Preconstruction Planning: The Secret Sauce of Building
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Why preconstruction matters:
The key to an accurate estimate and a smooth build
When embarking on a home renovation or new build, homeowners often want to jump straight into construction. Understandably, you're excited to see progress and eager to get the work underway. However, without a structured pre-construction process, you’re setting yourself up for uncertainty, costly surprises, and potential frustration.
The preconstruction process is not just a formality—it’s the foundation for a successful project. It allows us to determine the exact scope of work before construction begins, ensuring an accurate cost estimate and a well-planned schedule. Without it, contractors rely on rough guesses, leading to misaligned expectations, budget overruns, and delays.
What is preconstruction planning and why do I need it?
The purpose of preconstruction (what is it?)
A well-executed preconstruction process has one primary goal: to clearly define the scope of work. Every detail, from the size of the home to site conditions to the choice of materials, needs to be identified before work begins. The reason is simple—uncertainty in scope leads to uncertainty in cost. Put another way: what a project ultimately costs is directly based on the final scope of work. So, if you want to know what your project is going to cost, then you have to understand the scope of work.
Why preconstruction is essential for homeowners
If you have endless amounts of cash and don’t care how long it takes, then you do not need to do preconstruction planning. You can just find a builder who also has no other plans and muddle your way through the building process. However, virtually everyone has a money and time limit.
The truth is that there is no shortcut to properly estimating a residential construction project. It takes time. And that time needs to be spent determining the exact scope of work before putting numbers to it.
Why so few contractors offer preconstruction
Sadly, the norm in the construction industry for many years has been to offer free estimates. If a contractor has to produce multiple free estimates for projects they have no idea that they’ll get, they are not putting a lot of time into those estimates. Good construction budgeting and preconstruction work takes many hours and several weeks to compile.
Why we insist on preconstruction planning
Before we started Lighthaus, John and I spent many years managing projects (for another builder) that had been sold on rough estimates. Routinely there were very few certainties and so lots of allowances for costs. This led to projects whose budgets ballooned and timelines dragged on. The whole time, the homeowners would ask, “Why wasn’t this known before?” The answer to that question is: nobody did the work to find out what the scope of work was.
Our view was that the scope of work can and should always be known before construction starts. But we needed a formula for how to do that. Enter the pre-construction process.
How our preconstruction process works
When we meet with you, our first goal is to assess whether or not we are a good fit for the project. This is a combination of project size, location, time requirements and of course, budget. We actually don’t have a minimum budget size when selecting projects, but we do need to ensure that whatever the budget is, it’s realistic.
Once we have assessed that all non-budget criteria are aligned with us, our next step is to understand the overall purpose of the project and determine a rough ballpark estimate. This estimate is not definitive (typically about 70% accurate), but it’s usually enough to know if your budget is realistic for the overall scope. Plus, we don’t want to go through an entire pre-construction process only to find out that the budget is half of what the actual costs will be. So we do this portion for free (yes, I know what I said earlier), and if there is alignment, we then enter into our preconstruction agreement, which looks like this:
Schematic Design (SD) Pricing: Once there are schematic drawings, we begin to write out the scope of work but use past projects as a guide to rough costs. We collaborate with you and your design team to provide constructibility feedback as the details get refined.
Design Development (DD) Pricing: At this point, there are a lot more details like structural, electrical, plumbing, etc, and there is often enough information that we can get firm quotes from our trade partners (think plumbing, hardwood flooring, tile, etc). The goal is to have as many costs known before construction begins.
Issued for Construction (IFC) Pricing: This is the final stage of drawings and is often when the permit is issued. At this point, all details are known except for some very small things that typically don’t have a budget impact.
By the end of this cycle, you will have:
A detailed scope of work
A detailed construction cost estimate
A detailed construction timeline
Scope of work, scope of work:
Why do you harp on about that?
I know that you ultimately care about two things: how much it will cost and how long it will take. But there is only one way to answer those two questions. You guessed it…scope of work.
What exactly is “scope of work” in residential construction?
Perhaps it’s so obvious that it’s ultimately confusing, but I feel this needs some explanation. The scope of work is literally everything that will need to be done to execute the design and to give you the home you want. It is notoriously difficult to tease out. Architectural drawings never capture all of the details alone, and so they require lots of assessing and we need to ask lots of questions. There are many subtleties in each of our ideas, and those subtleties don’t always make it into the design. By going through a purposeful pre-construction process we give ourselves the best chance at learning all of the relevant information.
What happens if you skip the preconstruction planning phase?
Most contractors do not follow this approach. Instead, they provide a high-level estimate based on assumptions and incomplete information. The problem? Once construction starts, reality sets in:
Budget Overruns – Since details weren’t fleshed out in advance, unexpected costs arise, and change orders drive up expenses.
Delays & Frustration – Missing details mean ongoing decisions must be made mid-construction, slowing progress.
Compromised Quality – Rushed decisions can lead to subpar materials and last-minute workarounds that impact the final result.
When homeowners rely on "free estimates" from contractors who haven't performed thorough pre-construction work, they often receive numbers that don’t reflect reality. This leads to unexpected price increases mid-project and difficult conversations about what can and cannot be done within the budget.
The cost vs. value of preconstruction
Yes, we charge for our preconstruction process. However, this investment saves you thousands in the long run. Consider the alternative:
Pay a small fee upfront for a well-planned, cost-certain project.
Skip pre-construction and risk paying tens of thousands more in unexpected costs and delays.
At the end of the day, the scope of work will be revealed. This either comes through careful preconstruction planning or by looking backward at what was just built. You can imagine which makes more sense.
The bottom line:
Plan first, build smart
The preconstruction process isn’t an extra step—it’s THE step that makes everything else possible. By defining the exact scope of work upfront, we:
Provide accurate pricing, reducing budget uncertainty.
Ensure a realistic and efficient construction timeline.
Prevent costly and time-consuming changes during construction.
Homeowners who skip this step often find themselves in stressful, over-budget, and drawn-out projects. By investing in preconstruction, you’re investing in a smooth, predictable, and ultimately more cost-effective building experience.
Thinking about renovating or building a custom home?
If you’re planning a renovation or a new home build, take the time to do it right. Let’s start with pre-construction and set your project up for success.
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Preconstruction Planning Giveaway!
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Meet the Author
Dave Cook is co-owner of Lighthaus Built and has spent 17 years working in single-family construction in Toronto. Through the years, he has worked as a carpenter, site supervisor, and project manager for more than 60+ major, high-end renovations and custom homes.
As an HCRA-licensed builder, he and his company (Lighthaus Built) are well-versed in constructing high-quality homes and take pride in what they do.
On a personal level, Dave is very active in several sports - most notably, distance running, road cycling, and tennis. He bakes bread (for personal consumption) and no, this was not a Covid thing. He grew up eating homemade bread and has made my own for the past 20 years. He has been married for 20 years and has two teenage children and a dog.
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