We all want to save money, but sometimes what we save in the short term can cost us in the long run. At The McKnight Group, we’ve heard plenty of horror stories about how cost cutting on church remodeling or building actually ended up costing ministries and members much more. When it comes to your church building project, the easiest money saved is often not worth it in the end.
Scaring You Straight
Here’s one such story. Bill wanted to build an addition to his church. It was going to be a simple job, so he found a company to design the structure gratis, applied for the necessary permits, ordered materials, and devised a plan to complete the actual work using volunteers. He got a large group of church members to take their vacations to help, and then arranged for an even larger group of out-of-state volunteers to come in and finish the work. It seemed like a workable and cost effective plan.
The first hitch occurred right away. The free plans didn’t meet local code. The church had to hire a local architect to revise the plans, adding fire walls and other features that would make the local building inspectors approval. This was not only an unplanned expense, but it cost time as well. All the church members who took their vacations sat around with nothing to do.
When the church remodel finally got underway, it wasn’t long before more problems cropped up. There was an issue with the old church building’s sewer lines. A plumber had to be hired to fix it, another unplanned expense and time delay.
And even worse, when the out of state volunteers finally arrived, the building materials hadn’t. The planned primary work force spent their days mostly sitting around as well.
Bill’s new church building is still a vision and a hope, instead of an occupied space. The cost overruns depleted the building fund long before work was completed. Now more fund raising needs to be done before Bill’s ministry has any hope of moving to its vital new space.
McKnight Saves Your Project, Your Wallet, and Your Day
The McKnight Group’s Design/Build Team could have saved Bill a ton of money and stress, by working with him from step one. The McKnight Group performs financial feasibility assessments for every new church building, and our full-service team would have created building plans that met local code from the upstart. All the plumbing issues would have been planned for, and Bill would have received an accurate budget with no surprises. Plus, he’d be performing his ministry in his beautiful new space filled with people being ministered to.
The moral of the story is that trying to do everything yourself and on the cheap, runs the risk of backfiring in all the worst ways. When you hire professionals like The McKnight Group for your church project, you can feel safe knowing your vision will become real, on time, and on budget. Sign up for our free i3 webinars today and learn surefire ways to keep your church remodeling costs down with The McKnight Group.