What to Expect on a Site Visit: The First Real Step in the Pre-Construction Process
What to Expect on a Site Visit: The First Real Step in the Pre-Construction Process
You signed a lease, or you're close. Now a contractor wants to walk the space. That walkthrough is the start of the pre-construction process, and it does more for your budget than any email thread ever will. In one hour, a good contractor learns what's behind the walls, what the landlord left you, and what your operation actually needs. Show up prepared and you get a real number. Show up empty-handed and you get a guess.
The short version
- A site visit is a walkthrough of your space with the contractor before any pricing happens.
- Plan on 30 to 45 minutes for a typical tenant improvement. Bigger or messier spaces take longer.
- Bring your lease exhibit, the landlord work letter, and any drawings you have.
- Be ready to describe how your business runs, room by room, in plain words.
- The contractor is looking at ceiling height, power, plumbing lines, HVAC, and what has to be demolished.
- Decisions you can't make in the room become allowances, and allowances are where budgets drift.
- Ask for the scope letter, not just a price. The scope letter is what you're really buying.
- Get the landlord's contact and building rules in writing before the visit if you can.
- record the conversion, we love a tool called Granola. We use this to ensure we do not miss anything.
Where the site visit fits in the pre-construction process
Pre-construction is everything that happens before a crew shows up: walking the space, defining scope, pricing it, and lining up permits. The site visit is step one. Everything after it depends on what got observed and written down that day.
At a project size of $50K to $500K, the output of pre-construction is a lump-sum proposal with a scope letter — one price, and a written list of what's included and excluded. That document gets built from the walkthrough. If the walkthrough was rushed, the exclusions list gets long and the price gets padded.
| Stage | What happens | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Site visit | Contractor walks and documents the space | Bring documents, explain the operation |
| Scope development | Work gets written down line by line | Answer follow-up questions fast |
| Pricing | Subcontractors quote their trades | Pick finishes or accept allowances |
| Proposal + scope letter | One lump-sum price, inclusions and exclusions | Read the exclusions twice |
| Permit + drawings | Plans submitted for review | Sign what the jurisdiction requires |
Typical permit review timeline for commercial TI in Metro Atlanta jurisdictions are 2-4 weeks. Budget four, hope for two.
What the contractor is actually looking at
Not your paint colors. Structure and systems.
- Ceiling height and what's above it. Ductwork, sprinkler mains, and structure set your limits.
- Electrical service. The panel schedule tells the contractor whether your equipment load fits or you need a service upgrade. That single item can move a budget more than any finish choice.
- Plumbing. Where the existing lines run decides whether a restroom or a kitchen sink is a simple tie-in or a slab cut.
- HVAC. Existing units, their age, and whether they can handle your occupancy.
- Demolition. What has to come out, and whether anything is load-bearing.
- Accessibility. Door widths, restroom clearances, and route to the entry.
In a warehouse space, add slab condition and where the conditioned area stops. A warehouse conversion usually lives or dies on power, HVAC capacity, and how much of the floor needs to become office.
How to be prepared
Bring paper. Bring your operation.
- Lease exhibit and landlord work letter. The work letter says what the landlord is delivering and what's on you. It changes scope immediately.
- Any existing drawings or as-builts. Even old ones save survey time.
- Your equipment list. Model numbers for anything that uses water, gas, power, or venting.
- A rough layout. Napkin sketch is fine. It tells the contractor how you work.
- Your real opening date. Not the hopeful one.
- Building rules. Work hours, freight elevator access, parking, noise limits.
If you can't describe the operation in a paragraph, you're not ready to price a building.
Walk the space with the contractor and narrate it. "Customers enter here. Orders go out this door. This wall has to hold a 400-pound piece of equipment." That's more useful than a mood board.
If you're not sure what your landlord owes you versus what you owe, that's worth a phone call before anyone prices anything.
How to get the most out of the hour
Ask these in the room:
- What here worries you most?
- What will you have to price as an allowance, and why?
- Who from your team will be on site every day?
- What do you need from me, and by when?
Take notes on the answers. Then compare them to the scope letter when it arrives. If a concern raised in the walkthrough isn't addressed in writing, ask about it before you sign.
Where this goes wrong
- Nobody with decision authority attends. The office manager walks it, the owner changes the plan two weeks later, and pricing restarts.
- The landlord's scope is assumed, not read. You budget for HVAC the landlord already committed to, or worse, you don't budget for HVAC they never committed to.
- Finishes get decided, operations don't. Flooring gets picked before anyone confirms the power for the equipment.
- Too many allowances. Every undecided item becomes a placeholder number. Placeholder numbers move.
- Only one contractor walks it, at the very last minute. You lose leverage and you lose the chance to hear two different reads on the same space.
- No photos. You leave with nothing to compare against later. Take your own.
FAQ
How long does a contractor site visit take?
For a typical office or retail tenant improvement, plan on 45 to 90 minutes. Warehouse spaces and restaurants take longer because there's more to check on power, plumbing, and venting. If the contractor is in and out in fifteen minutes, expect a loose number with a long exclusions list.
Do I need drawings before the site visit?
No. A hand sketch and a clear description of how your business operates are enough to start. If you already have architectural drawings or old as-builts, bring them — they cut survey time and improve pricing accuracy. Drawings come later in the pre-construction process, once scope is settled.
Should I get more than one contractor to walk the space?
Yes, usually two or three. Different contractors will flag different risks, and that's valuable on its own. Give each one the same documents and the same description of your operation. Otherwise you're comparing prices built on different assumptions, which tells you nothing.
What is a scope letter and why does it matter more than the price?
A scope letter is the written list of what the lump-sum price includes and excludes. Two proposals can differ by $40,000 because one excludes the electrical service upgrade. The price tells you the number. The scope letter tells you what you're getting for it.
Can a contractor give me a budget without seeing the space?
A rough range, sometimes. A number you can plan around, no. Ceiling conditions, panel capacity, and plumbing locations aren't visible in listing photos, and those are the items that swing a tenant improvement budget the most.
Who should attend from my side?
Whoever can make decisions and whoever knows the daily operation — often the same person, sometimes not. If a franchise brand has design standards, have that packet handy. Your landlord's property manager is worth inviting for anything touching base building systems.
Ready to walk your space
If you have a lease, an LOI, or a space you're seriously considering, get a contractor in it before you commit to a budget or an opening date. Call (404) 724-8709. The first call takes about fifteen minutes: you describe the space and how your business runs, we tell you what we'd need to see on site and what usually drives cost in that kind of build-out. Then we schedule the walkthrough.