Does Building an Outdoor Living Project in Phases Cost More?

Because some costs happen every time a job starts, however small it is.

Each phase means bringing machines in and out, setting up access, protecting the lawn and house, and reinstating the route afterwards. It can mean a separate permit and inspection. Materials bought in smaller batches cost more per unit, and matching a paver or stone colour from a later production run is not always exact.

None of that is a reason not to phase. It is a reason to phase deliberately, with as few mobilisations as the budget allows. Two well-planned phases usually cost less in total than four small ones, and they cause half the disruption to the house and garden.

Building phase one without designing phase two.

The pattern is familiar. A patio is built. A year or two later the owner wants a kitchen on it, and the gas line, water, power and drain have to cross a finished patio. Or a cover is wanted, and the patio has no footings where the posts need to go. Or a pool is added, and the patio's levels and drainage fall the wrong way for the new deck. Each time, finished work gets cut up and relaid.

That is where phasing goes from a modest premium to paying for the same work twice.

Everything that runs underneath, and everything that sets a level.

Most of those cost very little when the ground is open. They are the difference between a phased project and a rebuilt one.

Ground and services first, structure second, finish and fit-out last.

1. Design the whole scheme, including elements you may not build for years.
2. Phase one: excavation, drainage, services, base, and the main hardscape surface.
3. Phase two: structures such as a pergola, pavilion or covered kitchen, on footings planned in phase one.
4. Phase three: fit-out such as appliances, fire features, lighting fixtures and furniture.

Pools are the exception. A pool changes everything around it, from levels to access to where machines can go, so it goes first or with the first phase. Building a patio and then a pool beside it usually means rebuilding part of the patio.

It can mean more of them, and each phase has to meet the rules in force when it is built.

The City of Rogers, for example, lists covered patios, decks, pools and plumbing, electrical and mechanical work as permitted work, so a cover added in phase two is a new permit. In Bella Vista, the POA's Architectural Control Committee reviews decks, fences, retaining walls and accessory structures, separately from the city, so each phase can mean two approvals. In Fayetteville, a phase that adds a retaining wall over four feet or works on a slope of 15 percent or more brings in a grading permit and a sealed plan.

Where possible, permitting the whole scheme, or at least knowing it can be permitted, before phase one avoids building something the later phases cannot get approved.

It depends on what you value: the lowest total, or having the whole space sooner.

Phasing spreads cost by spreading the work, and pays a modest premium for the extra mobilisations. Financing spreads cost by spreading the payments, and pays interest. Building at once also means one period of disruption rather than several, and the whole space in use from the first summer.

Gallardo Custom Builds offers financing through Acorn Finance, which lets you compare offers from lenders. We do not quote rates; the lender does, and they depend on you. Many people do some of each: finance the core build, and leave pure fit-out items for later.

Long enough to live with phase one, short enough that materials still match.

Using a patio for a season tells you things no drawing can: where the sun sits at dinner, where people actually gather, where the wind comes from. That is a good reason not to rush phase two. The counterweight is matching. Pavers, stone and cladding come in production runs and ranges get discontinued. If later phases need to match, buy and store extra material at the start, or choose materials that do not need to match exactly.

Seasons matter too. The National Weather Service's freeze climatology for Drake Field puts the average last spring freeze in mid-April and the first fall freeze in mid-October. Plan each phase so its ground work falls outside the wettest weeks and its concrete and mortar work avoids hard freezes.

Fit-out phases well; ground work and anything that changes levels does not.

If a plan puts a pool or a major wall in phase three, it is worth asking whether the order is right.

The Swindle build in Cave Springs is the example we point to.

That project put a rectangular pool, a raised spa with a sheer-descent water wall, stacked stone, large-format pavers with turf joints, cedar slat screens and a covered outdoor kitchen with a pizza oven, a stainless run and bar seating into one scheme, built by one team. Because everything was designed together, the levels, drainage, services and structures work as a whole rather than as a sequence of additions.

Not every project needs to be built that way. Every project benefits from being designed that way.

One drawing for the finished space, with each phase marked on it.

A good phased plan is not three separate small projects. It is one design with the phases shaded in, a schedule of what goes in when, and a list of what phase one has to leave ready for phases two and three: capped lines, conduit ends, footing positions, finished levels. It also records the materials used, with product names and colours, so later phases can match or deliberately contrast.

That document is what makes phase two straightforward years later, whoever builds it.

That is normal, and a good phase one leaves room for it.

Families grow, priorities shift, a kitchen becomes a pool or a pavilion becomes a pergola. Services and drainage laid for a generous version of the plan cope with a change of mind far better than services laid for the bare minimum. Spare conduit and a slightly oversized drain are cheap insurance against a plan that evolves.

A well-prepared phase one still adds value, because the hard part is done.

A finished patio with drainage, capped gas and conduit ready for a kitchen or cover is a stronger proposition than a patio that would need cutting open. The design drawing goes with the house. What loses value is a phase one that quietly blocks the obvious next step.

The things that are cheap now and expensive later.

Drainage for the whole area. A capped gas line to where the kitchen or fire will be. Conduit to every place a light, outlet or fan might go. Footings or sleeves where posts will stand. A base designed for the heaviest thing that will ever sit on it. And a full design drawing, so the person building phase two, even if it is years away, knows what phase one assumed.

None of those are visible on the day phase one is finished. All of them are the reason phase two is straightforward.

When the phases share ground that has to be dug twice.

If phase two involves heavy excavation right next to phase one, such as a pool beside a new patio or a retaining wall below it, the machines and spoil for phase two will cross and load the finished work. On a tight lot with one access route, phase two may only be reachable through phase one. In those cases the premium of building at once is often smaller than the cost of protecting, and sometimes repairing, the first phase.

With a conversation about the whole space, not the first piece of it.

Our first question is what you are trying to do with the space overall. Projects start around seven and a half thousand dollars, and a phased plan is built around your number rather than ours. Call (479) 379-2226 or send the project form.