CSLB #1073740 · Bakersfield, CA
One Contract. One Team. One Outcome.
Old Ironsides Construction delivers Design-Build services across Kern County and California's Central Valley — a single accountable contract that takes your project from first sketch through final inspection, with budget and schedule established before ground breaks.
#1073740
CSLB License
Design + