FAQ

In two contracts, on purpose. Pre-construction is its own engagement: we draw, estimate, reconcile the estimate to the drawings and buy out the trades. Only then is the construction agreement signed, cost-plus with an open book, convertible to a guaranteed maximum if you want one.

The builder fee is the only profit in the job. It is never layered on labor and never applied to material you buy yourself. We do not guess a lump sum before the drawings exist and then make the house fit it.

Pre-construction is paid on an hourly retainer agreed in writing before we start, billed against the hours actually worked. You get drawings coordinated with the architect, a line-item estimate reconciled to those drawings, a constructability review, a schedule, trade bids and the buyout.

You keep all of that work product no matter what, whether we build the house, someone else does, or you decide not to build at all.

At Gate 3, buyout and budget lock. By then every major trade has priced the actual drawings and the budget is built from their numbers, not ours. That is the figure the construction agreement is signed against.

Before that you see the estimate at Gate 2, and you watch it move as decisions are made, so there is no surprise on the day you sign.

Say so. Gates 1 and 2 exist so that the design is challenged early, while changing it costs hours rather than demolition. Because pre-construction is a separate engagement you are not locked into construction; the design is revised until it is yours.

If we part ways at the end of pre-construction, you leave with the drawings, the estimate and the schedule, and no obligation to build with us.

One person. Your Gilk lead walks every gate with you, from the first sketch to the last warranty walk, and sits in the standing weekly meeting with you and the architect. Daily logs and photos are open to you any time, and the monthly draw package carries every invoice behind it.

No decision that costs money is made without your written approval. A change is priced in writing, at cost plus the same fee as the rest of the job, approved by you or whoever you have named, and only then scheduled. It appears in the next monthly draw package with the invoices behind it.

Agents, business managers, financial advisors and realtors you name get the same open book, so the approval can come from whoever you say can give it.

Often, yes. No project is announced, photographed or shared without the owner’s permission, so we ask first, and several past clients are glad to open their doors. Rocca, the Michelin-starred restaurant we designed and built in Tampa Heights, is open to anyone with a reservation.

Until then, the Work page describes each project the same way: what the client wanted, what made it hard, and how it ended.

Yes. If you already have an architect, we join as the builder in the weekly owner, architect and builder meeting, or as owner’s representative on your side of the table, reading every number and every draw for you. Realtors, agents and advisors are welcome in the loop from the first conversation.