through out your experience. Again, there are many moving parts, many things we have no control over and things we rely on others to complete. It is our intention to do all we can to be creative, helpful and clear with your design, using our documentation to communicate the design features and structural details to the construction trades and municipalities.
- Clients reach out to us via social media, Google, email, phone call, etc. Many come from friends, previous clients and contractors. We do not advertise our design services anywhere. We encourage you to follow us on Instagram @designmangrove for Jennifer and @mangrovebaydesign @mangrovebaylighting to keep up with what’s happening on a weekly to daily basis.
- Introductory Call (30 min)
- Gather high‑level project info: scope, budget range, desired move‑in date, style inspirations, decision‑maker availability.
- Confirm that our services match your goals (residential vs. commercial/retail).
- 1st Contact within an hour or so, absolutely by the end of the day. Our office hours are Mon -Fri 9-5. If we receive a message outside of those hours we will at minimum send a text back to you with a time frame that we will return your call. With this first conversation we will ask a number of questions about your project, your budget, timeline, style, reason for starting now, etc. These questions are a start of a conversation to understand who you are and what you want, as well as to find out if the services we offer are in line with what you are trying to achieve. It is imperative for us to be a good fit.
- We will send a follow up email Introduction with questions (within 24 hours within business hours). Clients cansend this back to us at their leisure. We do require this information before we set the first in person meeting with you so our first meeting will be more of a working meeting. We love having a well educated client. Included will be:
- Welcome Pack iwthin (48 hrs)
- Link to Design Questionnaire– filled out as much as possible that is appropriate for your project
- Link to Construction Guide – read through this – you may have more questions, every project is different, but this is a good jumping off point.
- Link to Design Process– giving you more insight in to how we work- please read through the whole thing!
- Wish List – please create a bulleted list of what you are hoping to achieve with your project. We will continually refer back to this list during the design phase.
- Inspiration Pictures: These can be on Houzz Ideabooks, on Pinterest Boards, or you can email these. We will collect them in a file for you and us to refer back to. We will require this before we start designing anything. Pictures are worth a thousand words. We work on a flat fee basis so we watch our time very carefully, without these images we are flying blind. It is our policy to only start designing once we have what we have asked for, typically 5-10 images for each space we are working on. When saving on your chosen platform, please name the to board or ideabook with the address or your last name, i.e. “baker kitchen” or 808 Magnolia Master Bath. That way we can find your inspiration more easily. If you havent gotten thisto us in a timely manner we will strugle iwth getting you your first iteration within the time frame we agreed on.
- Link to Design Questionnaire– filled out as much as possible that is appropriate for your project
- Your To-Do
- Complete the questionnaire & wish list at your pace.
- Order or update your site survey (6–8 weeks lead time).
- Email municipal setback info & any existing drawings.
- Survey – anytime you are changing the footprint of your home you will need an updated site plan. We recommend getting this ASAP. It often takes 6-8 weeks to get this done. The city or county will require this as part of the permit package. We will also require it before we start any designing. Also please call the city, or email them and get your setbacks and constraints, please email this to us. If we have to do this research, we will be charging for it. Any other information that is needed for your property is your responsibility.
- DISCOVERY & SITE VISIT
- Schedule 1st Meeting within 1-2 weeks. When we meet (1-2HRS) we will go over all of the above information. We like to meet onsite with all stakeholders/ decision makers. We will confirm that everyone will be onsite who is a decision maker or property owner. If people cannot make it we will have to reschedule. We are visual people and it helps us mentally get engaged with your space.
- Walk the Site/Space
- Review Your Materials
- Go over questionnaire answers, wish list & inspiration images.
- Clarify budget tiers & priorities.
- Define Scope & Services
- Confirm which services you need (architectural plans, interior design, lighting design, permit support).
- Outline our deliverables per phase.
- Set Communication Protocols
- Agree on primary channels (Quip for docs, email for formal, Slack/phone for quick Qs).
- Establish weekly check‑in cadence (email update or 15 min Zoom)
- You’ll:
- Ensure all stakeholders can attend (or reschedule if key decision‑makers are absent).
- Bring any existing floor plans, survey, or code memos.
