Here at Berkley Construction Inc, we believe that communication is the key to the success of a project.  That’s why we have a multi-tiered estimating system numbered 1 through 5.  1 being the most basic and inaccurate and 5 being a contract number.  Each level has a more defined scope of work, and associated costing.  We will usually supply up to level 2 without charge and sometimes level 3 if there is an existing set of plans or a returning customer.

Customers often try to get “Bids” at level 1 and 2.  These are actually just “estimates,” as without the details there is no way to know what is contained in the scope of work.  These professional guesses will vary wildly in cost and detail.  Usually, even with a good set of drawings, the estimates will come back much higher than they need to be, or even worse, lower.
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Some contractors lowball on purpose knowing that scope is not yet 100% defined and they hope to start work before discussing these inevitable increases.  Picture a shrewd (improper in my view) contractor that makes his estimate seem low, but really, they just removed the important quality and service items. 

PSA’s serve many purposes and take many forms.  One of the most popular is the design due diligence PSA. Look at this PSA as a feasibility study for your project.  No plans, no set budget, just an idea; You may not be 100% sure you can pull it off.  And you certainly don’t want to spend 10’s of thousands of $$ on plans and engineering to find out if it works. 

The design due diligence PSA is a low-cost way to figure out the basics and budget before all the detail and expenses.  At the end of this effort, you should have a good scope of work and adequate pricing.  At least enough to decide if the budget meets the goals.  There is no obligation to move forward with the project or even the contractor that performed the PSA. 

How much do PSAs cost?

PSAs can cost as little as $500 and might be nothing more than crawling around under the house or verifying a structural layout, or it may require some digging to expose a footing.  Most PSAs though, are more involved/expensive costing $1400 and above, with permitting even more. A PSA may call for some design, meeting with subs, and possibly engineering or even full plan submittals and permitting. In later stage PSAs The designs are done and the effort is on scope definition, who is doing what, with what materials, when, and for what price.  Perhaps the 2nd most important benefit is that the GC performing the PSA will meet with subcontractors on site or in an office setting to make sure they are on the same page and have a clear definition of the client’s needs.  Most often initial estimates are site unseen and may contain major errors.   
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Now, to get from Level 3 to 4 and then to the final 5, there is a lot of work that needs to happen on the clients’, designers’, and contractors’ side.   One of the worst scenarios is that the proper amount of work is not done at this stage and then issues come up during production causing costly delays.  The PSA does not eliminate ALL issues, but it does lay the groundwork for how issues will be addressed.  It is critical to get this pre construction work done.   Everyone wants to get the hammers swinging, but planning is key to a smooth project once it does start.  Imagine enjoying your construction project.  Our aim is to make that happen! 

Why hire Berkley Construction to help with your PSA?

Our team has several decades of expertise in construction and we have great relationships with our partnered subcontractors. We also totally understand the way that construction was 5 years ago, it was common to ask for free bids from contractors.  We have found this was a waste of time and money for the contractor and for the client.  The PSA generally does not cover all our effort to create a detailed scope of work, but the investment is still worth it.

How much money can I save by getting a PSA before construction starts?

There are not just cost saving benefits to working with a professional team before the project has started, it can also offer opportunities in design or minor expansion as well as different types of technology that was not considered or even available before.  But more importantly, it will give the client and GC the chance to get to know each other and see how they work together. 

There are a lot of questions to answer during the PSA.  Is the client kind of handy thus allowing them to handle some parts of the work the GC had thought were his to cover?  How much supervision does a customer want?  Supervisors are expensive, so if the customer wants to pay to have them to be onsite 100% and watch the painters paint, or drywallers hang drywall, then so be it.  But these things need to be discussed prior to production.  What about weekend work?  Access to the home, site security?  What are the desired hours of operation?  This is also a great time to discuss the billing process, payments, lien releases and other paperwork.  At the end of this process you should have a much, much more accurate estimate and maybe even a contract number, and you will see for yourself what working with your GC will be like.  At the end of the PSA, you should have in hand a good amount in information and know your contractor and his team well enough to make a final decision. 

