What Happens Once You Contact Us?
Are you worried your contractor will leave you wondering what’s happening during your project?
Do you want to know the right process for transforming your home?
In this post, you’ll learn the 8 steps of a design-build remodel with WISA Design Build Remodel, what happens at our design center in Lorton, and how we get to a fixed-cost contract.
What the Steps of a Design-Build Remodel Look Like, Start to Finish
Design-build means one team carries your project the whole way from design to final walkthrough.
Here are the 8 steps we guide our clients through:
- Discovery call: submitted photos are reviewed, and a ballpark price is given.
- In-home meeting: designer and architect walk your space and talk with you about your project.
- As-built creation: measured drawing, neutral design concept.
- Design center visit: 3D renderings, scope, estimate.
- Updated design: renderings refined with your selections.
- Final measurements and contract: conditions verified, price locked, contract signed.
- Pre-construction prep: schedules, selections, and milestones confirmed. Zip walls and floor protection go in.
- Construction and final walkthrough: our own crews build it, then we close it out with you.
What Happens Before Your First Call With WISA
You send us photos of the space, and the floor plan from the listing if you have one.
Photos let us get an idea of what we’re walking into before we spend your afternoon on it. They also let us pull up projects we’ve done that are like yours, so the first conversation is about real numbers on real jobs instead of guesses.
We don’t just show up because the phone rang. A remodeler who walks in cold is guessing at scope, and a guess is what turns into a number that moves later.
For example, around Alexandria and North Arlington, “small basement” over the phone can mean a lot of different things.
Sometimes it means new flooring and paint.
Sometimes it means a full build-out with new HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and an egress window.
We’d rather know which one we’re talking about before either of us gives up an afternoon.
Before the in-home meeting, we also send you comparable completed projects with real pricing attached so you can see what we can do with certain budgets.
The Discovery Call, In-Home Meeting, and As-Built Stage
The Discovery Call
We go through your photos, ask questions, and let you talk through what you actually want.
Then we give you a ballpark price on that call.
We’ll also walk you through the tradeoffs between a design-build firm, a kitchen-and-bath remodeler, and a general contractor.
Some of those are better fits than we are. If you’re doing a straight rip-and-replace, you probably don’t need a design-build firm, and we’ll say so.
The In-Home Meeting
If the ballpark price sounds fair, we come out.
Our designer and our architect come with us so you’re not scheduling three separate afternoons to hear three partial answers.
We walk the space, measure, and note the structural realities, plus anything that’s going to trigger a code or survey requirement.
That one visit is where we get a real feel for the project, including what’s possible, what’s behind the walls, and what it’s going to take.
The As-Built Drawing
An as-built is your house, measured, on paper, exactly as it exists today.
It matters because every drawing that follows references it. Get the base wrong, and the renderings, the scope, and the estimate all inherit the error.
We build the as-built along with a neutral design concept. This gives you something concrete to react to before anyone’s attached to a direction.
What Happens at Our Design Center in Lorton
You see 3D renderings of your actual rooms on a big screen, review the scope and the estimate, and see the finishes that are priced into your number.
By the time you show up to your appointment, our designer has already gone through your inspiration images, studied your space, and pulled finishes that work for your house and your budget.
You’re reacting to a real direction built for your project, not browsing a generic display of everything we carry.
Then we refine the renderings with your actual selections, so what you’re looking at is your space and not an idea of it.
Can’t get to our Lorton design center?
We’ll do the design meeting over Zoom and bring the selections to your house.
How Final Measurements Lead to Your Fixed-Cost Contract
We come back to your house and open things up before we finalize the price.
This means cutting into the walls so we can see what’s actually there so we can minimize surprises and give you an accurate price.
Measurements also get confirmed one last time.
Whatever’s hiding above that ceiling, we’d rather find it now than in month 3 when you’re living in half a house.
Then we set the price and hand you the contract.
We price projects as fixed-cost wherever conditions allow. Everything is selected and confirmed before you sign, so you know exactly what you’re paying for.
Why One In-House Team Runs Design Through Final Walkthrough
One team means there’s nobody to hand the blame to if something goes wrong.
About 90% of the work on your project is done by our own employees, and most of them have been with us more than a decade.
The people who designed your space and the people building it work for the same company.
That’s also what protects the price. If our own guy hits something small and unexpected, he handles it. It doesn’t turn into a change order and a new contract to sign.
An in-house team means fewer dead days, too. If the plumber wraps early, the electrician moves in behind him instead of waiting on a sub’s calendar.
Our featured projects show our results.
8 Steps, One Team, Zero Handoffs: That’s WISA Design Build Remodel
Everything runs better when your contractor does the work in-house, tells you exactly what’s going to happen, and keeps you in the loop throughout.
If that’s the kind of project you want, fill out our contact form or give us a call today.