3. Proposal & Engagement
Turnaround: 2–4 business days post‑visit
We Deliver:
- Create Scope of Work based on the Services we Offer:
- Residential Building Design
- New Construction
- Renovation
- Commercial/ Restaurant/ Retail/ Office Design
- Interior Design & Finish Selctions
- Architectural lighting, decorative lighting and electrical design
- Residential Building Design
- Proposal within 2-4 business days and email. We are happy to speak again in the office or via zoom if you have any questions about our proposal. Please feel free to make an appointment with us.
- Acceptance of Proposal – review site analysis (site visit and survey). Timing is up to the client but the proposal is good for 10 days. Once the proposal and retainer is received we will get you in our schedule to either measure an existing home or get started on your new construction design. Again, the hold up here on our part will be not having your survey and inspo images to work from.
- Fee Schedule & Payment Milestones
- Retainer (30 % of Phase 1) to begin work
- Interim installments keyed to deliverables
- Final balance on CD delivery
- Change‑order & hourly‑rate terms (e.g. $250/change order, $140/hr principal)
- Terms & Conditions
- Proposal valid 10 days
- Flat‑fee vs. hourly scope boundaries
- Refund & termination clauses
- You’ll:
- Sign & return the agreement
- Submit retainer to lock in our start date
Concept (Schematic) Design Phase
Overall Goal: nail down the look, flow & key dimensions before committing to detailed docs.
Renovation Workflow:
- Renovation- Measure house (1-2 weeks)
- The measuring takes about an hour and then it takes us 1-2 weeks to get the existing home in to our software to be able to design the renovation.
- We shoot for 2 weeks to get the first concept out after getting the existing plan done- This is our goal! We generally make it, other times the production schedule and holidays may back this up a bit. The complexity of the project also needs to be taken in to account.
- We will send out semi-weekly notifications as to where we are in the process to keep you informed and open an opportunity for you to ask questions. We may ask that you get us feedback in a timely manner as well to keep the project moving at a steady pace.
- New Construction Workflow:– 1st concept within 2-4 weeks (Schematic Design Concept) (Site Specifics) This depends on the complexity of the project.
- Schematic design & collaboration : 1-3 months typically
- Site Analysis & Massing Studies (2 weeks)
- Preliminary Floor Plans (3 weeks)
- Elevations & Roof Forms (4 weeks)
- This phase takes the longest generally. We ask that our clients do as much research to come as close to what they like and want out of their space as they can. We ask that they collect images to convey their ideas as often as possible, an image is worth a thousand words and design is a very subjective thing. This shortens the time in this initial design phase. We also put constraints on how many iterations we come up with because this could last forever if we let it and we work on a flat fee basis so some level of control is necessary.
- We go back and forth on a weekly basis to get new designs to our client, faster if possible. The clients timely feedback is imperative for us to keep up the pace. We will go back and forth via email, zoom meetings, or in person meetings until we have a final floor plan the client is happy with. This is our biggest goal! We allow up to 3 iterations before charging hourly for changes. The more prepared you are, the faster and more efficient this will be.
- Floor Plan Approval – Client has signed off on floor plans and elevations via email or text. (If there are changes after this sign off/approval, we charge hourly for the time it takes to change the plans. )
Construction Document Phase
This is when we put in the technical work to create a set of construction documents that you as the owner of the property can put to bid with contractors and they can use to pull permits for the scope of work. Depending on our production schedule and the complexity of the project this can take from 4-8 weeks with engineering. Often Renovations are more complex.
