FAQ
The Questions Owners and Architects Ask
Including the ones where the honest answer loses us the job.
Bring the drawings at whatever stage they are. An honest range and the decisions that move it, before anyone quotes.
FAQ
Luxury residential construction in Florida
- What does luxury construction cost per square foot?
- A range too wide to quote without the site and drawings. Anyone giving a figure before seeing both is guessing.
- Fixed price or cost-plus?
- Fixed price suits a fully resolved set; open-book cost-plus with a GMP suits an evolving design. A fixed price on schematic drawings suits nobody.
- Will you do a fixed price on schematics?
- No. We would either pad it or recover it in change orders. Both are bad and the second is worse.
- How long does it take?
- Over a year for a substantial house. Permitting and long leads usually exceed the construction time.
- What causes most delays?
- Owner decisions and long-lead procurement, more often than trades.
- How should allowances be set?
- From real products with named benchmarks. Round numbers in an allowance schedule are placeholders, not estimates.
- Do you self-perform?
- Dewatering, support of excavation and deep foundations. Unusual in residential and the reason schedules hold.
- Why is waterfront more expensive?
- Ground works, flood elevation, marine specification and permitting — all before anything visible is built.
- Should I renovate or rebuild?
- If it needs roof, systems, structure and envelope, rebuild is often cheaper and better. We will run the comparison honestly.
- Can my house take a second story?
- It needs structural investigation. Older Florida slabs frequently were not designed for it.
- Did Romco build the Pierre?
- No. Romco leadership delivered work there, before and alongside this firm. We state that rather than implying it.
- How do I compare three builders?
- Ask who runs the job, what they self-perform, to see a real change order, and for a reference whose project went badly.
- Are change orders avoidable?
- Not entirely on custom work. Surprises are. Everything is agreed in writing before the work happens.
- What if a change is your mistake?
- Then it is not a change order and it does not go on your bill.
- Are you the cheapest?
- No, and we will tell you when someone else is better suited to the project.
Still not answered?
Call (954) 807-3208. If a production builder or a specialist would serve the project better, that is what you will be told.
What we build
Custom Homes
A custom home is the only project where every decision is still open, which is exactly why it is the easiest one to lose control of financially.
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Waterfront Construction
On a waterfront lot the building is often the straightforward part. The water table, the seawall, the flood elevation and the permitting are what decide the program and a large share of the cost.
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Whole-House Renovation
Renovating an existing house is harder to price than building a new one, because a meaningful part of the scope is behind finishes nobody has opened.
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Historic Restoration
In a historic district the approval process governs the design, and it operates on a timescale that has nothing to do with construction.
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Additions & Second Stories
An addition is constrained by a building that was designed for a different life. Whether the existing foundation and structure can carry the new load is the first question and it is not always answered yes.
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Guest Houses & Accessory Structures
A guest house is a small building governed by disproportionately complicated rules. Zoning, not design, determines what is possible.
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Next step
Find out what is actually wrong with it.
An inspection, photographs of what we found, and a written scope. If the honest answer is that it can wait another season, that is the answer you will get.