How Smart Design Saves you Time and Money

‘Measure twice, cut once,’ says the old builder’s proverb. It’s sound advice. Getting the measurements wrong can really ruin a project.

When it comes to designing and building homes, we have taken this wisdom to a new level. For us, it is more like design twice and measure twice, so you can build with quality once and build with quality fast. We know that extra investment at the design stage pays off big time.

It is superior design that unlocks value for money in a new home. Two big aspects of value, which have significant cost implications, are related to time:

1. How long the preconstruction period takes, which is from when you negotiate details, sign a contract, and the builder gets organised to build for you.
2. The time it takes to physically build the home on your site.

The longer both take, the more it costs you. Unfortunately, many homebuyers don’t think these points through enough. Fortunately for them, we have thought about them a lot.

Time is Money

In the project home sector, preconstruction and build times vary a lot. We give customers a guarantee that we will give them a fixed price tender within 10 days, that preconstruction will never take more than 10 weeks, and our build time will be no more than 20 weeks (26 for two-story homes). All guaranteed!

By contrast, on average our competitors take 26 weeks for preconstruction but can take up to 40. Our competitors’ build time is an average of 26 weeks but can take as long as 52 weeks. Time is money. For a typical home, our process will save a customer $45,000.[1]

There is no magic involved. No corners are cut and there are no tricks. Rather, time savings are achieved through superior design decisions. Measuring twice and cutting once.

Smart Design Saves Time

To us, design superiority means very practical, but incredibly smart, planning decisions. Here are some typical examples:

1. The large island benches in our kitchens are impressive. Just as importantly, they are a standard-size slab. That means they don’t require cutting and there is no waste to clean up. Time saved.
2. Our homes are designed and engineered so that no structural steel beams are ever needed. No cranes, no dogmen, and no hold-ups on site that stop other trades working. And the worksite is safer.
3. Our steel frames are unique because we sat down with our suppliers and showed them exactly what the frames needed to do and where holes were needed, so follow-on trades don’t need to be drilling through steel. So, they are now custom-built in the factory according to our design requirements and don’t need to be modified on-site. This saves time, eliminates waste, and achieves consistent quality standards. They also use 30% recycled steel, and all our steel waste goes to recycling.

This list goes on. The big point is that there is no magic or sleight of hand—rather, just really smart design and a series of engineering innovations that achieve significant time savings during the building stage without compromising quality.

We figure we must be doing something smarter. Judges at both the HIA and the MBA gave us two top awards in 2022 for our homes.

Next in this series, we’ll talk about inclusions and variations. If you would like to receive that article via email when it is ready, please fill in the form below.

[1]
* Based on rental savings of $650 per week single storey, $750 per week for double storey, land price of $900,000 (as at November 2022), 10% land deposit, $810,000 loan amount, interest rate of 5.47%, and savings made from Tempo Living’s 10-week preconstruction period versus comparison builder period of 26 weeks.
** Double Storey
** Qualifying conditions must be met. Please refer to Terms & Conditions.