Design-Build Commercial Construction · Colorado Springs, CO
The architect is in the building.
On a conventionally delivered project the drawings are finished, then bid, then the gaps in them surface as requests for information and change orders — and the owner pays for the distance between what was drawn and what can actually be built.
We carry our own architectural design team, including a licensed architect, alongside the construction operation. A detail that will not build gets caught at the drawing board by the person who would have had to install it. And when it is missed, there is nobody to argue with about whose fault it was.
1310 Ford St, Colorado Springs, CO 80915
Mon–Fri 7:30 AM–4:30 PM MT ·
NAICS 236220
PPRBD licensed since 1996, number on request
Schedule of values Planning ranges by building type
| Div | Building type | Unit | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 02.10 | Light industrial / warehousePre-engineered metal, dock-high, minimal office | SF | $145–$245 |
| 02.20 | Retail shellReady for a tenant to fit out | SF | $180–$295 |
| 02.30 | Automotive service facilityBays, lifts, drainage, compressed air | SF | $260–$420 |
| 02.40 | Aviation hangarClear span, hangar door, limited heat | SF | $190–$340 |
| 02.50 | Office or clinic, completeFinished to occupancy, mid specification | SF | $330–$520 |
| 03.10 | Tenant improvement, existing shellScope dependent; see the budgets page | SF | $95–$280 |
| 05.90 | Difficult site, expansive soils or deep utilitiesPriced from the geotechnical report, not from a page | LS | site visit |
Per square foot of gross building area, excluding land, design fees where separately engaged, permit and tap fees, furnishings and equipment. The full schedule — by division, with the soft costs that sit on top — is on the budgets page.
01The argument
A change order is usually somebody else’s mistake
Ask an owner what went wrong on their last building and you will mostly hear about change orders. Ask what caused them and the answer is almost never “we changed our minds”.
It is that the drawings did not say enough, or said something that could not be built, and the gap surfaced on site with a crew standing there. Under design-bid-build that gap is nobody’s fault in a way that costs the owner money: the architect drew what they drew, the contractor bid what was drawn, and the difference is a claim. Everyone behaves reasonably and the owner pays.
When the same firm draws and builds, the gap is ours. There is nobody to send a request for information to, nobody to argue with about scope, and no commercial incentive to let a vague detail through because it might be a change order later. The person who draws the flashing detail works thirty feet from the person who has to make it keep water out.
That is the whole argument, and it is worth being precise about what it is not. It is not a claim that our drawings are better than anybody else’s. It is a claim about who carries the risk of the gap, which is a structural fact about the contract rather than a boast about talent.
It also will not be the right answer for every project. Where an owner wants competitive price tension on a fully designed set, design-bid-build is the better method and we will say so — the delivery page sets out all three and when each one wins.
T-Bone Construction, Inc. is a general contractor that employs a licensed architect. The company is not itself licensed as an architect, and nothing on this site says it is. What we have is an in-house architectural design team — which is unusual at this size and is the specific thing that removes the gap described above.
Where the money goes
| Div | Bid | D-B | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Requests for information | 2–6 wks | rare |
| B | Change orders from drawing gaps | owner pays | ours |
| C | Who answers for a conflict | two parties | one |
| D | Price fixed at | bid | GMP |
| E | Competitive price tension | strong | weaker |
Row E is the honest cost of design-build, and it is the reason we still recommend design-bid-build on some projects. A firm that only ever recommends its own method is selling rather than advising.
02Divisions
Five divisions of work
Numbered the way a schedule of values is numbered. The references are for this document only and are not CSI MasterFormat numbers — the disclaimer says so, because implying otherwise would mislead a reader who knows what those numbers mean.
Design-Build
The architect and the superintendent work for the same company. A detail that will not build gets caught at the drawing board by the person who would have had to install it.
- You receive
- Permit set, schedule of values, closeout package, as-builts, O&M manuals
Ground-up commercial and institutional buildings in the Pikes Peak region — aviation, retail, automotive and industrial — with the site work and utilities self-performed.
- You receive
- Full drawing set, schedule of values, commissioning record, closeout package
Fitting out a shell or an existing space against a lease date that has already been signed. The work letter usually matters more than anything in the drawings.
- You receive
- Permit set, landlord sign-offs, certificate of occupancy, closeout package
Expanding or rebuilding a facility that has to keep operating. The phasing plan is the project; the construction is the easy half.
- You receive
- Permit set, phasing plan, schedule of values, closeout package
Earthwork, grading, utilities, paving and drainage, performed by our own crews with our own equipment and our own trucking — which is why the schedule holds.
