Looking for a stress-free building experience?
8 Phases to a Beautiful Home
Our process involves 8 phases to your next custom home or renovation. Clarifying each phase of the process ensures an enjoyable, rewarding
experience for our clients. The process of building a custom home, addition or major renovation often contains many moving parts. Due
to good planning, good listening and good communication, your project will be built right and finished on time as each stage runs smoothly.
Contact Us
Have a question or want to request a quote? Contact us today and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
PHASE ONE
Initial Inquiry & Discovery Call
No money required $
- ABBA will contact you within 2 days of your inquiry
- We want to better understand what’s important to you, learn a bit more about your vision for the project, rough timelines and budget
expectations/project feasibility - We will also talk you through what to expect when working with our team and determine if we will be a good fit for each other.
PHASE TWO
Complimentary In-Office Consultation
Typically, this meeting will take approx. 60-90 minutes. One of our experienced team members will sit with you and discuss your wishes and the scope of work requirements for your project, site location and features, estimated budget costs and anticipated project duration.
No money required $
- We want to get to know you and discuss all of the ideas you have for your space. The things that are important to you that will make the home fit your families needs and lifestyle.
- We’ll explain a bit more about Novacon, our process, and get you ready for your next steps. By discussing and agreeing on scope of work & budgets, we will have determined whether we’re a good fit for one another or not and if we should move to the next step.
PHASE THREE
Onsite Meeting & Preliminary Construction Estimate
We will come to your home to take preliminary measurements and assess the existing space. We will then review all of the information from our consultation and will come up with a high level detailed preliminary budget number for your project to be discussed at a follow up meeting in our office. If this budget meets your overall expectations we will at this meeting, discuss the next steps and make any necessary adjustments to the scope/budget as required. The preliminary construction budget includes:
- A detailed line item construction estimate
- Preliminary site measurements
- General Scope of work document
- Estimated project duration
This typically takes us approx 10-15+ hours of our time to produce and is far more detailed than you can expect from most construction firms. By the end of this phase, we will decide whether we move to the next step in our journey and sign a Planning/Design Agreement.
No money required $
- **Important Notice** – This is only a ballpark estimate. This does not represent actual prices, only a best guess based on our past experiences and similar projects. There are still many unknowns that can affect pricing at this point.
- The Construction costs are presented with an Estimated Price Range. These include items such as foundations, framing, HVAC, masonry and other specialty trades. A Conceptual Design is required in order to attain a more accurate construction proposal.
PHASE FOUR
Conceptual Design Agreement
During this stage, you can expect detailed communication from our team with questions and updates on the design and progress. This is an interactive process and the speed and detail of your responses will impact the overall duration of the design process. We will come to your home and take detailed interior/exterior measurements and begin the design work. The design progress will be discussed with you by email, video conference or at our office. We offer state of the art 3D renderings to give you a great visual of what the proposed work will look like rather than just a standard 2-dimensional view that most builders offer.
Money required $
- We will Present 2-3 options of the proposed Floor plans for review and approval. Minor or major changes are encouraged at this stage to accommodate your wishes and needs. (minor changes may be required to accommodate structure and roof systems, post initial approval)
- 3D Renderings of the proposed floor plan
- Finalized presentation drawings ready for Pre-Construction stage
PHASE FIVE
Pre-Construction Agreement
Upon finalizing the Conceptual design phase and reaching a budgetary comfort level, the Design Process can move into the Pre-Construction and detailed planning phase. At this stage we are looking to finalize the interior elevations, selections/finishes and materials so they can be translated into the final design and budget of the project. The final Construction Drawings will include items such as:
Money required $
- Site Plan, Main Floor (2nd & 3rd if applicable) Foundation & Basement Plans Construction details & wall sections
- Detailed technical drawings and engineering requirements
- Heat loss calculations and heating design
- Committee of Adjustment schedule if required
- Permit submission to the applicable city building department
- Interior design Package including any elevations/shop drawings and the following:
- Interior finish schedule including all selections, finishes and material take-offs
- Electrical & Lighting Plans
PHASE SIX
Final Budget | Sign Construction Contract
By this time, we have completed the final designs, finishes and budget for the construction. If there are any final changes/upgrades you wish to make it would be at this time that we do so. In this step, we will make a firm commitment to work with each other for the construction portion of your project by signing the final budget proposal and construction contract . We will immediately start on items such as:
Money required $
- Once your budget is finalized and the contract is signed, we will schedule the project for production onto our online Project Management platform.
- Finalize any outstanding selections/finishes from our checklist with deadlines so you know exactly what to do and when making arrangement for Ministry of Labour requirements, underground locates, portable restrooms etc
- Existing landscaping, Interior/Exterior job site and tree protection as required
- We will walk you through a demonstration of how to use your online Project Management Client Portal
PHASE SEVEN
Construction Begins
Just prior to construction we will have an onsite kickoff meeting with you, the project manager and your site supervisor. We will briefly go over any and all expectations we have of you for the duration of the build, additionally we will finalize any last-minute details that require discussion. On a weekly basis, you will meet with the Project Manager and Site Supervisor to discuss the progress of the project, our requirements of you and any relevant information based on the stage of work you are at.
Money required $
- You will also receive weekly updates from our Office manager via your own dedicated Online Project Management Portal
- Weekly reports update you on what was completed during the week, and what will be worked on in the coming week
- You will also receive live updates, photos and videos so you can follow the progress of the project, change orders and updates to selections via email as they occur during the process in real-time
PHASE EIGHT
Project Completion
When the project is deemed Substantially Complete, you will be requested to be present for a Pre-Delivery Inspection (PDI) by Novacon to inspect the project and identify any deficiencies that will require correction or completion. We will then immediately make the final corrections to deficiencies. With most major renovations and custom home builds there will be settling and humidity issues that arise due to the nature of the work. This typically happens within the first 6 months of moving back into the home. Rest assured that we are there for you with our hasslefree 2 year warranty. We pride ourselves on creating long-lasting relationships and want to be your contractors for life!
- All deficiencies will be listed in a PDI report and shared with our Site Supervisor and construction team and/or Trades for their immediate action
- No non-sense Warranty coverage means you can be confident that should anything arise we are there for you
- After completion, you will be asked for final approval and sign off
- Sit back and enjoy your new space with friends and family!