[agla]

Pennscapes brought up an interesting point in another thread. That is how it makes more sense to him to Design/Build rather than deal with a client's outside designer (an LA is a subspecies of designer in my view and is covered by the term designer).

My view is that it is usually the best way to go. You can steer the job toward work that you are most skilled at, is more profitable, you can stick to materials that you are confident in, that are available, and suit your style.

You can also maintain management control of the job. There is nothing worse than someone adding on to the clients bill who interupts the flow of an experienced contractor. You lose time, timing, and have everything thrown out of sync unless the designer is in an element that is unfamiliar to you.

Homeowners benefit from design/build because they are confident that your designer can get the job built and that they are already penciled in on the schedule to have their job built. It is one stop shopping.

There are situation where an outside designer is the way to go, but for the majority design/build makes sense.

What do you think?