Are you about to sign a remodeling contract but still wondering what actually happens between now and demolition day?
Do you need to know which decisions can’t wait, what gets locked in writing, and what surprises might surface before a wall comes down?
By the end of this post, you’ll know what gets decided during Persson Construction’s planning phase, what gets locked in writing, and what Trade Day reveals about your home before the price is set.
What Actually Happens During the Planning Phase
- Preliminary Call: We talk through your goals and the general scope of work. If it’s a good fit, we schedule a site visit.
- Site Visit & Consultation: Chris, the founder, walks the property with you, reviews your wants and needs, and takes detailed measurements. He flags structural, historic-district, and site-specific considerations, and talks through logistics like whether you’ll move out during the work.
- Ballpark Pricing: Chris prepares a project development price with budget ranges broken down by category, like excavation, concrete, framing, drywall, kitchen components, flooring, and more.
- Project Development Agreement (PDA): If you want to move forward, you sign the PDA. It secures your schedule slot and funds the planning phase.
- Design Development: We refine layouts and design direction, working with architects and design partners where needed. This happens under the PDA.
- Trade Day: Our key subs and vendors walk your space together, spot the limits, check the design, and set real prices before we build.
- Material Selections: You lock every pick: tile, cabinetry, fixtures, lighting, and paint.
- Permits: We pull permits for you.
- Pre-Construction Planning — We finalize scope, budget, and schedule, load your project into Buildertrend, and set up your jobsite finish board before demo.
What Deliverables You Receive from Pre-Construction Planning
You get a MoSCoW report. It shows which items are must-haves and which are optional upgrades.
A Comfort Zone Budget gives you high-level cost ranges broken down by category.
Then your project loads into Buildertrend. You can see schedules, budgets, daily logs, and photos through a portal.
The projects our planning results in.
Why We Plan First, Then Price, Then Build, in That Order
Plan, Price, Build cuts your risk and gets rid of surprises. It lines up your scope, your budget, and what you expect before we start to build.
An architect who designs without a builder can create plans people cannot afford. We have seen $700,000 designs handed to homeowners who expected much lower budgets. The result is a complete redesign, added fees, and delays.
Our planning phase costs $800 to $3,500 depending on scope. This sequence lets us design to budget. We are pressure-testing scope and selections before we finalize pricing.
Trade days give you real hourly rates and material costs, not generic ranges or guesses from a book.
The price reflects what we can actually build.
What the Project Development Agreement Produces Before You Sign a Construction Contract
The Project Development Agreement funds the planning phase and secures your schedule slot. It produces 4 things before you commit to a construction contract.
- You get conceptual design work. Layouts and direction, developed with you.
- You get trade-backed pricing. Real costs gathered during on-site Trade Day walkthroughs, plus budget ranges for each trade.
- You get a detailed construction proposal. It spells out allowances and alternates and gives you a first look at scope and schedule.
- You get a development fee scaled to your project’s size and how much planning it needs.
What Trade Day Reveals About Your Home Before the Price Is Set
Trade Day brings our key subcontractors and vendors on-site to walk your home together. They review the plans, see the actual space, and give us proposals based on what they find.
It uncovers structural problems, code issues, and hidden conditions that would otherwise show up mid-construction and cost you more.
The trades see how their work intersects with everyone else’s work.
They adjust their proposals before pricing locks.
Why Selections and Scope Get Locked Before a Wall Comes Down
We lock selections and scope before demolition because your fixed-price contract reflects only what’s been decided.
If the tile, the cabinet style, or the fixture finish is still open when the crew shows up, the price can’t hold.
It cuts change orders and unexpected discoveries during construction, which affect the price and timeline.
By the time demolition begins, you’ve a fixed-price contract, finalized material selections, confirmed subcontractor schedules, and a detailed project plan with milestones, all documented in writing.
What You Will Know by the Time We Break Ground
By the time we start working on your Portsmouth area home, you’ll know:
- Your final design. Layouts, structural changes, and room-by-room direction are locked, and we’ve reviewed the design to confirm we can build it.
- Your scope. What’s included, what’s not, and where the lines are.
- Your selections. Every material is picked and locked in writing.
- Your project schedule. A detailed timeline with milestones.
- Who’s running the job. A project manager on day-to-day oversight.
- What happens if demo reveals more. When demolition uncovers work we couldn’t see, your project manager documents the change, we update the budget and timeline, and get your approval before moving ahead.
- Your part. Valuables and personal items are out of the work areas, utility changes are set up, and your neighbors know what’s coming.
What Happens Next
Are you ready to see what the planning phase gives you? Schedule Your Discovery Meeting.
