Articles
Notes from the owner’s side of the job
What we have learned running renovations, build-outs and new construction: costs, schedules, contracts and the details that decide opening day.
Inside a commercial construction schedule: how the date gets held
Every schedule we build starts at the last line, not the first. We write the opening date at the bottom of the page, then work upward: the final inspection has…
Read the article →San Antonio commercial construction cost per square foot, 2026 guide
The first thing we check on a San Antonio site is not the drawings. It is how far down the rock starts. North of Loop 1604 a trencher can hit limestone inches…
Read the article →Dallas-Fort Worth commercial building cost per square foot, 2026
The first question on a Dallas-Fort Worth estimate is not the finish level. It is the address. Two identical buildings, one in Dallas and one twenty minutes no…
Read the article →Austin commercial build costs per square foot: 2026 planning guide
Standing on a lot off 290 west of Austin, you can see what a per-square-foot number never tells you: the limestone is right there under six inches of soil, and…
Read the article →The bid packet: what to gather before asking for a number
About half the bid requests that reach our desk are a single paragraph and an address. We price them anyway, but we price them with assumptions, and every assu…
Read the article →What to check on a commercial site before you go under contract
We have stood on a lot that looked perfect from the road and found the reason it was cheap two feet down. The seller was not hiding it; nobody had asked. Site…
Read the article →The owner's pre-construction checklist before you break ground
We keep a habit before any job starts. The principal who priced it sits with the owner and asks one question first: what day does this building need to open? E…
Read the article →Choosing between tilt-wall and steel frame for your building
We stood on a graded pad last spring with an owner who wanted to know which system would get his warehouse doors open first. Not which was stronger, not which…
Read the article →GC or construction manager: which one should run your job
On our jobs the same principal walks the site whether the contract calls us the general contractor or the construction manager. The work in the field looks ide…
Read the article →Design-build or design-bid-build: picking the right path
The difference between the two delivery methods shows up on a Tuesday afternoon when the framer finds a duct that will not fit above the ceiling. Under one met…
Read the article →Retail Tenant Build-Out (Example)
This is an example project, not a finished job. It shows the shape of the retail work we take on so this page is not empty on day one. Replace it with a real s…
Read the article →Multifamily Unit Turns (Example)
This is an example project, not a finished job. It shows the shape of the multifamily work we take on so this page is not empty on day one. Replace it with a r…
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