Ready to move forward with a Professional Services Agreement (PSA) for your next construction project? Contact us

Hint: It is all about planning!

Want to save money on your upcoming remodeling project? Pay a professional to help define the scope. Here's why.... A Professional Service Agreement (PSA) is a contract to help you define the remodel’s scope and quality in advance. It often includes some design, engineering, and professional discovery services.

The PSA should be focused on defining your scope so that the costing is more accurate. For example, sometimes field services are required. The plans may assume that a certain size footing exists in the current house and a new footing is going to merge with it. Part of the PSA would be to expose the footing and make sure the size assumption is correct and that the condition of the footing can withstand the new scope of work.

It also might be assumed that the framing is going a certain direction. The PSA might call for some exploratory demo to verify this. If the job is building anywhere close to a setback, then the PSA should also include a survey to verify that the work is legal. This goes for height as well. Any neighbor can complain about height and stop your progress during construction. Knowing the precise spot that the city considers ground is critical. You can simply drop a tape measure from the height to the marked spot and show that you’re in compliance. Better to address any issues before the roofing is on and it’s too late.

Probably the greatest benefit of a PSA is accurate costing and timeline. At the end of the PSA, and before construction, you would have an accurate report of conditions and costs. You may not know which paint color you want but you’ll know the type of paint and the costs of painting down to the square foot. If you hire a contractor to perform a PSA for you it should happen early enough in the design process so that changes can still be made if the changes will benefit the project. A customer should know that the fancy standing seam metal roof costs $900 per square, and that being by the beach voids the warranty.

The PSA should define the service as well. Communication and timeline should be addressed before construction. The level of service is very important to talk about. What are the customer’s expectations and what does the contractor plan to provide? How will the architect be involved? Who’ll make decisions regarding changes and upgrades? Who’s supplying what? Are fixtures or appliances included? Which ones? Who’ll be responsible for the logistics of finishes? Some customers are very hands-on while others just want the contractor to do everything.
There should also be no obligation on the part of the customer to use the contractor for the work. The PSA should stand on its own. Should the customer decide to get bids from multiple sources, the PSA will take the guesswork out of the bidding process, and the costs will be much more closely grouped.

These discussions need to happen BEFORE work starts—and the results written into the contract. You’ll pay for this service but the Value cannot be overstated. To learn more about how we can help you develop a PSA for your remodeling project, Contact Us

We loved that our client had a great sense of style and was decisive on her choices of materials – making completing the project on time and on budget a breeze.She chose a beautiful Silestone slab in Neo Marquena for the countertops in both the bathroom and kitchen.  It took a total of 3 slabs for all areas and the backsplash.  The floor was replaced in the bathroom with Fusion Cemento in 16" x 32" to mimic the polished concrete floors she has in the main house. 
 
A brilliant white subway tile in 3"x6" was chosen for the walk-in shower, and we added a Schluter tile trim at the wall edges. The client has a whimsical side and chose a round white tile for the floor of the shower, and also for the back of the soap niche.  While it was decided early on that she wanted black grout on the floor of the shower, it wasn't until our team started grouting when she made a last minute decision to change the white grout at the subway tile on the shower walls to black as well. A great choice! We finished the room with fresh Brilliant White Ceiling paint and Brilliant White Wall paint. 
 
The client already had the black paint in a semi-gloss, so we repainted the divider wall just to freshen it up.  At the accent wall, client already had a beautiful black and white patterned wallpaper, which was the inspiration for the room.  
 
Are you ready to redesign your bathroom? Contact us to learn more.

The Berkley Construction team recently completed a kitchen remodel in Del Mar. The old kitchen was entirely removed to make room for a new, more modern design crafted to brighten the room and create more space for cooking and entertaining.

Design elements included a concrete countertop with waterfall edge and a farm style sink in the kitchen island. For added space and efficiency a microwave drawer and double trash receptacle pull out were also added to the kitchen island.

The custom maple cabinets were designed with shaker style doors, painted with “Cityscape” by Sherwin Williams and finished with Conversion Varnish for added durability. Walls were painted with “Shitake” (also by Sherwin Williams) to complement the Herringbone pattern porcelain tile backsplash. Upgraded vinyl plank flooring and a custom designed range hood with wood siding helped complete the design of this beautiful open-concept kitchen design.

