Homeowners who have built before rarely worry about the beginning of a project. The beginning is easy. Everyone is attentive, the drawings are fresh, and the site is full of promise. The questions experienced clients bring to us are about everything after: who stays accountable once the work is underway, how changes are priced and approved, how the schedule is protected month after month, and what they will hold in their hands at each step. Those are the right questions to ask any builder.
Our answer is a process that is written down in advance and attended in person. Every Leman project moves through the same six stages, each one named, scheduled, and shared with you before work begins. Leman is owner-operated, and the promise underneath all six stages is a plain one. A principal will be at your site, from the first visit to the last.
The first stage is Discovery, and it runs one to two weeks. It begins with a site visit and a conversation about scope, and it ends with everything you need to make a clear decision: a preliminary budget range, a schedule estimate, our site notes, and, where the project calls for it, a design fee proposal. Nothing at this stage is binding. All we ask at the close of Discovery is a decision, made without pressure, about whether to proceed to design.
The second stage, Design and pricing, is the longest before construction, six to sixteen weeks depending on the complexity of the home. This is where the project takes shape. The design partnership, the structural and mechanical engineering, the sourcing of suppliers, and the permit drawings all happen here, and the stage ends with a full design package, drawings ready to file, and a single agreed figure for the work. We price residential work this way for a reason. You deserve to know what a project will cost before you commit to it, and a single figure agreed before construction keeps the financial risk with the builder, where it belongs, rather than moving it onto you. The scope behind that figure is documented before construction begins. To go forward, you approve the proposal and place a deposit.
The third stage, Permits and schedule, takes four to eight weeks. We file the permits, book the trades, confirm lead times for European finishes, which often travel a long way to reach a Toronto site, and lock the schedule. You receive the filed permits and the confirmed schedule, so you know exactly when the site opens and what happens first. Once the schedule is confirmed, procurement begins.
Construction, the fourth stage, varies in length with the scope of the work. What does not vary is how we run it. A supervisor is on site every working day. You receive photographs and progress notes every week and clear invoicing month by month, so you are never guessing at what is happening behind the hoarding or what it costs. Change orders follow one discipline from the first day to the last: any change is priced in writing and approved by you before the work proceeds, which is why the final invoice holds no surprises. The site is your own property, and visits are welcome throughout, arranged with the site supervisor so the work can make room for you. We take on a small number of projects at a time, so the attention your build receives is never spread thin.
The fifth stage is the Quality walk-through, and it takes one to two weeks. Before any keys change hands, we inspect the house and name every deficiency, however small, then schedule and resolve each one before the project is considered finished. You receive the completion log and the handover documentation, and the house receives its final cleaning. We hand over finished homes, and we do not ask for the final payment until the work is closed and you are satisfied.
The sixth stage is the One-year follow-up, twelve months after handover. Every house settles in its first year, and we come back for the warranty work and the seasonal adjustments that settling asks for, along with a straightforward check-in. A principal attends this visit, as one attended the first. There is no payment attached to it and nothing to sign. It is the plainest way we know to say that our involvement does not end when the invoicing does.
Read together, the six stages describe one idea. We stay. The team that walks the lot with you in Discovery is the team that returns a year after handover, and the plan you are handed at the start is the plan we are held to at the end. At no point does the work quietly change hands to people you have not met.
If you are weighing a build or a renovation, the best next step is the first stage itself. Book a thirty-minute consultation, at our showroom or by video, and we will walk the six stages against your specific project and tell you honestly whether Leman is the right fit. Discovery asks nothing of you beyond the conversation, and it leaves you with a budget range and a schedule you can consider at your own pace.