Our Process

A Clear and Simple Approach to Building Your Home

Tourmaline Builders does so much more than build stunning luxury homes. Our full-service team of experienced custom home builders guides you every step of the way, from initial vision through design and construction. And we’ll be there for you years after your house is complete.

So don’t wait to call us until you have complete architectural plans. We can provide you far greater value when you rely on our professional experience from the start!

Involving us from the beginning ensures that you end up with the most functional, beautifully designed home possible and — most important — that it can be built cost-effectively.  We’re highly skilled at controlling cost through smart, efficient design, and can help you identify where it’s worth investing more money and where a less costly option will provide the results you want — not only in selecting materials and finishes, but even more crucially, in the architectural and structural design of your home.

Tourmaline can help you with:

Acquiring the Right Lot

As a builder in San Diego for many years, we maintain longstanding relationships with the top local real estate professionals to help you identify the ideal site.  And once you’ve identified a site, we can help ensure that it really fits your needs perfectly – coordinating and managing critical consultants (such as a surveyor or soils engineer), flying a drone to validate the views, reviewing city restrictions and easements, and much more.

Designing Your Home

As San Diego’s premier custom home builder, our team has a proven track record of creating beautifully designed, highly efficient, sustainable homes. We can design your home with you or provide introductions to the area’s best architects — with whom we’ve built strong working relationships over the years — helping to match you with the best fit for your proposed style and needs.  We collaborate closely with you to create the perfect custom home that meets your design, function, and cost criteria, while ensuring that all specifications are highly buildable.

Developing the Finish Details

It’s the details that separate an extraordinary new home from an ordinary one.  So Tourmaline creates for you a comprehensive, detailed catalog of all the materials, specifications and finishes that will go into your custom home—including fixtures, cabinets, appliances, finish carpentry, paint colors and more.

Refining Your Budget

From the plans and specifications we develop with you, we will confirm your project budget.   And for items not yet specified, we’ll let you know when important decisions need to be made, so the process doesn’t become overwhelming, and the building schedule stays on track.

Managing Your Project

Once construction is underway, we use our state-of-the-art software platform to track all aspects of the project with you. All project information, including communications, the schedule, selections, approvals and costs — even an annotated set of your building plans — is in one place at your fingertips.  And you can access all this online at home from your computer or even on the go, from an app on your phone. So you always know exactly where things stand.

Constructing Your Home

Building with us is a full-service, “white glove” experience. We handle all aspects of construction and serve as the point of contact for all consultants and inspectors, resolving issues as they arise and before they become problems. Plus, we keep you regularly updated on your home’s progress, providing you with peace of mind whether you live down the street or out of town.

Maintaining a Long Term Relationship

Our relationship with you does not end when you move into your beautiful new home. Because we’re proud of what we build and stand behind our work, you’ll enjoy the most comprehensive warranty in the industry.  And to us, it’s always a Tourmaline home. So if there ever is a problem, you know we’ll do our utmost to make it right.

Let’s Work Together

Work with us to design and build the custom home of your dreams. Or purchase a home that we are already building and have us work with you to customize it with finishes, fixtures and amenities.

We’re ready to start working on your custom home. Are you?