Our Process

Urban Oasis offers strong, creative space planning and design coupled with durable material choices and quality construction that enables homeowners to make informed choices about their project scope, materials and construction methods. We strive to educate our clients about ways to incorporate sustainable construction solutions into their projects. Urban Oasis provides quality construction at fair prices. It is our goal to keep our overhead low so that we can continue to offer the best prices for the quality of work that we expect and provide.

Urban Oasis focuses on design solutions that tie our clients’ homes into their landscape and that reflect details from architecture of the home itself. We strive to reflect our client’s aesthetic taste in every project. Please take a look at the variety of styles and projects we have constructed.

We begin with a free one-hour in-home consultation with one of our designers. During this meeting, we introduce our company, get a sense of the space and gain a clearer understanding of our potential customer’s needs and aesthetic preferences.

Following this meeting, we send a design proposal for the client’s scope of work. Once a client chooses to move forward, a 3-6 week design process begins. Clients pay 60% of the design fee at the time of signing. The remaining 40% is credited toward the project when our clients move into the construction phase of work with Urban Oasis.

Urban Oasis strives to create outdoors spaces that reflect their owner’s aesthetic taste and highlight the architecture of their homes. We listen to our clients, look for cues from the style of their homes and indoor spaces, and show lots of images from our portfolio and sites like Houzz to gain a clear understanding of our client’s style.

After measuring the project area, shooting grades and taking lots of photographs, we begin design by exploring the functionality of the space as it exists with an eye for improving layout, flow and usability. During our first design meeting we typically present two to three design concepts. Working with our clients, we determine the best layout for their desired usage and consolidate ideas from the initial conceptual plans into one unified design.

Once the functional design of the spaces is complete, we closely examine materials and details that will harmonize with the existing elements in the yard – not the least of which is the home itself. Material choices will affect aesthetics as well as durability and cost. These explorations help tailor the look and feel of each space to the owner’s specific desires as well as guiding the budget for the project.

Just before commencement of construction, we hold a pre-construction meeting on site with Carrie, Trevor and our crew. Once construction begins, our designers oversee the construction to assure that the design intent is clear and carried through the project. Trevor oversees the daily construction activity. This is your project management team. Each project has an assigned foreman and crew who work diligently on your project until it is complete.

Urban Oasis is a Design/Build firm. In contracting us to design your project, you are also contracting us to build it. We do not take on design-only projects; however, we are happy to work with you to phase your work and, where appropriate, to find portions of the work that willing customers may choose to do themselves. We are also available for projects that do not need design work as the preliminary stage to construction.

We are a General Contractor and work directly with our clients. We do not act as a subcontractor and rarely hire subcontractors. In very few specialty areas, we rely on work by others including large-scale decorative concrete work, asphalt, powder-coated steel fencing, gates and railings, line voltage electrical, plumbing and gas installation. Over years of working together, we have selected several contractors for these items whose work maintains our standards and these are the names we pass along to our clients with great confidence.