As soon as I answered the phone I could tell the project manager was stressed out. “Hey Dave, do you have a minute to look at the drawing for the river house?” That simple question turned into a 90 minute conference call and a lightning fast redraw that should have never happened.
A year ago, my contractor client asked for help on a really basic project. His realtor was building a river house and my client had agreed to do the paver patio and walkways. “Sure, send me the measurements and photos” I said.
“The house is still being built so all I have are the builder’s plans. But that’s ok because he doesn’t want to pay for an actual design. I just need a rough sketch so I can estimate the materials. I walked off the patio with Moasure so you’ll have the shape and everything.”
“My guy,” I sighed, “are you sure you don’t want to do an actual design? You know how picky he is.” I did work for this realtor back in my design-build days so I sure knew how picky he was, and I knew my contractor knew better. Still, my client was sure that all he wanted was a sketch, so I brought the builder’s drawing into LandF/X.
A year went by and my client didn’t bring that job up again. Then last week I got a text: “hey we’re starting the river house job, can you clean up the drawing and add dimensions for the guys?” I knocked it out and sent it off.
Then Monday I got a call from the project manager. The patio wasn’t going to work because there were four sets of steps coming off the wraparound porch and the builder’s plans had only shown one. No problem, I popped the steps on the drawing and redid the paver layout. Tuesday, my client’s crew finished the excavation and started putting down the base material.
Wednesday I got another call from the project manager. Could I shrink the patio along the waters edge? The stormwater system was closer to the house than what was on the site plan. Sure, done. The base was pretty much done, which was good to hear.
Then Thursday, I got the panicked call that started this story. The homeowner had shown up and decided that they wanted more plant beds and a different layout for the main patio, and they swore up and down that this is what they had said they wanted from the beginning. Several tons of compacted base aggregate had to be removed and replaced with soil, and the patio bumped out in a different direction. Luckily I was at my desk and was able to do yet another drawing and send it over for homeowner approval.
This didn’t have to happen
If you’ve been doing this any length of time, you saw this disaster coming. How could this have been prevented?
First, we should have started with actual measurements of the built house. We all know that things change from the site plan and the architect’s drawings.
Second, the contractor should have sold the homeowner on a design as part of the sales process. With quality site data and some lead time, I could have created a killer design for this property that the homeowner would a) love and b) commit to. No ambiguity, and no 11th hour changes in the field unless they wanted to do a change order.
Detailed, accurate landscape designs protect the homeowner and they protect you. If you work with me they’re also an affordable part of the process. If you want killer drawings that help you build more profitably, contact me today and let’s get started.