Special thanks to DC Custom Concrete, Pete Otis Cabinetry and Floor It for assistance with this beautiful kitchen remodel. For more information and ideas on how we can refresh or remodel your kitchen, contact us. 

Berkley Construction worked with UrbanLife Ministries Inc. to transform the roof of the Copley-Price Family YMCA into a beautiful rooftop garden. This project included custom built planters + benches and will serve as an interactive environment where community kids can learn about growing nutritious food, and enjoy an outdoor garden space.

On May 6, 2019 the Berkley Construction team attended a very special Grand Opening event. During the event, the YMCA thanked everyone involved for bringing this project to life. This community partnership garden will support educational programming for all ages. The garden will also be open for YMCA members to enjoy and for volunteer opportunities. 

Graham Memorial Presbyterian Church on Coronado Island approached us - Berkley Construction -  recently to remodel the historic Kirk House, built in 1911—the 4,500-square-foot, three-story Victorian Queen Anne Revival-style home where their manse and church offices are located. The Kirk House is also a beloved landmark so they wanted the highest quality craftsmanship, at a reasonable price, that would last a long time. As with all projects, we used a Professional Service Agreement (PSA) and our design-build approach, with pre-construction estimations, to ensure expectations were clear and the client would get exactly what they wanted.

This was essentially a repair project from the roof down that involved most of the exterior building envelope except the doors, windows and siding—so it included work on the roof, custom railings, leaking decks, and flashing that was in disrepair. But because it also involved satisfying historic designation requirements, it required replicating original designs for elements of that exterior envelope. Most of it had been built with 100-year-old native wood, with different tools than we use today, and assembled in different ways than are standard today. Of all elements, the railing, which was in bad shape, posed the biggest challenge.

To receive its historic designation, everything had to be a replica of the original. To achieve that with the railing, we drew and computerized it, then made a list of all the different types of wood it included (for example, we used African Mahogany for longevity and treated it with anti-termite spray for an added layer of protection), then had three different companies create railing samples. (Ultimately, we hired two of the companies.) Those computerizations were important because we needed a tolerance of 1/64th of an inch—we had extremely specific requirements to make an exact historical replica of that railing. The manufacturers, who don’t visit work sites, needed precise diagrams of the changing curvatures of everything sent to them. They worked closely with carpenters to ensure everything was manufactured, fitted together, and installed to look as it did over 100 years ago.

​Creating the railings was a complex, non-linear process that involved coordinating among the carpenters installing it, manufacturers making it, and painters treating it before it went back to carpenters for installation. The painters and carpenters did an amazing job. Without that impressively detailed work to recreate the railings, the Kirk House might still have gotten its historic designation but with the caveat of having to change them back to the way they were originally—which would have been unbelievably expensive.

As an old house, there was also the interesting challenge of preserving the historical aspects while navigating contemporary local building codes. The City of Coronado has to enforce those codes but a house from 1911 wasn’t built to meet them. The City said we couldn’t rebuild it the way it was originally because it wouldn’t meet code requirements—unless we got the historical designation. So we had to get that designation during the job to complete the remodel. The City was amazing in working with us to get that designation. Ralph West, a member of Graham Memorial Presbyterian (and the contact who vetted us and managed the remodel), volunteered to head the endeavor on our end. He did a truly incredible job—an unbelievable job given that he secured the designation so fast. He was remarkably prepared and thorough. It was a slam dunk thanks largely to Ralph’s exhaustive efforts, including finding a lot of great information about the Kirk House.

A project like this takes time and effort. There’s no shortcut, no cheap way to achieve that kind of exceptional craftsmanship that truly lasts for decades. To that end, the PSA was essential for clarifying the scope of work and timeline, and providing more accurate pricing up front among other critical benefits.

