Whole Home · 9 min read · AE Building Design
A whole home remodel is a coordination problem before it is a construction problem. Six or more trades have to move through the same house in the right order, inspections have to land on time, and someone has to be accountable when they do not.
Sequence is everything
The order of work on a full renovation is not flexible. Demolition, then structural changes, then rough mechanical, electrical and plumbing, then inspection, then insulation and drywall, then flooring, then cabinetry and millwork, then tile and stone, then paint, then fixtures and finish carpentry, then final inspection.
Every trade that arrives out of sequence either waits or causes rework. A schedule that looks aggressive on paper usually means someone has assumed no inspection will ever be delayed — which in South Florida is optimistic.
What drives the budget on a full home
Unlike a single-room project, whole-home budgets are dominated by three things: how much of the layout changes, how much of the mechanical, electrical and plumbing is replaced, and the finish level applied across the whole square footage rather than one room.
Moving walls means structural engineering and permitting. Replacing panels and repiping is invisible in photographs and expensive in reality. And a finish level that feels reasonable in one bathroom multiplies quickly across four.
Flooring across a whole house
Running one continuous floor through an entire home is the single change that most makes a renovation read as designed rather than patched. It also exposes every flaw in the slab. Large-format porcelain is particularly unforgiving — the bigger the tile, the flatter the substrate has to be, which is why proper self-levelling preparation is a real line item and not padding.
Natural stone, engineered hardwood and large-format porcelain each carry different substrate, moisture and transition requirements. Getting that preparation right decides whether the floor is still flat in five years.
Layout reconfiguration
Opening a closed plan is usually the highest-impact change in an older Boca Raton or Delray Beach home. Whether a wall can come out, and what it costs, depends on whether it is load-bearing, what is running inside it, and whether a beam can be concealed within the ceiling depth. We establish that at the site visit rather than after demolition.
Can you live in it?
Sometimes, in phases — and sometimes it is genuinely better not to. We will be straight about which phases are liveable. Where you do stay, work is zoned, routes through the house are protected, dust is contained and tools are cleared daily.
Permits, HOA and inspections
A whole-home renovation touches nearly every permitted trade. Submissions, association approval and inspection scheduling are a genuine part of the timeline, not an administrative afterthought. We build the schedule around realistic approval windows and book inspections ahead of the work reaching them.
One team versus many
The more of the work handled by one accountable company, the fewer handoffs exist where schedule, tolerance and responsibility get lost. We complete most trades — carpentry, millwork, staircases, tile and finish work — with our own crew, and Gerry is the single point of contact from the first walk-through to handover.
What you should have before signing
A fixed, itemized proposal with material selections attached and a dated, phased sequence. Anything less and you have no way to compare bids or hold anyone to a date.
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