Capabilities & engagement models

Everything we know how to build.

Six sectors, three engagement tiers and one superintendent model. Choose the level of involvement you want — then we hold the line on it for the whole build.

Engagement tiers

Three ways
to engage us.

Most clients start at Tier 02. The tier sets how much design risk we carry, how fast we can mobilise and who controls the schedule — it does not change the crew or the standard.

Not sure which fits?

Send the scope to build@ardenvale.com. We will tell you which tier we would pick and why — even if that means telling you to hire someone else.

01 Core build

Groundworks

You hold the design. We build to your drawings and flag constructability issues in writing before they become change orders.

From $1.2M

Typical engagement 4–14 months

Best for

Tight, fully-designed scopes where speed of mobilisation matters more than design flexibility.

Includes

  • Lump-sum or GMP contract
  • Full permit and inspection management
  • Site logistics and safety plan
  • Weekly reporting with photography
  • Two-year warranty on all work
02 Most chosen

Signature

Collaborative preconstruction. We sit alongside your architect and engineer, own the trade schedule and carry the allowance risk with you.

From $8M

Typical engagement 9–26 months

Get a Signature quote

Best for

Multi-trick builds where early trade coordination is worth more than the lowest headline bid.

Everything in Groundworks, plus

  • BIM coordination and clash resolution
  • Locked trade schedule with float analysis
  • Allowance register reviewed line by line
  • Live cost dashboard with client login
  • Phased and night-work handovers
  • Five-year structural warranty
03 Single source

Bespoke

Design-build. One contract, one team, one price — we carry design and construction risk end to end from feasibility to final key.

From $40M

Typical engagement 18–48 months

Best for

Owners who want one accountable party, fewer interfaces and a guaranteed maximum price.

Everything in Signature, plus

  • Guaranteed maximum price at 60% design
  • In-house architect and structural lead
  • LEED and energy modelling support
  • Placeholder / long-lead procurement
  • Dedicated site team, 24/7 cover
  • Ten-year latent defect cover

Detailed offerings

Sector by sector.

Each sector runs on the same management system. What changes is the crew composition, the sequencing strategy and the code path.

Sector 01

Commercial build-out

Offices, clinics, hospitality and retail. Ground-up shells, core-and-shell interiors and full tenant improvement on live floors.

  • Occupied-building logistics & dust control
  • Out-of-hours and weekend delivery windows
  • MEP coordination for dense floor plates
  • Fire, life-safety and sprinkler sign-off

Typical value $1M – $60M

Sector 02

Residential construction

Custom single-family homes and multi-family developments. Fixed-price contracts with a locked allowance schedule and no open-ended extras.

  • Fixed price with allowance schedule
  • Site selection and feasibility input
  • Custom millwork and stone setting
  • Weekly client walkthroughs

Typical value $450K – $90M

Sector 03

Industrial & logistics

Distribution centres, cold storage and manufacturing. Heavy civil, process fit-out and phased handovers around your operating schedule.

  • Heavy civil, slab-on-grade, dock levellers
  • Refrigerated envelope and ammonia systems
  • Crane installation and racking coordination
  • Operating around live production lines

Typical value $8M – $220M

Sector 04

Historic restoration

From 1904 timber-framed warehouses to 1960s brutalism. We match original profiles, source period materials and keep heritage review moving.

  • Structural stabilisation and raking shores
  • Period-appropriate replication and sourcing
  • Seismic retrofit to current code
  • Heritage designation submissions

Typical value $2M – $75M

Sector 05

Steel & structural

Self-performed erection, welding and concrete placement. AISC-certified crews sequenced around crane windows and live-site constraints.

  • AWS D1.1 certified welding procedure
  • NDT and third-party inspection
  • Mass concrete placement and curing plans
  • Post-tension and precast installation

Available standalone or paired

Sector 06

Design-build

Architect and builder under one point of responsibility. Fewer interfaces, one price and one schedule that everyone is actually working to.

  • Feasibility, program and massing studies
  • Guaranteed maximum price at 60% CD
  • LEED / Passive House certification support
  • Placeholder purchasing and site logistics

Typical value $12M – $250M

Included as standard

The things
others charge for.

On every engagement above $1M, the following are inside the contract price. Not a variation, not an add-on.

Request a quote

Bonding & insurance

$50M surety capacity, general liability, builders risk and auto coverage carried on every job.

Site logistics

Hoisting, laydown, waste, temporary power and traffic management — planned and priced at bid stage.

Programme & float

A CPM schedule with quantified float and a named critical path you can query any week.

Quality control

ITP, mock-ups, third-party concrete testing and a documented zero-defect punch list at handover.

Aftercare

O&M handover pack, warranty binder and two scheduled maintenance visits each year.

Cost transparency

Live dashboard, committed-cost reporting and change orders priced before approval — never after.

Common questions

Answered
plainly.

If your question is not here, ask it directly. We would rather have the awkward call early than the expensive one late.

Ask us anything

Preconstruction usually starts within five business days of a signed engagement. On site we can be mobilised in 72 hours for fit-out work and two weeks for ground-up shell. If you have a hard date — a lease commencement, a seasonal shutdown — tell us on the first call and we will plan backwards from it.

Every change order is written up with labour hours, material cost, subcontractor quotes and schedule impact before it reaches you for approval. You can see exactly where the markup sits. In 2025 the average change order on our commercial work was 4.1% of contract value — and roughly a third of submitted changes were declined.

Both. Roughly two thirds of our work is built to a client-retained design team — we join at preconstruction and flag constructability issues in writing. The remainder is design-build, where we hold the architect contract ourselves. Either way you get one project lead from us and one schedule.

Our core market is Oregon, Washington and the lower mainland of British Columbia, with satellite offices in Tacoma and Vancouver. We selectively take work outside that radius for clients with multi-site programmes who want a single contractor across all locations.

Five years on structural elements, waterproofing and envelope; two years on MEP systems, finishes and equipment; ten years latent defect cover on Bespoke projects. Response is within 24 hours for anything affecting safety or weather-tightness, and within five business days for everything else. Snag response closes at twelve months, then it rolls into annual maintenance.

A pre-qualified pool of roughly 180 trades, benchmarked against three historic projects in the same sector and price band. On competitive-tender packages we run open bidding; on GMP packages we show you the qualification criteria and the scoring. We do not sole-source without your written sign-off.

Estimating team available now

Send us the scope.

Drawings, a napkin sketch or three bullet points. You will get a real number and a named estimator within two business days.