After the planning and the time it’s taken, you’ve gotten the church design finalized, construction documents completed, and permits obtained. At long last, it’s the moment to make the commitments and actually begin construction! For members of your church building team, that doesn’t mean your work stops. Here are some items and areas that we suggest church leaders keep in mind during the new church facility construction process, or when a church remodeling project is underway.
Finalizing the Church Building Budget and Construction Contract
Once you have a full set of plans, you can get final contractor and/or subcontractor quotes for church building construction. Most of the time, you should be working off a budget, and up until this point, you haven’t been able to get a final price on the total cost. The construction documents will provide the detail to get accurate pricing, and they will help you understand the construction quotes you receive and check them for accuracy. You will use them to determine and finalize the construction contract.
Don’t forget that once the contract is signed, you must allow time for the contractor to mobilize. They also are working on a budget and will need time to finalize their costs, obtain materials, and contract with laborers and subcontractors for your church building project.
What Happens Once the Digging Starts
Again, your work doesn’t stop once the digging starts. A variety of questions will arise that need your attention during construction. These could include anything from which doors are keyed alike to approving materials selections for building finishes and responding to questions about color schedules for different parts of your church design.
It’s why we recommend that selected members of your church building team plan to have periodic meetings with contractor representatives. This way, your contractor knows that there’s a process in place to address items that arise during the church building process. It also gives you a chance to receive updates on a regular basis. This should avoid any unpleasant surprises later in the church building process.
Understanding that Church Construction is Just One Part of the Church Design Process
As you can probably tell by now, the actual construction of your church design is just a part, albeit a crucial part, of a much bigger overall process. While it might be nice to imagine developing your church vision, getting some plans, and starting construction all in short order, church building or remodeling has many steps. Our many blog posts demonstrate it. Once construction has started, there will still be planning to be done and decisions to make, especially around the interior furnishings for your new church building or remodeled sections of an existing facility.
It’s another reason we share our free i3 webinars with church leaders like you. The church design process is complex, and professional guidance is important to help bring a church vision to successful completion. Now that our 2022 lineup of free webinars is available, it’s a good time to review our upcoming webinars and register to learn more about the church building and design.