FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
We understand that the building process can be confusing for first-time builders, and you may have many questions along the way. That’s why we’ve created this FAQ page to provide clear answers and guidance to help you navigate each step of your journey. At BOLT Builders, we’re committed to supporting you every step of the way as you create your dream home.
There’s typically three options when it comes to making selections.
1. You can hire an architect and have them produce a selection schedule for you. You might fall in love with a local interior designer, and they can help guide you for the selections that you want.
2. You can make selections yourself and we will provide you with a selection schedule of items we need, and you would provide the model numbers and different descriptions and commentary bottoms.
3. You can hire us to pick those selections for you, which we would provide you with a selection schedule and a handful of options to choose from for each category of selection.
Every project’s a little bit different. In terms of schedule, it will largely depend on the scope of work and what’s going on.
Addition and renovation wise specifically, our typical projects will take anywhere from three to 12 months.
We find most of our remodels that our smaller scale would be about 3 to 5.
A full addition remodel or new home construction is generally around 7 to 10 months.
We will work with you closely to give you a project schedule, which has got a critical path highlighted in it, and it will be a detail of activities
So you’ve selected your builder early on, you’re going through the design phase and permitting phase to get your permit approvals.
If we were selected as the builder for that project, we would be able to track it along and plan for our master schedule.
Generally, when the permit hits and we’re lined up for construction, we would be ready to go within two to four weeks of the permit approval.
In some cases that takes a little longer, some cases it’s a little bit faster and you might need more time to move. But that’s generally what we track for our projects here at both
When we’re working on your schedule, we’ll get you what’s called a critical path, or we refer to it as a CPM schedule.
It’s a work break down structure, so it’s a listing of all the activities that it’s going to take for us to complete the project, in a logical sequence that will allow us to show the predecessor successor relationships amongst those, and when things become critical on the job site.
So we’re nearing completion. At the end of the project, where let’s say two to four weeks out our team, your project manager will start to compile a pretty detailed punch list that would be all the activities that remain outstanding on the job, and whose responsibility it is to complete it, subcontractors, vendors, maybe it’s the Bolt crew.
We start working that list to get you to completion, so that you can occupy the space.
Once that list is generated, then we’re gonna meet you on site, walk through that list, and I’m sure you’ll also be picking through some things and wanting to create your own punch type.
So we’ll have a meeting to discuss your items, our items, merge the two and get the job completed, so that you can occupy the space
There’s a few things that we do and a few things that you can do to prioritize craftsmanship on the job.
For starters, your project manager is communicating weekly with our team that includes the pre construction team, the production manager, and the site supers that are working on the job.
We are taking the time to plan out the space, lay it out, and then bring our trade partners in and our cruise in to install those items. And then we back check them through an inspection.
We call this process the KB 24 process. And you being on the job site, having constant communication with the PM is going to allow you to inspect that work visually and also be part of asking questions and finding the answers to how this work was getting done, if it sounded right or not.
To have a successful project, communication is key.
The way we do that on our projects is a couple different methods.
We are available by email, cell phone, even landline at the office, but you’ll have a dedicated project manager for your project.
They will be constantly communicating with you, but at a minimum you’ll have a weekly site visit, which you’ll review your schedule issues, change orders, whatever scopes of work are happening that week.
And you’ll have access to our production manager, who helps an overseas work on all of our projects. And then you’ll have access to the rest of the team, the pre construction team that helped you develop the estimates and the contracts and things like that, and the design
In our world, we have to line up materials and subcontractors early on.
We call this process the buyout process. So what we’ve done internally is we’ve created a buyout schedule that links to our project schedules, our critical path schedules and tells us, hey, it’s time to get siding quotes started and bought out so that in the next four weeks we can mobilize our siding crews.
We review that by out schedule weekly in the look ahead meetings, and we use that as another tool to help us keep projects organized and on track. But we found tremendous success utilizing these tools, and our team is able to produce successful project outcomes from it that our clients just love for many years to come.
Communication and partnership is the only way we know how to build a project successfully.
We have a handful of project controls that monitor schedule, cost, and risk.
You’ll receive daily communication from your project manager and site superintendent, and you’ll have cloud based access to our project management software, so you get all the information of your project all at your fingertips.
Our team members work at Bolt as their career. They have a passion to build and support their families from their career here. We are very proud of our accomplishments together, and we want you to join us for a successful project
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