GrandStead Design-to-Build

Ninemonthsofdecisions,heldtogetherbyemail.

A $150,000+ renovation takes the better part of a year to go from first sketch to first day on site. During that stretch, you and your client make every decision that shapes the project. None of it lives anywhere permanent. The day a contractor signs on, most of it gets rebuilt from scratch.

Mo. 0

Concept

Mo. 2

Budget set

Mo. 4

Selections

Mo. 7

Builder chosen

Mo. 9.5

Groundbreaking

GrandStead owns this phase

Typical timeline for a $150K+ residential renovation, concept to groundbreaking

The current toolkit

What actually holds a project together right now.

What gets lost

The budget gets rebuilt from scratch the day a contractor signs on.

Selections get re-explained from memory, not handed over as a record.

Nobody who touches the project after handoff knows why anything was decided.

Email threads

The budget conversation lives across dozens of replies. Finding "the current number" means scrolling.

PDF proposals

Every revision is a new attachment. There's no single source of truth for what was actually approved.

Pinterest boards

Inspiration lives here — but it dies here too. None of it survives into the builder's hands.

Text messages

Decisions get made in a thread that nobody, including the people who made them, can find again.

Spreadsheets

A budget tracker that's only as current as the last time someone remembered to open it.

$518–526B

Total U.S. home improvement spending, 2026

Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies

$150K+

Threshold for the top decile of remodeling projects

Houzz & Home Study 2026

123,398

Licensed architects in the U.S.

NCARB Survey 2025

9 months

Concept to groundbreaking — with no shared record

Design, kept whole

The material palette doesn't die at handoff.

Concept direction, finish selections, and material palettes stay attached to the project — visible to your client throughout, and ready for the builder who inherits it.

White oak

Honed carrara

Matte black

Venetian plaster

Unlacquered brass

Bouclé

The fix

One project record. From first sketch to groundbreaking.

GrandStead gives architects and their clients a shared workspace that captures every decision — scope, budget, selections, builder choice — and hands it all to the builder intact.

Scope & Budget

Set a realistic budget range before drawings are final. Scope and cost evolve together so the homeowner always knows what they're building and what it costs.

Selections Library

A shared record of materials, finishes, and fixtures — organized by room, tagged with cost impact, approved by the homeowner. It survives the handoff.

Builder Vetting & RFP

Shortlist builders, send a structured RFP with full project context, and compare bids on equal footing. Replace the PDF packet with a real process.

Zero-Friction Handoff

When a builder is selected, the entire package transfers — budget, drawings, selections, history. The builder inherits a project, not a blank slate.

Who it's for

Built around your workflow first.

Built for you first

Architects & designers

Built around your design process first. You control what's shared and when — your client is invited in, not the other way around.

Free, always

Homeowners

See the budget, the selections, and the shortlisted builders in one place — for the life of the project.

Phase two

Builders

Inherit a project that already has a scope, a budget, and a client who's done the homework before you ever bid.

How we compare

Built for the phase they skip.

Status quo
Buildertrend / JobTread
GrandStead
Starts before a builder is chosen
Not software
No — post-contract only
Yes — this is the core loop
Architect as a first-class user
No
Guest access at best
Native, primary user
Homeowner budget-setting pre-contract
Spreadsheets
Not supported
Built-in
Builder vetting & RFP workflow
Manual, ad hoc
Not supported
Built-in
Selections library that survives handoff
Dies with Pinterest
Starts from zero at contract
Carries forward
Who pays
Nobody
Builder (per company)
Architect/designer (per project)
Limited founding cohort — architects & designers

Currently accepting a limited number of design partners.

We're working with architects and designers on high-end remodels and additions to shape the product. If that's you, apply for early access.