COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
These commonly asked questions and answers should give you reason to commission Magister Operis for turn-key constructing your current/next project:
 
Q. Why should we hire Magister Operis over the other general contractors?
A. The main reason is because almost all general contractors are general contractors rather than builders. Magister Operis's background gives the Contract and Specification Management subsidiary a unique outlook with the most custom and flexible options available, which we combine with extreme efficiency tools for the entire construction process. You will not find another company as dedicated to freestyle construction. Most general contractors today eliminate complex details (your options) wherever possible so that they don't have to endure dealing with their uncoordinated subcontractors and suppliers. This is where we ominously excel. We have a reputation for coordination and being efficient with the most complex projects.

Magister OperisTM treats building as a science, which it very much is...as we have numerously demonstrated.

Most general contractors run things more like farming. They plant some subcontractors, some materials, some drawings, and your pre-qualified checkbook out on the construction site and then expects your project to grow. Notice most general contractors let their subcontractors and suppliers specify, engineer, and coordinate for themselves. Notice this is the core of why they are always working out problems throughout the entire duration of the construction process, rather than efficiently doing the planning up-front. Lots of finger pointing takes place with so very little planned. They typically leave that to the subcontractors, suppliers, engineers, etc. to work out for themselves. They also typically expect all the planning to come from the architect alone. They don't make use of project timelines and resist one being created so that they can't be held accountable. They don't know how to get properly intimate with your site, building design, structural, and mechanical options.

Magister OperisTM has been intensely studying these general contractors (hundreds) for well over a decade. We studied why some contractors fail and some succeed. Notice most do not even have efficient talent at the basic building skills with a hammer, saw, tape measure, level, and an advanced scientific calculator. They know what geometry is, but don't know how to use it. And when you don't have the basic skills, it makes things quite difficult to effectively and fairly supervise the construction of a project smoothly and on budget. If you had a fixed price with the general contractor, he/she typically cuts corners that effect your project's quality to make his/her profit.

What you receive when you hire the Contract and Specification Management subsidiary of Magister OperisTM for your turnkey building project is both Concurrent Design Engineering and the Manufacturing and Installation in one clean package without anything else to get in-between. While each are powerful services themselves, the Contract and Specification Management subsidiary has the ability to best bring these two forces together for the ultimate "Integrated Construction System".
 
Q. Why is your estimate of the construction costs different than other quotes we have received from other general contractors?
A. What most all contractors do is estimate. They use a mix of formulas and "guestimations" when formulating costs for the construction of your project. Some might use a digitizer hooked up to a computer that has routines of formulas that are applied to the number of lineal feet or areas that the digitizer senses.

Where Magister OperisTM is different, is that all of it's quantities are taken from is directly from a 3-dimensional model with every piece of lumber and plywood present. With CAD there is no estimation, but rather an exact survey of the quantities by counting members and reading the surfaces that was created to complete the 3-dimensional model. The only difference between the 3-dimensional CAD model and your project is that the lumber is straighter in the 3-dimensional model and there is no expansion and contraction. The bottom of the footings in the model is flat.
 
Q. So CAD figures everything?
A. No, not everything. The output is as accurate and comprehensive as the model is. What is not included in the model will not be included in the output. There are certain things (caulk, nails, hinges, etc.) that are usually not cost effective to model. These things are estimated and added to the budget.

Although it is near impossible to have perfect cost predictions, the use of the 3-dimensional model to achieve cost controlling/quantifying and quality producing concurrent engineering far outweighs any thought of not employing it.
 
Q. We have seen other general contractors with computer-aided design (CAD). Can't they do the same thing?
A. That depends on their software and their true knowledge of how a project goes together. One could know the software inside and out, but if one don't know building (leaves it up to the architect and subcontractors), one is going to be making a big mess with the many thousands of components in the model. Or the model is going to be incomplete, due to the ignorance of the general contractor not being intimately familiar with the actual building process and the applied trades. Most general contractors prefer to make the mess out on the job-site with information-deprived subcontractors, expensive materials, and your pre-approved checkbook.

Being a subcontractor for hundreds of subcontractors over more than a decade, we have only seen a few general contractors with the knowledge/motivation to utilize 3-dimensional computer-aided design for total site, structural, and mechanical modeling, engineering, and production drawings. Many have bought some software that will do some 3-dimensional framing but, few know what they are doing with it, so the program just sits on their hard drive on their computer, rendered as useless or too complicated.