The owner initially contracts with an architect and/or engineer as well as a contractor early in the stages of developing the project. That creates a Design-Build team that allows the design professionals (architects and engineers) to work along with general contractors (and often major subcontractors) to complete the final design for a project. That allows the experience of the contractors to help the design professionals tackle challenges in the project as well as help the owner with more accurate cost projection estimates for the project that can be done multiple times through the design process. This usually speeds up the time from initial conception to finished project. Oftentimes the contractor signs a contract with a guaranteed maximum price so the owner knows exactly what the final price of the project will be and keeps track of all project costs monthly. They then invoice the owner monthly and adds a previously agreed upon set percentage of markup for overhead and profit. S. B. White has been a key member serving along side the general contractor in all kinds of Design Build type projects ranging from everything from hospital additions at JCMC to large office corporate headquarters buildings for Bank of Tennessee, etc to large facilities on college campuses including Milligan College and Tusculum College. S. B. White Company has a great reputation for working well with local architects and mechanical design engineers to make projects like these huge successes for the owner.

Performance contracting happens when an owner contacts a contractor and/or vendor directly and asks them to help them identify and solve problems and give them a price to fix. Oftentimes the project is paid for out of shared cost savings from implementing the changes. These types of projects range from very simple HVAC equipment replacement to very complex projects with lots of moving parts and changes to try to keep track of. Energy savings analysis is most often required before and after the changes are implemented to judge amount of savings achieved. S. B. White Company has multiple mechanical design engineers that it teams up with to perform and facilitate these types of projects with great success.

Being around for 125 years, we have had our fair share of emergency service and repair calls at the most inopportune times. We have had service technicians spend the night on Christmas Eve in the boiler room in the basement of churches to keep the boiler running for the Christmas Service the next day. We responded to St. John’s Episcopal Church a few years back when their boiler caught fire in their basement during the middle of winter and got a new modern heating hot water system installed in under a week to minimize interruption of services. We have repaired underground water main lines going to the hospital in the middle of the night when they have ruptured to get water back in to the facility in a hurry. S. B. White is always ready to jump in and help when things like this happen.

Similar to Design-Build, we offer advice and cost estimates for general contractors, owners and design team professionals to use during the Pre-Construction phase of a project to help secure funding or put in the budget for next year. We lean on our extensive history of a vast array of different type projects to help perform budget type estimates to help predict future project costs.