Flat-fee residential construction consulting — no guessing, no “call for a quote” on the basics. Here’s exactly what independent construction oversight and structural evaluations cost.
| Service | What It Covers | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Structural Assessment | Focused structural evaluation of a specific concern — not a home inspection. For inspector referrals (“consult a licensed contractor”) or when something just doesn’t look right. Written report with photos included. | $450 |
| Renovation Scope & Budget Assessment | Buying to remodel? A full walkthrough identifying what’s needed to complete the renovation, with budget-level guidance. | $750 |
| Bid Review | A second opinion on contractor bids before you sign — what’s missing, what’s overpriced. | $350 |
| Pre-Construction Plan & Budget Review | Plan review, budget sanity check, and contractor vetting guidance before you break ground. | $750 |
| Deck Safety Assessment | Contractor-level inspection of your deck’s structural condition — ledger attachment, posts, beams, joists, post base hardware, decking surface, guardrails, and stairs. Written report with photos. | $350 |
| Deck Plan & Code Review | Pre-construction review of your deck plans against current IRC requirements — span tables, footing sizes, ledger attachment, guardrail specs, and stair requirements. Flagged items referred to a structural engineer if outside prescriptive limits. | $350 |
Ongoing oversight through an active build: scheduled site visits at each major phase, written reports with photos, draw review before you pay, and a direct line to me between visits. Scales up with project size and complexity.
For owners who want oversight on specific phases rather than the full build, billed monthly.
Overseeing a full build start to finish — where your contractor schedules the trades, buys the material, and runs the job — is scoped on a call. Every build is a different length and a different level of involvement, so I’d rather quote yours than publish a number that fits nobody.
If you’re acting as your own general contractor, Owner-Build Consulting is a flat-fee package: material takeoffs, bid leveling with one recommended sub per trade, and milestone inspections through the build. You hold the owner-builder permit and the sub contracts and pay each trade directly — I advise, I don’t contract or touch the money.
| Package | What It Covers | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Dry-In Consulting | Plans through a weather-tight shell, before mechanicals — material takeoffs, bid leveling on the quotes you gather, plus up to five milestone inspections (footing through dry-in). | From $5,000 |
| Full-Build Oversight | The entire build, start to finish — includes everything in Dry-In, plus mechanical rough-ins, insulation, finishes, and closeout, up to eleven milestone inspections. Set per build by length and complexity. Dry-In credits toward it. | From $12,000 |
These are starting fees, set for a single-family custom home of roughly 2,000–2,500 sq ft (around $350K–$450K of construction cost); larger or more complex builds are scoped from there. Beyond the package — extra site visits, re-takeoffs after a design change, or more than three quotes for a trade — is billed at $125/hr, always confirmed before it clocks. Construction labor, permits, engineering, product purchasing, and warranty of sub work aren’t part of the engagement.
For one-off questions, a second opinion, or anything that doesn’t fit neatly into the categories above.
What you see is what it costs. If your project doesn’t fit neatly into one category — owner-builder support, construction problem assessment, or something in between — we’ll figure it out on a call, not after you’ve committed to anything.
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