It’s not necessarily always true, but in terms of effective lighting design, adding another layer of expertise and corporate involvement between builder and electrical contractor can pay big dividends for everyone involved, including the home buyer.
Why Our Lighting Partnerships Work So Well
Here’s how — and why — it works so well when a builder partners with Aterra Designs to work with a buyer to customize the lighting design and electrical plan for a home under construction. Because our consultants have the technical knowledge, market awareness, product information and design expertise necessary to discuss personal wants and needs, translating those choices into schematic drawings, a builder feels confident about bowing out of that particular phase. When the electrical contractor receives a complete materials list and easy-to read plans, the project proceeds smoothly. The actual specifying and ordering timelines are shortened.
If there are questions about timing and product availability, those concerns can be addressed with a simple two way phone call, rather than scheduling a three-way meeting, eliminating the needs for hand-written notations or an approved change order.
Package Lighting Design = Winning Concept
Aterra combines the best illumination ideas with the best of modern technology to create home lighting that fulfills all needs for general illumination, specific task lighting and trendy accent lighting — all tied together in a single package that can include advanced smart home features as well. That’s a winning concept.
Our design consultants also work with respected brand partners like Lutron, Caseta and Phillips, the trendsetters and standard-bearers for the industry. We are able to explain the differences between LED lighting and CFLs in layman’s terms, and we speak with authority about specific code requirements and structural options. Manufacturers value our ability to recommend and suggest innovative ideas to the client, and they also work with us to offer the best prices and first-rate service to the builders we represent. That a double win.
Efficient Documentation
Our computer tracking programs facilitate the initial design consultation; we document any required changes to the standard floor 
plan, back up selections and special needs completely, generate complete materials lists and ordering schedules, prepare pricing documents, and develop reasonable timelines that work for both builder and contractor. Everyone, including the buyer, receives the same information at the same time, keeping all parties on the same page, so to speak. That represents a triple win.
Our proprietary administrative system is detailed, but easy to use. Our successful six-step process begins with the initial design meeting between our consultant and the buyer, usually at the builder’s design center. Although no further meetings are required, they may be scheduled upon request. The initial meeting works off the baseline electrical plan for a specific model, recording any requested changes and detailing upgrades. Those notes, when entered into the system generate a report that becomes the working plan for the electrical contractor. Buyer signoff assures that both pricing and actual placement of upgrades and/or changes are correct.
Three separate levels of reports are generated by the system: the sales report, the operations report, and the contractor’s report. Finally, a fully-dimensioned, lot-specific plan is produced and circulated in order to reduce field inspections and walk-through times.
Personalized Lighting Design, It’s our Passion
Although we are confident that our current capabilities are adequate to serve most local builders’ needs and exceed expectations, our procedures and software undergo constant review and refinement. Hand-drawn redlines once reflected initial alterations and additions but have now been replaced by new software that further automates the process.
Aterra is excited about the future of personalized design in the homebuilding realm. We look forward to the day when a custom lighting and electrical plan is the local standard — for production builders as well as for custom homes. That’s our piece of the puzzle — and we know it’s an achievable goal.