As we were securing our initial (Coastal Area Management, or “CAM”) approvals Turkel was preparing a purchase order that would take us through the detailed design process and the procurement and assembly of a prefabricated “package,” leaving us with a watertight shell, including windows and exterior doors, which we would then finish with a local builder (walls left open for installation of MEP systems, insulation, etc.).
The purchase order included:
- Construction and permitting drawings
- Permitting support
- Shop drawings
- Procurement and assembly of the package
- Trusses and framing, architectural glulams, etc.
- 2×6 on 16″ exterior walls
- Huber ZIP sheathing (1/2″ exterior walls, 5/8″ roofs)
- Warmboard-S subfloors
- Marvin Contemporary windows (DP50) and a Marvin Multi-Slide door (DP40)
- Local builder identification/vetting/selection
The purchase order did not include:
- Foundation (<=0.25″ out of square, elevations within 0.25″)
- Structural engineering
- MEP
- Roofing, cladding, flooring, interior doors
- Shear walls/moment frames (per structural engineering)
We had two main concerns with the purchase order, neither of which were show stoppers, but were still concerns:
- There was no transparency into costs, for example we had no idea what the window package cost was, or what the markup on same was.
- Somewhat related to that, this was a fairly large turnkey project with conveyance to us at completion, so we were being asked to assume a level of credit risk that is unusual in new home construction (where you would normally have a number of payments, with lien releases along the way, so you would never have too much exposure to your builder or a subcontractor). If we had been funding this portion of the project with any debt and the lender was paying attention this probably would have been a problem.
A prior Turkel client we spoke with had contracted directly with the window provider and also with the provider of the building components, which would have addressed both these concerns, but Turkel pushed back hard on this approach. The lack of transparency into costs was particularly frustrating as we started working through the details of the window package, more on that in a bit.
So with the CAM approval behind us the goal now was to get a building permit ASAP, and to get on with the construction. Prior to the CAM approval we had worked through some different options for structural engineering and ended up engaging The DiSalvo Engineering Company directly (rather than through Turkel, which would have added a 20% markup). The DiSalvo contract included the preparation of stamped detailed plans for the foundation and structure of the home and periodic site visits to check conformance to plans.
So on to the process of getting to building department approval of construction drawings:
5/14 – Turkel provided a DD (design development) set of plans to get the structural engineer going and to help with initial efforts to identify and select a local builder.
The DD set was provided to DeSalvo 5/19 and there was back and forth between them and Turkel. DiSalvo provided schematic framing plans to Turkel 6/9 for discussion, and we were all targeting 7/1 for a CD set we could use for the building permit submission. While this was in process we were weighing timber vs helical piles for the foundation system, discussing MEP design vs design/build, and looking more closely at the window package (SD did not give much or any consideration to air flow through the home). We were also working on a Turkel provided “builder specification” that would be used to cost out the non-package portion of the project and select a local builder.
7/1 – DiSalvo provided a foundation permitting set of drawings. At this point engaging a local builder and engaging a pile driving firm were the critical path items, so we elected to wait for a full set of plans and make a single permit submission.
8/3 – Submitted plans for permitting. Norwalk lost the plans and gave them another set a week or so later.
8/22 – Met with planning & zoning to go through their feedback, which was small inconsistencies between different drawings, need to label this and that, etc.
8/29 – Submitted updated drawings for permitting.
9/1 – Planning and zoning pointed out a few small mistakes/inconsistencies.
9/3 – Submitted updated drawings for permitting.
9/13 – Zoning permit issued.
9/15 – Building permit issued. So 13 months from signing contract with architect we had a building permit!
As we got into costing out the non-package part of the project, the main floor deck included about 355′ of steel beams (main floor deck roughly 49’x46′), about 110′ of which were under moment frames. And grade beams were mostly #6 rebar, which is unusual for residential construction. Turkel had another structural engineer that thought the home could be built without any steel, and DiSalvo said they could reduce steel a bit but the downside to that was additional concrete piers and steel to wood connections. Given where we were in the project re-doing the structural work was not an attractive option, and Turkel ended up moving the main floor deck and steel into the package, which was coming from a fabricator in Canada.
Turkel works with several different fabricators, and our purchase order indicated they would be using TekkHaus (no website any more, maybe they were acquired, or went out of business, not sure). For the steel value engineering Turkel worked with Pacific Truss Homes, so they were added to the mix with DiSalvo. The value engineering eventually went nowhere and we ended up back with TekkHaus for fabrication.
10/14 – Received final version of foundation plan with pile locations (as a result of coordination with package fabricator adjustments to the permit set were made).
2/16 – Complete construction set issued. Included additional detailing from the permit set, and incorporated a lot of work on the window package, window locations and sizes, and instead of just Marvin Contemporary went with a combination of Marvin and Integrity, more on that in a separate post.
4/20 – Final update to construction set. I think this was mainly window detailing updates.