What Is a Design-Build Firm?

The Simple Definition

A design-build firm is a company that handles both the design and the construction of your home under one roof. Instead of hiring a residential designer to draw the plans and then a separate contractor to build them, you work with a single team from start to finish.

That's it, in essence. But the implications of that simple structure — for your budget, your timeline, your stress level, and the quality of the finished home — are significant.

How It Differs from the Traditional Model

In the traditional approach — sometimes called design-bid-build — the process is sequential. You hire a residential designer first. Together, you develop floor plans, elevations, and construction documents. Once the plans are finished, you send them out to contractors for bids. You pick a builder, sign a contract, and construction begins.

The design-build model compresses and integrates that process. The designer and the builder are on the same team from the first conversation. While the design is being developed, the building team is evaluating every decision for cost, feasibility, and constructability. There's no handoff between two separate firms. There's no bid day where you find out the plans you spent six months developing are 40% over budget.

Who Does What Under One Roof

In a design-build firm, the residential design team creates your floor plans, elevations, 3D renderings, and construction documents. The building team manages estimating, subcontractor coordination, scheduling, and on-site construction. In many firms — ours included — the people doing the design work and the people doing the building work overlap. Our designers understand framing. Our builders understand design intent. That overlap is where the model's real value lives.

You, as the homeowner, have one primary point of contact throughout the entire process. When you have a question about a design detail, a material choice, or a cost implication, the answer comes from one team — not from a game of telephone between two separate offices.

The Advantages for the Homeowner

The benefits of design-build come down to three things: alignment, efficiency, and accountability.

Budget Alignment

Because the builder is involved from the very beginning, design decisions are informed by real construction costs in real time. If a design element is going to blow the budget, you know immediately — not six months later when bids come back. This is probably the single biggest advantage of design-build. It prevents the heartbreak of falling in love with a plan you can't afford.

Faster Timelines

Design and pre-construction activities can overlap. While finish selections are being made, permits can be submitted. While permits are being reviewed, long-lead materials can be ordered. This parallel workflow typically saves 3–6 months compared to the sequential design-bid-build process.

Single Point of Accountability

When something doesn't go as planned — and in custom home building, something always comes up — there's no finger-pointing between the designer and the builder. One team is responsible for the entire outcome. If the finished product doesn't match the plan, it's on us. That clarity of accountability drives better decision-making throughout the process.

Why We Chose This Model

For our family, design-build wasn't a business strategy — it was just how things always worked. Gordon Ver Woert started drawing home plans by hand in 1956. His son Ken grew up at the drafting table, then picked up a hammer and started building what his father designed. Ken established Ver Woert Construction in 1990. Today, Nick represents the third generation, combining digital design tools with the hands-on building experience that's been in the family for decades.

Residential design and construction have never been separate disciplines for us. They've always been part of the same conversation — the same process, the same team, the same standard. The design-build model simply puts a name to the way we've always worked.

Is Design-Build Right for You?

Design-build tends to be the right fit if you value budget transparency from the start, prefer working with one team instead of managing two, and want to move from concept to move-in as efficiently as possible. It's particularly well-suited for custom homes where the design is being created from scratch — which is what we do.

If you already have completed plans from a designer you love, a design-build firm can still build them. But the model's biggest advantages come when the design and building teams work together from the very first sketch.

If you're curious about how the process would work for your specific project — we're happy to walk you through it.