We believe one of the greatest ways to keep your project on time and within budget and scope is to partner with an experienced construction firm early on in the design process, typically once preliminary or schematic designs are completed. From here, we can work with your architect to complete the final design and construction documents.

The duration of a project depends on a wide variety of factors. At the start of the project, we provide you with a schedule that identifies each item in your scope of work along with the corresponding dates for when we will be completing that item. As the project progresses, we will update the schedule and keep you informed about our progress.

Change orders are additions or changes to the scope of work outlined in the original contract agreement. They usually occur when a client requests a change to the project or additional services that were not initially agreed upon. Once a change order is initiated, we provide a change order cost estimate that must be accepted by the client in writing before we can proceed with the change. Unlike contractors who use change orders to increase their project costs to make up for low competitive bids, Blackline only issues change orders when they are truly required by the project.

We do not typically engage in competitive bids. In our experience with competitive bidding, we’ve found that many contractors provide a deliberately low bid in order to win the project. Because they know that they cannot afford to complete the project for the bid provided, once a contract is signed and the client is locked into working with them, they later create numerous change orders (additional fees) to recoup costs they did not originally include. Because most clients do not understand the construction process, they can get confused by these change orders and believe that they are valid. As a result of this approach, many clients ultimately end up paying more for their project than they would have if they had selected the highest competitive bidder. This can be devastating to a client with a fixed budget since they often don’t have the ability to pay significant unexpected costs.

Blackline Construction avoids competitive bidding by partnering openly and honestly with its clients using a negotiated contract approach. With a negotiated contract, a client agrees to collaborate with Blackline to develop an accurate project budget and schedule based on the desired scope of their project. The best way to do this is to contract Blackline early in the design process through our Pre-Project Planning service. During Pre-Project Planning, Blackline will help you and your architect evaluate different design options based on construction feasibility and budget and schedule impact. This ensures that the design you sign off can be built within your target budget and timeline.

After all architectural plans are completed for construction, we will negotiate either a cost plus contract or a fixed price contract. Cost plus is when the client pays for the cost of materials, labor, and subcontractors plus a profit and overhead fee based on the budget. Fixed price is an agreed upon price associated with a specific scope of work. Get in touch with us to learn more and discuss which method will best suit your needs.

If you are interested in working with Blackline but you have already completed your architectural plans, we still can work with you. We’ll simply base our fixed price estimate or cost plus estimate on the scope of work involved in your architectural plans, or we’ll develop a project plan and price estimate tailored to your particular budget.

We don't require an architect on board to begin a project, but we have found that the best buildings are the product of many experts working together with one end goal in mind. If you are just beginning your project, we are happy to refer you to a number of talented architects that we have worked with in the past.