Consulting
Our read on the decisions, before they are poured, framed or closed up
Consulting is a design-build contractor's review of documents and decisions — drawings, specifications, selections, option sheets and sequence. It is not an engineering review, an inspection, a code-compliance opinion or an environmental assessment, and it does not involve testing your home.
Your scope map
All eleven domains reviewed. Each one tailored to your priorities.
Your questionnaire tells us what matters to your family, where the project stands, and what budget is sensible. We recommend a depth for each domain, identify where a leading specialist would add value, and review the trade-offs with you before the consulting scope is set.
Essential
All eleven domains are reviewed, with a practical baseline specification for each one that fits the project.
Enhanced
Broader specifications address more materials, assemblies, and systems across all eleven domains.
Comprehensive
Every relevant detail within the agreed project scope is specified and coordinated through the Standard.
Sage Co. remains your single coordinating point. When needed, we assemble leading design, indoor environmental quality, EMF, acoustics, mechanical, materials, water, lighting, and building-science specialists so their recommendations work together.
Land & Site Assessment
For anyone who owns a parcel or is deciding between parcels. We walk the site, read the soil and the grade, survey what is upwind and uphill, check the floodplain and aquifer overlays and the permitting jurisdiction, and tell you plainly whether a healthy house can be built there and what it would take. This is the first domain of the Standard delivered before you have committed to a build.
Right when: You own land, or you are choosing between parcels, and nothing is designed yet.
Plan and design review
A written read of your drawings, specifications and selections, organized by domain, with a prioritized action list you can hand to your architect or builder.
Right when: You have plans in hand and want them read before they are locked in.
New build consulting
Milestone advisory across a build run by another builder — decision memos at the points that cannot be undone later, and notes from the visits we make.
Right when: Someone else is building it and you want our eyes on the decisions.
Renovation consulting
Scope and sequencing guidance for an existing home: what to open first, what order the work belongs in, and which decisions foreclose others.
Right when: You are renovating and the sequence matters more than the finishes.
Builder and product selection advisory
Vetting notes on builders, trades and product options, read against our approved materials catalog and its evidence grades.
Right when: You are choosing who does the work, or what goes into it.
Option addendum and allowance review
Your builder's option sheet read line by line against the eleven domains: what to add, what to swap, what to decline and why.
Right when: You are buying from a production builder and the option sheet is due.
Second-opinion review
A one-off paid read of another consultant's or builder's proposal, with our reasoning written out rather than a verdict.
Right when: You have a proposal in front of you and want it checked.
What you get, and what we will not do
Every engagement ends in writing: recommendations in priority order by domain, each carrying its evidence grade, with the reasoning shown so you can weigh it or hand it to someone else. We record requirements for the building — never anything about your health.
We do not test, sample or sweep a house, we do not report on existing conditions as an inspector or environmental professional would, and we do not promise health outcomes. Where that work is what you need, we will say so and point you to an independent professional.