Design Development & Construction Documents
Duration: 4–8 weeks (depending on complexity & engineering reviews)
We Produce:
- Full CD Set (AutoCAD):
- Floor plans, exterior/interior elevations, wall sections & details
- Foundation & framing plans
- Electrical/lighting layouts & reflected ceiling plans when requied
- Door/window schedules & finish legends
- Mechanical/plumbing risers are done by trades, we will create layouts
- Engineering Coordination:
- Preliminary stamp submittal at ~75 % CD
- Final sealed plans (allow 2 weeks for engineer back‑and‑forth)
- Permit Package: digital files OR 2 hard sealed sets
Client Role: - Review & approve each submittal within 5 business days
- Pay engineer fees & permit application costs promptly
Check‑Ins: semi- weekly “CD progress” emails; RFI tracking via Quip
- During this phase move the plans from our rendering program Chief ARchitect to AutoCAD to create
- detail pages, floor plans, exterior elevation and interior elevations
- detailed notes pages and schedule for windows and doors
- all palns are dimensioned
- foundation plan is laid out and detailed
- walls sections is laid out and detailed
- framing plans for roof and floor joists are created and detailed for each individaul project
- electrical plan and mechanical plans are laid out and dimensioned with notes. (Note: the trades will need to provide the risers for water, sanitation, gas, and hvac will need to calculate ventilation, energy calculations will be needed if the square footage of the space is changed)
- Engineering: Stamp (review with client, review with engineer and stamp) – up to 2 weeks (This depends on the engineer’s production schedule, when we are about 3/4 of the way through drafting i send out the plans to the engineer for a prelim review, there can be some back and forth iwth them.) Before the plans are stamped we like to meet iwth the clients to review the final pplans to be sure we have all the notes on there you requested as well as make sure there is a good understanding of the plans and the process.
- We vett several contractors to see who is available and willing to talk to clients (2-4 weeks). This is not in our agreement, this is something we do when we can to help you.
- possibly meet with GC’s to go over plans, etc
- We email the plans as an introduction between the GC and Clients. As the client you will need to follow up with them and make sure they have all the information they will need to get you a good, true bid. Their process can take from 20- 60 hours to put that bid together, please be respectful of thier efforts.
- Once plans leave us- GC will quote the project at hand. They will pull the permit for the project. Clients municipality may have comments, we will address and make any changes to value engineer the plans for client and GC. If client requests changes to the design itself, we will charge hourly to make the changes. (Sorry, we really try to minimize the amount of changes because we work on a flat fee basis) We will give a basic estimate of time and cost before we start the process of changes.
Interior Design Phase: Material and Finish Selection and Documentation
- Based on conversations and inspiration info we have, we schedule time at showrooms, 2-4 weeks (many of these tasks over lap in timing, we do our best to multi task) We like to start this once the Contractors start bidding the project to get them as many materials, fixtures and finishes as possible to get the client a more accurate bid.
- Once we have several images for each space from the client we are able to discern a sense of style they want to achieve. Based on this we head to the showrooms to create vignettes ahead of the clients arrival. We lay out as much as possible and make changes once the client is present. We walk through the design and explain why all choices are made. This process may take several visits but we start locally and work our way out.
- Once choices are made we enter all into Programma and give the client a link to the web based Client Portal. 1-2 weeks
- Pricing and square footages also entered. We acquire current pricing and availablity from all vendors 1-2 weeks
- The client portal link is emailed to client and any gc that needs access to materials and finishes.
- We continue to fill in any gaps in selections and fixtures until the project is complete. (though if it lasts over a year, we will need to bill for extra time)
- Interior elevations drafed from Chief architect to auto CAD. 2-4 weeks
- All material finish designs and callouts are to be placed on elevations to communicate the design accurately
- All dimensions are placed on elevations
- Material renderings in to Chief Architect for conceptual presentation 1-2 weeks
- Create Virtual room boards using material images and renderings for each space same time frame as client portal we do these in conjunction to communicate the style and design for each room
- Client receives access online to all material and finish selection materials, Renderings and Virtual boards all on our web based platform Quip
Invoicing
Proposals are sent to clients with pricing before starting any project. All pricing is listed in the agreement and broken down into phases. For example: Retainer, Phase 2, Final Phase and Engineering. Again, this breakdown is in your client proposal. Per the client proposal you receive 3 design iterations before we start charging hourly for design changes during the design phase. The hourly rate charged will be in your client agreement. If changes are requested AFTER the client has approved/signed off on the design during the design phase then a change order will be charged along with a re-stamping fee from the engineer ($125). The change order is $250 per change(this will be in the client proposal). Take note that the charge order is for each change requested. For example, if you send an email with 3 changes then you will be charged 3 change orders plus hourly for the changes to be completed. When this happens we will send you an estimate for approval before starting the work. Invoices for hourly projects will be sent out the 1st and 15th of each month. Prompt payment is appreciated.
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