One contract pays your builder to plan properly, the other does not. A fixed-price Toronto builder on change orders, allowances, and who carries the risk.
Should You Hire Your Architect or Your Builder First?
TLDR: This is not an argument against hiring an architect first. It is an argument against having only an architect at the table. When drawings get finished in isolation and then shopped to builders, homeowners usually discover a large gap between the design they fell in love with and what it costs to build. The fix is not a different order of hiring. It is getting the whole project team involved early, and choosing an architect who wants that.
What Usually Happens
A homeowner hires an architect, works through a wishlist, arrives at a finished set of drawings, and only then starts talking to builders. It feels like the responsible order. Design first, price second.
The problem shows up in the first real conversation. Not all architects and architectural partners are built equally. Some care deeply about budget adherence. Others are more focused on getting you to sign the dotted line, and the same is true of builders. When we start working with a client whose architect is new to us, we try to understand every conversation had to date and get that architect into the room with us.
More often than not, whether the architect meant to or not, a set of questions is still sitting unanswered. How much site work has been done to date? Has shoring been accounted for, or even reviewed? Have the plans been looked at structurally to see whether there are opportunities for savings? What does the mechanical design involve, and what assumptions are being made?
None of those are unreasonable questions. All of them have to be answered before anyone can put an accurate scope of work together. This moment is also very telling, because it makes clear which clients actually understand their designs and which have been trusting their architect blindly. Sometimes that works out. Most of the time it ends in a massive gap between the dream and the reality of the construction budget.
What Most Homeowners Get Wrong
The mistake is not choosing the wrong architect. It is letting the design happen in a silo.Here is the pattern we see repeatedly. The design gets built around a wishlist. The plans are set up to be quoted right before the client is ready to submit for permit. The drawings then get shopped around to builders with varying levels of buy-in, because every builder knows they are one of three. The homeowner is inevitably drawn toward the lowest number, which is really the "let's take a chance" number, and they pay for it afterward in change orders, poor communication, and unkept promises.
By the time real pricing arrives, the drawings represent months of work and emotional investment. Changing them is expensive. Building them may not be possible.
Why a low bid at this stage is the most expensive outcome
A builder who is one of three bidders on a finished set of drawings has almost no incentive to flag problems. Flagging problems raises their number. The builder who says the least and prices the thinnest wins the job, then recovers the difference once construction is underway and the homeowner has nowhere else to go.
That is not a builder problem or an architect problem. It is a structural consequence of pricing a design that was never tested against cost while it was being drawn.
The BVM Approach
We get a design team involved because we know when to stay in our lane. Rather than pretending we have all of the right answers, we surround our clients with a project team who can take a project from concept through to completion.
A custom home needs architects, interior designers, structural engineers, mechanical and HVAC designers, and often geotechnical input, all rowing in the right direction. When everyone is at the table from the start and genuinely bought into making the project work, that is when the best outcomes happen.
Our Cliffcrest Drive custom build in Cliffside is the clearest example we have. That project spent more than two years in pre-construction, working in intensive sprints with the client and their architectural designer: budget build-outs, design reviews, scope adjustments, engineering consultations. Decisions like the OBC Package A2 insulation upgrade and a dual-zone HVAC system were made with full information and real costs attached, not discovered later. The full story is in the Cliffcrest Drive case study.
How the push and pull actually works
People assume an architect and a builder in the same room means conflict. In practice, money is the ultimate decision-maker, so most disagreements get resolved by looking at real numbers.
The architect works to fit in as many of the wishlist items and requirements as possible. The builder is constantly watching the cost implications. Done properly, that is an intricate push and pull that serves the client, because it holds function and form together inside a budget. It only works when there is a common mission, usually the client's budget or their overarching goals for the project. With genuine common ground, the friction stays productive.
The Honest Answer on Savings
We are often asked how much early involvement saves. We cannot give a clean number, and the reason matters.
We do not know what a client would have spent, because we were iterating on the plans the entire time. The scope never reached the danger area that forces a team to backtrack and hunt for savings, because we knew the budget constraints from day one. The saving does not show up as a line item. It shows up as a redesign that never had to happen.
What to Ask Before You Commit
If you have an architect in mind, or a builder, these questions tell you quickly whether the two will work well together:
Have they worked together before?
What does each of their pre-construction processes look like, and how similar are they?
Do they integrate other teams, and are they open to collaboration?
Understanding each team's pre-construction process is the part most homeowners skip. At BVM we have an integrated process between design and build that already works well together. When clients come to us with an architect already chosen, we make a point of understanding that architect's process and confirming it fits with ours.
An architect who welcomes a builder and other consultants early is the one you want. That openness matters more than the order of hiring.
If Your Drawings Are Already Finished
Find a builder. You are already behind, because finished drawings usually mean you are hoping to build soon, and every good builder has a lead time before they can start.
The most useful thing you can do right now is hold off on submitting those drawings for permit and focus squarely on identifying your builder. Permit submission locks in decisions that may need to change once real pricing arrives.
Key Takeaways
The problem is not hiring an architect first, it is having only an architect at the table
Drawings developed in isolation usually surface unanswered questions about site work, shoring, structure, and mechanical design
Shopping finished drawings to three builders selects for the thinnest number, not the best outcome
A custom home needs architects, interior designers, structural engineers, mechanical designers, and sometimes geotechnical input working together
Money resolves most design disagreements, which is why real numbers belong in the room during design
Ask whether your architect and builder have worked together, and whether their pre-construction processes fit
If your drawings are done, find your builder before you submit for permit
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Should I hire a builder before an architect?
A: Not necessarily. What matters is that your builder and your wider project team are involved while the design is still moving, rather than after it is finished. An architect who welcomes that collaboration early is the right starting point.
Q: Will involving a builder during design limit my architect's creativity?
A: In our experience it does the opposite. The architect keeps pushing to fit the client's wishlist and requirements while the builder tracks cost implications, and that push and pull keeps ambitious ideas alive by keeping them affordable.
Q: I already have permit-ready drawings. What should I do?
A: Hold the permit submission and find your builder first. Good builders have lead times, and submitting locks in decisions that may need to change once you have real construction pricing.
Ready to Get Your Team in the Same Room?
If you are early in design, or holding a finished set of drawings and no builder, that is exactly the conversation to have with us before anything gets submitted. Book a consultation and we will walk through where your project actually stands.
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