- You receive
- Compaction and materials test records, as-built survey, utility sign-offs
Typical spans run from first engagement to certificate of occupancy and assume a normal permitting path and a buildable season. The span for your project comes from a schedule built against a defined scope.
03Self-perform
On a small commercial job the schedule is lost between trades
Not during the work. In the gaps: the three days the excavator waits for the utility sub, the week the millwork sits in a shop because nobody released it, the fortnight the electrician cannot start because the slab is not poured.
Those gaps are not laziness. They are what happens when four firms with four backlogs each protect themselves against the other three being late, and the float they each build in accumulates into the owner’s calendar.
We self-perform site work and utilities, millwork, electrical, and our own trucking. Where those four are ours, the gaps between them are ours to close, and there is nobody to wait for and nobody to blame. On a project of this size that is usually worth more weeks than any other single decision.
What we subcontract — mechanical, fire protection, roofing, structural steel erection, specialty finishes — and why, is set out on what we self-perform, along with four ways to check the claim rather than take it.
Performed by our own crews
- Site work and utilities
- Earthwork, grading, utilities, paving and drainage. The division that most often sets the start date on a commercial job.
- Trucking
- Our own trucks. Material on site when the crew is, rather than when a haulier has a window.
- Millwork
- Casework, fixtures and finish carpentry. The division most often blamed for a late certificate of occupancy.
- Electrical
- Rough and finish, coordinated against our own schedule rather than against somebody else’s backlog.
Four trades is not everything and we do not claim otherwise. It is the four that decide whether a small commercial schedule holds.
04Sectors
Where the work is
Four sectors, described because the firm actually works in them rather than because they fill a grid. Each one has a different thing that goes wrong.
| Sector | What it usually is | What usually decides the schedule |
|---|---|---|
| Aviation | Hangars, operations and support buildings on and around airfields | Airfield access, the door package lead time, and coordination with the operator |
| Retail | Shells, fit-outs, remodels and multi-tenant work | The lease date, the landlord’s work letter, and the tenant’s own vendors |
| Automotive | Dealerships, service facilities and body shops | Equipment lead times, floor drainage and the manufacturer’s image programme |
| Industrial | Warehousing, light manufacturing and service facilities | Utilities to the site, the power service, and the soils report |
In every one of the four, the thing that decides the schedule is upstream of construction — a lead time, a lease, a utility, a report. That is where a design-build firm earns its place: those are design-stage decisions, and we are in the room for them.
05Region
Colorado Springs, and what the region does to a building
Out-of-state designers are caught out here with some regularity, and always by the same four things. Wind. The design wind loads along the Front Range surprise people, and a canopy or a sign detailed for somewhere flatter will not stand. Hail. Roof and glazing selections that are ordinary elsewhere are an insurance problem here. Soils. Parts of this region sit on expansive clay, and a slab designed without the geotechnical report is a lawsuit with a delay fuse on it. Season. The earthwork window is shorter than the calendar suggests, and missing it costs a winter.
None of that is exotic to anybody who has built here for thirty-odd years. All of it is expensive to learn on your project.
Communities served
- Colorado Springs
- Fountain
- Monument
- Falcon
- Peyton
- Manitou Springs
- Woodland Park
- Security-Widefield
- Cimarron Hills
- Black Forest
- Pueblo
- Cañon City
- Castle Rock
- El Paso County
- Teller County
06Standing behind it
What is on this site, and what is not
There are no project photographs on this website, no client logos, no award badges and no dollar volume. Not because there is nothing to show, but because none of it is checkable by the person reading it — and the people who read this site are frequently buying on behalf of a board that is specifically required to check things.
What is published instead is the thing almost nobody in commercial construction publishes: budget ranges by building type, with the basis stated and the soft costs listed separately. An owner who is months away from having a drawing still has to put a number in front of a board, and the usual industry answer — call us — is useless at that moment.
Three facts are published because all three can be verified: established 1986, incorporated in Colorado 1993, licensed with the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department since 1996.
Our contractor licence number and the staff architect’s state licence number are given on request and can be checked with the issuing bodies directly — and you should do that with every firm you are considering, including this one.
T-Bone Construction, Inc.
1310 Ford StColorado Springs, CO 80915- Telephone
- (719) 570-1456
- [email protected]
- Hours
- Mon–Fri 7:30 AM–4:30 PM MT
- Licence
- PPRBD licensed since 1996, number on request
- Established
- 1986
Describe the building you need
What it is for, roughly how big, where it would go, and when you need to be in it. On a first call we can usually give you a realistic per-square-foot range, a realistic end date, and an honest answer about whether a firm this size is the right one for it.
T-Bone Construction, Inc. · 1310 Ford St, Colorado Springs, CO 80915