Before ground breaks
Pre-Construction
A successful project is won or lost before a shovel moves. We work alongside your architecture and engineering firms from day one, and price it with a Certified Professional Estimator on staff.
Four sheets before the building exists
Feasibility work comes first: site evaluation and logistical assessment, Zoning, code, and regulatory review, a look at utility access and environmental considerations, and early identification of the risks a design will run into before they cost anyone money. Once schematic design is far enough along, we build a preliminary construction budget from it and from current market data, calling out the specific cost drivers and budget risks in that scope, along with alternative design and material pricing so the owner has real options rather than one number with no context. A preliminary construction schedule runs alongside the budget: milestones across design, permitting, procurement and construction, the long-lead items identified early enough to order them on time, and the critical path made visible before it becomes a problem.
Value engineering without cutting the design intent
Where the budget and the design do not agree yet, value engineering looks for the cost-saving alternative that keeps what the architect and owner actually want: a different material, a revised system, a resequenced scope. Every option is priced side by side so the owner sees the real cost-benefit trade rather than a recommendation with no math behind it. This whole phase runs in parallel with your architecture and engineering firms, not after them, and it is priced by a Certified Professional Estimator on our own staff.
Geddes-Armstrong Construction, BBB accredited. Norman Chamber of Commerce member. Call (405) 329-1460.
What a repeat client says about the number holding
Oklahoma Electric Cooperative came to us for a new 55,000 square foot Administration and Shop Facility in Norman. The pre-construction work on that job, the feasibility review, the preliminary budget and the schedule that identified long-lead electrical gear early, is the reason the number held through construction. It is also why the same client returned for a second project, a 15,000 square foot remodel, rather than shopping it elsewhere.
That pattern, a first project that comes in clean enough that the same owner signs for a second one, is the actual test of pre-construction work. Anyone can hand over a number. Whether that number survives contact with real construction is a different question, and it is the one our Certified Professional Estimator answers before ground breaks.
GAC recently completed construction of a new 55,000 SF Operations Center for us here in Norman. Throughout the project I was thoroughly impressed with GAC's knowledge, professionalism, and capabilities. Perhaps the best reflection of my recommendation is the fact that we chose GAC for our 2nd construction project, a 15,000 SF remodel.
Pre-construction sets up the delivery method that follows it. Read how those methods compare on commercial construction, see what happens once plans are complete on general contracting, or call the office to start the feasibility conversation.