We are coming down to the wire outlining all the steps that you will need to follow for the successful completion of a church building project. Beginning with clarifying your vision for ministry in your community, we’ve discussed zoning, building codes, utilities, funding, and a number of other elements that come into play. Most recently, we addressed the various permits you will have to apply for and how long that process can take. In this post, we’re going to review the final steps that must take place before construction can begin; the bidding and pricing timeline.
Two Church Project Pricing Scenarios
There are two different ways that the pricing stage can unfold, depending on whether your church design has been drafted by a standalone architect or one who is a member of a design-build team. If you have worked with a separate architect, you will need to take the same plans that you’ve submitted for permitting and send them out to various general contractors for bidding. If you’re working with a design-build team like The McKnight Group, we will take those plans and reach out to the various subcontractors and suppliers to negotiate pricing.
How the Bidding Process Works
If you didn’t go the design-build route and are soliciting bids from separate construction companies, there are services that can assist with the bid solicitation process. Either way, once the bids come in, you will need to review the contractor quotes, checking them for accuracy and differences. Once you’ve chosen your general contractor, you will need to sign a contract with them. At this point, you can also go back to your lending institution and close the construction loan.
Timing the Beginning of Your Church Building Construction
Don’t expect construction of your church building to begin the day after all your contracts are signed. The contractor and subcontractors will need time to mobilize, which means getting both labor and materials in place to begin the work. As we discussed in our last post, two phases—permitting and pricing—will often happen concurrently. While you’re waiting for various jurisdictions to approve your plans and issue your permits, you can be finalizing a construction contract, giving contractors time to get their teams together.
The amount of time it takes to get those teams together varies widely from project to project. In 2018, the construction market was extremely busy. Most frequently, construction began a month or two after the contract was signed. However, there are seasonal fluctuations and the construction market can change. It’s possible that it will take a month or more to get work started on your church building project, but it’s also possible that work can begin in just a week or two. It all depends on the pace of construction at the time you begin.
At this point, we’ve covered the first ten steps in our start-to-finish series. Finally, we are ready to begin the construction process itself. So, stay tuned for the next installment in our series of church building steps. And now’s the time to hop on over to our homepage to sign up for our next informative i3 webinars, which provide the latest free information on church design and building trends and ideas.