Every project has its challenges but great outcomes, like this, are the result of doing a good job, working with good people, and having a good team. Working on a historical building, especially on such a successful project like this, is incredibly rewarding. Too often, people let historical relevance die because it’s easy and convenient. Graham Memorial Presbyterian could have knocked the house down and put up a cement building or installed a standard railing. Instead, and much to their credit, they wanted to keep it historically accurate for the community so they chose to jump through the necessary hoops at considerable expense. It was really good choice for them and for the Coronado community.

This project was personally meaningful, too. The Senior Pastor, Reverend Dr. David McElrath, promised early on that he would make some of his famous smoked, pulled pork once the remodel was finished. Recently, he had our family over for dinner and everyone got to meet—and enjoy the best pulled pork I’ve ever had. It’s really a family affair at Graham Memorial Presbyterian. To sit and share a meal, and talk about life and things other than work, was a perfect way to end the job.
 

In early 2018 the San Diego Seals professional lacrosse team approached us - Berkley Construction -  to build their new locker rooms at Pechanga Arena by the start of the season, in December. To meet the deadline, we scheduled seven months, May to November, to finish the project. In part thanks to using a Professional Service Agreement (PSA)—an invaluable resource for most projects—we finished two weeks ahead of schedule. And because we’re a design-build firm we were able to meet the project needs on a short timeline and still provide our high-quality work.
 
As a new team, the Seals didn’t have any locker rooms. They needed us to take an existing dead space and turn it into a fully-functioning locker room with mobile lockers where a professional sports team could operate. Again, the PSA, basically a mini feasibility report, was so important because it helped us identify a costly mistake and save our client a lot of time and money up front. We started by creating a few basic designs to review with the clients. During those reviews, we identified that they had mistaken which area would be built out. If they had hired a design and architecture firm, it likely would have cost tens of thousands of dollars, and several months to get plans for the wrong space—and the expense of starting from scratch.
 
Because the space was adjacent to several other rooms at the arena, it made it challenging to start designing and building because we were working around other events. One memorable example was pulling out all our tools for a couple days every time Shakira was in town because she stayed in a room next to our work site. But the primary challenge was a perfect example of balancing timing with design. We needed to deliver excellent quality with a limited budget and on a short timeline—without a full set of plans.
 
The start of the Seals’ season was the hard deadline, and it was critical that it be done on time so they would have a place to change for games. To meet that deadline, we started before the end was in sight and approved, tackling one phase at a time (we had tentative layouts and positions, enough to do the demo, plumbing and electrical, but only placeholders for elements like costs, color choices and related bids for those elements). That meant we were doing design and building in tandem as we proceeded through the timeline, which required significant creativity as well as trust between our team and Seals management. By updating the plans as needed, getting specific about each line item in the timeline as it occurred—including scope and materials—we were able to deliver one of the best projects possible under especially tight restrictions. Typically, the same project would take a year to complete. In fact, the timeline was so short that we began building the mobile lockers on-site the day after we got final design approval—we didn’t have time to have them built off-site and delivered.
 
Also, again because the plans weren’t hyper-detailed, there was a lot more personal interaction with subcontractors, including getting immediate feedback from them about design. They needed to know what work would be involved to give us accurate quotes, and feel at ease about their commitments, and we needed to be sure their quotes fit our budget. By working closely together, deciding what would be included, then getting client approval, everyone’s needs were met.  
 
It’s worth repeating that the PSA was incredibly valuable to the process. As a design-build firm, we provide PSAs as standard on all projects. They really are the wave of the future, especially for higher-end projects that involve more than five or six trades.
 
It was a pleasure to work with the Seals. We go to Pechanga Stadium several times a year and it’s an amazing feeling to know that Berkley Construction built a really nice part of it—the best locker room in the whole facility!
 

Another hot San Diego summer is approaching and will be here before you know it! Planning ahead will give you the best options to keep your home or office cool and comfortable all summer long.
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Older homes especially have poor insulation and there is rarely enough room for central air conditioning. A better solution to beat the heat is the mini-split or “ductless” air conditioner. Outlined below are the reasons why mini splits are becoming so popular, especially as energy prices increase.

