A client's remodel showed me the real cost of skipping a site survey

They wanted a sunroom added to their house in Portland, and the first set of plans from another drafter had the foundation footings sitting right on top of a buried sewer line. I got the job to redo it after they hit that snag. The difference between the two plans was just one afternoon of my time with a site survey map from the city, versus a three-week delay and a $5,000 budget overrun for them. It's a basic step that saves so much headache. How do you guys make sure a client understands that survey work isn't optional?

3 comments

3 Comments

wyatt_mitchell2622d ago

I mean, that's a perfect example right there. It's crazy how much time and money gets wasted trying to skip what seems like a small step. I had a similar thing happen where a neighbor built a shed, and it turned out part of it was over the property line because they just guessed. They had to tear it down and start over. It's so hard to get people to see that paying for the survey upfront is basically buying insurance. They just see it as an extra cost they don't want.

wood.eric22d ago

Yeah, that shed story is brutal... it's exactly the kind of thing that makes you cringe. People just hate paying for something that feels invisible, like lines on paper. But then you end up paying ten times more to fix the real, physical mess later. It's a weird blind spot for otherwise smart folks.

wren63822d ago

That "buying insurance" line is a stretch. Sometimes you just know your own land well enough.