Arlington
| VA
Engineered Solutions Support Models
Flexibility to suit your needs
Design-Build Contracting Model
Entering a design-build contract means selecting a single, turnkey contractor to both design and build your plumbing or mechanical system solution. The agreement involves a mutual exchange of trust from both you and your provider. When the trust is established, the results can be outstanding, delivering a better finished product, at a lower cost, in record time.
In fact, you can significantly reduce overhead and management costs compared to when you rely on third-party owners’ representatives, and you can expedite the process by eliminating certain steps. (See the exhibit to the right.)
A design-build model isn’t right for every client, but if you’re seeking to complete your project using a streamlined process with reduced overall time and costs, it can be your best option. Here’s why:
What You Get with a SageWater Design-Build Project
Solution-based design
certified by licensed engineers, delivered with permitted, ready-to-build plans.
Turnkey Construction
all delivered by SageWater tradespeople.
Dedicated project managers and crews
working collaboratively to drive efficiency in scheduling, communication, and construction.
No moving out:
at the end of each day, we clean away dust and debris and guarantee running water.
Resident-centric communications
that ensure everyone in your community knows what to expect.
What Makes SageWater Design-Build Services Different?
Accurate project scope
Most engineers, architects, and construction managers don’t work on plumbing and mechanical infrastructure every day. But ours do! We're on top of industry best practices. We avoid “over-engineering” your project and focus on value-engineering to deliver an appropriate scope and save you money.
Lower project cost
The biggest cost drivers in a plumbing and mechanical infrastructure project are the unknown conditions behind your walls, ceilings, and floors. We leverage decades of expertise to deliver an accurate project estimate with near-zero change orders, keeping your costs low.
Accelerated timeline
One provider means you’ll start–and finish–your project sooner. In a traditional model, it can take a year or more to select a construction manager, hire an engineer, review the design, put the construction project out to bid, compare RFP responses, interview top candidates, and execute a contract.
Single point of accountability
Your solution is our responsibility, since we designed it. You won’t have to deal with the differences of opinion that can occur between a contractor and an engineer. If we find anything that requires your attention, we bring it directly to you—along with the proposed solution.
Design Assist Contracting Model
A design assist contract enables you to pair a preferred designer with trade contractors or a specialist like SageWater who can provide real-world knowledge about your plumbing or mechanical infrastructure project. For example:
- Before design work begins, you can engage us to collaborate with your preferred designer.
- After you’ve got a design, you can engage us to take a more consultative approach, partnering with your designer to refine the scope before you put an RFP out to bid.
Because most engineers, architects, and construction managers don’t work every day on plumbing and mechanical infrastructure like us, we can provide expert input—what we often call “value engineering”—that helps designers make better and more practical decisions.
For example, our ability to discuss more efficient assembly configurations and practical material options with a design team has often saved our clients a considerable amount of money, time, or both.
What You Get with a SageWater Design Assist Project
With a SageWater design assist project, you retain third-party oversight from your design and/or construction management team, while also receiving:
Design Support
from SageWater’s team of operational experts to help review your design plans and scope of work in search of efficiencies and cost savings.
The unique combination of
expertise and benefits included in our Turnkey Construction Process.
What Makes SageWater Design Assist Services Different?
Improved scope
When reviewing your plans, our operations team typically finds several opportunities to improve the design of the finished product based on our depth of experience and real-world understanding of how things go together in the field.
Reduced cost
Our ability to propose changes to assembly configurations and material selection can often save our clients between 5% and 10% in material costs through more efficient design and/or use of materials.
Faster implementation
Through our design-assist process, we can often find ways to pre-assemble various system components, making the process more efficient and quicker to complete in the field. By pre-assembling certain fittings and connections, we can produce assemblies at speed in a more controlled environment. In the end, this means less time in each residents’ unit, and an overall faster project schedule.
Testimonials
It’s a really great feeling having a partner like SageWater. They’re going to do the work as if they own the building and offer guidance that the owner wants and needs.
The communication was great. They would let us know, and let me know as president of the Board, all issues that came up or any changes in scheduling. They were really good about notifying us. Communication is so important, and SageWater was great at that.
…SageWater has proven to be very professional and efficient in our work with them thus far. They did the riser in my bedroom today, showed up and finished on time, and phoned me as I requested when the work was complete.
The SageWater team has the best customer service, and also very patient staff. [SageWater] finished on time and dealt with units in a very professional way. They have a very creative way of thinking when it comes to accessing pipes, our building has 20 units, and SageWater gets 5 stars from me.
Next Steps
Find out if a SageWater Engineered Solution is right for your community’s plumbing or mechanical infrastructure project.
Contact Us