• Mini-splits are significantly cheaper than central air conditioning. A central AC system can cost $10,000-$20,000 depending on the existing conditions and size of the house. A mini split system averages $1,800-$2,900 installed per zone.
  
  
• Mini-splits are much more efficient. AC is rated according to SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio.) Most central AC units are 14 SEER; a very expensive central AC unit might be 16 or 18 SEER. Most of the mini-splits we install are 20-25 SEER without breaking the bank.
  
  
• The install on a mini-split is much less involved. We can usually complete it in a day. There is only a 3″ diameter hole from the outside condenser to the inside air handler, which is why they are called ductless AC units.
  
  
• Most mini-split units have the ability to heat as well; these are called heat pumps.
  
  
• Mini-splits are very quiet; most people don’t even realize they are on.
  
  

Most of our customers start with one unit. Once they realize how miserably they had been suffering in August, they end up having additional units installed for other parts of the house. These units are extraordinary, and Americans are late to the game in adopting them. They are used in Asia and all over Europe as the dominant method for heating and cooling.

Do not wait for the heat to order your mini-split! There is a 2-week lead-time on most units, and this summer we anticipate selling out of the high value units. 

Call us today for a free consultation on purchasing guilt free Air Conditioning!

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​By Joe Kidd, Project Manager

Anyone who’s ever lived or sought to live in our beautiful State of California has recognized two things: we have great sunny weather, and it’s expensive to live here. But the scenery is not the sole culprit for the high cost of living; it is the perfect storm of high demand, tough requirements for building, high labor costs, and high government fees, all of which inhibit the construction of new homes statewide. With limited land and large acreage requirements for building new plots in urban areas, the City of San Diego has looked to an alternate solution to the problem: Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs.

According to the 2015 report, “California’s High Housing Costs – Causes and Consequences” by the California Legislative Analyst’s Office, the state would have to add approximately 210,000 dwelling units per year to keep pace with approximately 284,000 jobs added to the State per year. In reality, only about 90,000 new dwelling units are added per year, and it has created a situation where there are many jobs to fill, but not enough homes to house those workers. This has created a less than 4% vacancy statewide and housing costs have ballooned as a result.
This effect fans out from the urban areas and forces those willing to work to live outside of the city, county, and even the state, with workers traveling in to San Diego from as far as Los Angeles and even Phoenix every day to get in to work. Aside from just the effect on housing costs, this exacerbates already congested traffic and works against California’s dedication to decreasing their environmental impact with greenhouse gasses.

​Many solutions have been brought to the table, such as the Affordable Housing Density Bonus program, 11th Code Update, Affordable/Sustainable Expedite Program, and Streamlined Environmental Review. One in particular stands out for its benefits to not just large developers and renters, but to average homeowners as well:  Accessory Dwelling Units also called a secondary unit or ‘granny flat’. An ADU is an additional single or dual dwelling unit that is built on a property without subdividing into separate lots. It is separate from the main building, and though it may have separate water, gas, and electrical meters, and possibly even a separate address, it still rests on the same plot of land as described in the property’s legal description.
The rules for building are simple, though not always easy. It requires that the unit be considered as part of the main property upon selling and cannot be sold separately, it requires passing not only the usual building and zoning regulations, but also passing environmental and traffic impact studies, as well as parking requirements. Each one of these comes with its own fee, paid to the local jurisdiction. Prior to 2018, those fees really started to add up. Rather than paying simple remodeling fees as if the addition were attached to the main house, the fees were closer to the cost of building a new home. 

​These fees are divided by two types of communities in the county; FBA communities and DIF Communities. An FBA community is where there is still land available for developing; the impact fees pay all of the public service requirements for that area, and will tend to be higher than in a DIF community. A DIF community is one where the area is near maximum buildout; in the DIF community, the fees only cover the impact on already-in-place public services. So if you live in an FBA community such as Carmel Valley or Torrey highlands, the fees averaged in the $30,000 to $50,000 range last year, going as high as $120,000. However if you lived in a DIF community such as North Park, Kearny Mesa, Clairemont, Golden Hill, Downtown, etc., the fees were significantly lower to an average of $8,000 to $17,000, with some communities as low as $1500 to $4000.