What we take on
A few projects at a time, designed and built the way we would do our own.
Gilk is a Tampa design-build studio, founded in 2015. Everything below runs on the same two contracts and eight gates described on the front page: pre-construction as its own engagement, a construction agreement only once the budget is real, and every cost visible to the owner.
Five ways to work with us
Design and construction under one roof, or just the part you need.
Design-build, start to finish
Concept, drawings, pricing and construction under one roof, with the architects and designers we have built with for a decade. One team is accountable for the whole house, from the first sketch to the last warranty walk, and you have one point of contact the whole way.
Custom homes
High-end, boutique and relationship-driven. South Tampa first: Bayshore, Hyde Park, Palma Ceia, Beach Park, Davis Islands and the neighborhoods around them. New construction on a waterfront lot, like the San Jose House, or a home built around a family’s story, like Frances.
Whole-house renovations and additions
The house you already own, taken down to what is worth keeping and rebuilt around how you live now. An addition that has to read as original, a kitchen that has to carry the whole ground floor, a historic bungalow brought up to today’s code without losing its character.
Owner’s representation
When you already have an architect or a contractor, or the build is in another city: a builder on your side of the table, reading every number and every draw for you and your advisors, and sitting in the weekly meeting as your representative.
Pre-construction on its own
Estimating, constructability review, scheduling and buyout as a standalone engagement, whether or not we build it. Paid on an hourly retainer; you keep the work product.
Select commercial fit-outs
A restaurant or a small commercial space for a client we already know, built the way we built Rocca in Tampa Heights and the Sugarwings build-out.
Eight gates
From kickoff to certificate of occupancy, eight decision points.
At each gate we assess, we decide together, and you receive something in writing. The first three gates belong to pre-construction and end with a budget built from real trade numbers; the last five belong to construction and end with the keys. The full description is under How we work, and the questions people ask about it are on the FAQ.
Built for Florida
Hurricane resilience is part of the drawings, not an upgrade.
Every home we design and build in Tampa Bay is engineered to the Florida Building Code for its site: impact-rated windows and doors, a continuous load path from the roof down to the foundation, finished floors set at or above the required flood elevation, and mechanical equipment kept out of the flood zone. On a renovation we look at the same things first, because what the code asks of an existing house can decide the scope before design starts. It is ordinary good practice here, so we do not give it a brand name; we draw it and build it.
Talk to Gilk
Tell us what you are building.
Send the drawings if you have them, the address and an idea if you do not, and a sentence about what matters most to you. You will hear back from someone who can make decisions, not a sales team.
office@gilk.com