Constructing and designing your dental office is a major project. Although it can cause all sorts of headaches, it’s essential to what the future of your practice will look like. However, it doesn’t have to be such an experience. Check here the details to learn more about dental office design and construction at any time.
Dental construction projects don’t happen overnight. It’s, therefore, essential to plan way ahead to make the most of the overall endeavor. That goes both for overhauling your current office and for constructing it from the ground up. Either way, you should consider four basic factors, including people, budget, needs, and time.
Planning With People in Mind
The first step in constructing or renovating your dental practice is to have a clear picture of what you want your end product to look like. That means imagining how your patients, co-workers, and other staff will fit into your dentist office floor plan. As such, we suggest a human-oriented approach to your design, which is all about client needs. That way, you might stumble upon solutions to problems that you previously didn’t even think about.
So, where do you start with this so-called human-oriented approach to dentists floor plans? Simple! Begin with a survey. Ask your clients and staff to tell you all about their experience at your dental office. These should include everything they remember about visiting your practice the last time, from entering the property to seeing what the service was like to finally leaving. Although the feedback might appear a bit too much, don’t overlook any details.
Nevertheless, don’t stop with their little essay about your dental and medical office. Be a bit more nosy and narrow down your questions. Ask them about what was the best part of their experience, the downsides, and of course, what they expect from you in the future. The feedback might surprise you, but don’t let it disrupt your plans. The more pros and cons you gather, the better insight you’ll have on what to strive for in your dentist office layout.
The Budget
Like with most other projects, money is an integral part of making things happen. It can pose a series of questions for you and your team, but it all comes down to one thing in the end. Can your practice afford what you’re after?
The main idea behind dentist interior design is to better your business. However, it’s not uncommon for owners to get ahead of themselves and strain their budgets. They overdevelop the office to the point of not being able to enjoy its fullest potential. Similarly, another type of money-related frustration is not being able to afford everything that you know will improve your business. To evade both scenarios, we once again suggest planning early. This allows you to be more realistic and keep your feet on the ground.
When estimating the budget, it’s essential to understand that construction costs are just a part of total costs. Total costs consist of several price tags, including:
- Architectural
- Civil Engineering
- Electrical
- Mechanical
- Structural
If you’re not renovating your building, but constructing the office from the ground up, consider several more price tags. Those include:
- Property acquisition
- Site development (grading, water management, utilities, etc.)
But there’s yet another set of expenses you need to think about. These revolve around IT services, such as cabling and state-of-the-art security. Furthermore, there are furniture and cabinetry costs involved as well.
Luckily, you can finance all this with conventional or SBA loans. Both include convenient terms for dental office design, architecture, and construction. But before someone lends you the money, they will evaluate the costs and compare them to your future cash flow. That way, the lenders will have a clear picture of whether your business will be able to pay them back.
Wants vs. Needs
The third step in constructing a dental office is to compare the feedback information with the budget. Once you do that, you will be able to put wants and needs head-to-head. However, you shouldn’t do this all on your own. You should, instead, talk about it with your architect and ask yourself a few more questions and take some extra steps:
- Firstly, you must determine all the services your dental office will offer. This will lead you to another important question — what equipment do those services require?
- Next up, the two of you should figure out the number of exam rooms, both for present and future practice.
- To top it all off, you should discuss the type of building and its overall style.
Once you and your lead architect come up with the answers, you will be able to better determine the design of the office. It will further crystallize the budget and underline the overall costs.
Timeline
As previously stated, dental office construction doesn’t happen overnight. This means that you must have realistic expectations of when you’ll be able to open your doors for patients. The process might last for months or even over a year. Yet, you can still affect the timeline with proper planning. A fine example of this is realizing that you don’t need an extra office space or two, cutting down costs, as well as managing the time needed to complete the project.
Once again, dental construction projects differ depending on their nature — renovation or ground-up construction. The former usually lasts for a few months, while the latter can take as long as a year to complete. Either way, you can influence the project by planning everything smartly. For example, avoid ground-up construction during the winter and figure out the permits, as it will also save you a considerable amount of time. The key to making it all work is to gather a proper team of experts. These include moneylenders, architects, contractors, and you — the owner and project manager. It might be costlier to have all of them around, but it will save you time and money in the long run. Having a team means having a plan. And as we’ve said, all successful projects come down to figuring out the basics before development even begins, which is easier when you’re surrounded by the right people.
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