Permitting, Site Work & Installation
The installation and finish work on a Blu home.
Blu Homes Benefits in Permitting, Site Work, and Installation
i) Permitting: As you go through the permitting process, Blu will help to make sure that you get a design you like, that the permit office will approve. Blu’s computer modeling technology allows quick and easy changes in the 3-D model allowing us to meet your needs, will having your design changes directly “flowing through” to any drawings for permit offices, or for site quotes.
ii) Site work: Most of the site work that happens in a conventional home building process happens off-site when building a Blu home since the bulk of our construction happens in a factory. However, there are some on-site specific issues that the homeowner will need to work through, such as driveways, utility hookups, onsite decking, tree clearing, foundations, excavation, and landscaping. Blu will help you through the site work estimation process and help you source subcontractors if needed and requested.
iii) Shipping: Blu manufactures our homes so that they are optimized for shipping, but still give you big, wide open spaces, rather than being constrained to a long & narrow space. We do this on our smaller units with our proprietary building and installation technology, and on our bigger units by combining our smaller units into one.
Shipping can often be one of the most expensive elements of modern prefab homes. Blu’s technology allows a dramatic drop in shipping costs.
iv) Foundation: Conventional foundations can be very expensive. Blu’s innovative foundation systems can cost considerably less than conventional systems and can work in the most difficult soil conditions, saving you money and stress from site work.
v) Installation: Many of Blu’s homes can be “set” less expensively than conventional prefab homes. In addition, Blu homes have often been tested for ‘fit’ in the facility, so that there is less onsite work required and more precision in putting the home parts together.
vi) Finish: Blu builds as much as possible in the facility, so the amount of site work is kept to a minimum. Site work is frequently where the “pain” occurs in home building – it is where most of the delays, cost overages, and mistakes occur.
Thus, Blu completes as many of the key home elements in the facility as possible, depending on our clients’ needs. These include cabinetry, flooring, siding, windows, bath and kitchen fixtures, HVAC systems, electrical, plumbing, and more. The more that is done in the facility, the fewer unexpected site expenses that can come up for the homeowner.
Conventional Building Process
i) Permitting: Typically, conventional builders spend weeks making changes to drawings in the process of going back and forth for permit office adjustments. This is because many of the drawings do not translate into 3-D models that clients can understand, and/or show the kinds of finishes that man permitting and zoning offices would like to see.
ii) Site work: Conventional home building often requires months of site work including time spent with the site exposed to the elements, subcontractor management, and a great deal of construction waste throughout.
iii) Shipping: In conventional home building the shipping back and forth of products produces significant carbon emissions from fossil fuels, and also produces lags and ambiguity for the homeowner in the process.
In addition, conventional prefab shipments frequently require police escorts and other expensive logistical help in order to support the wider loads that allow for more optimal & wider spaces in a prefab home. Blu’s building technology and systems allow us to ship your home more efficiently, to avoid many of these costs while building homes wider and more spaciously than other prefab companies.
iv) Installation: As discussed above, the ‘installation’ on conventional buildings includes numerous site workers, unpredictability due to weather, sub contractor and inspection issues and site disturbances that can damage a sites ecosystems.
Blu Resources for Permitting, Site Work, Installation
i) Permit drawings: Your designer at Blu homes goes through every detail of the home plans, and consults with you about any aesthetic questions or decisions that need to be made in the engineering process.
In addition, Blu designs or helps to design the foundation plan, depending on the required process of your local authorities. Blu’s “standard” foundation is a pier/pile foundation that can work in many climates, earthquake zones, high water table areas, etc. However, Blu will also work with you on basement drawings if that is what you prefer.
ii) Permit approval: Every permit office is different, and has issues specific to your local area. Blu works closely with our homeowners to help you answer local permit officials’ questions to make sure your home is in compliance with all local codes and regulations. Many areas have issues specific to the climate or environment like:
• high wind zones
• high water table / flood areas
• protected plants / species or other wildlife zones
• detailed fire codes
Blu is committed to diligently helping you in working through questions or concerns a local permit office may have.
iii) Siting: Once your home is completed in the factory and the site is fully ready with the foundation in, Blu will ship your home in a day, ‘set’ the home in a day, then work cooperatively with local subcontractors to hook up your utilities and finish up the any final details.
Client To Dos in Permitting, Site Work, and Installation
i) Permit drawings: You need to sign off on the finalized home design so it can be fully engineered for the permit office. These final documents are called the “permit drawings”.
ii) Permit approval: You need to be willing to get data and information to your local permit office specific to your project.
Blu will provide any and all permit drawings required.
iii) Site work: Sign off on the budget for all site work beforehand, and help with bank draws for site work “draw downs” at various points in the project.
iv) Installation: Approve all the finial finish work in a “walk through” document that you complete on site after delivery.
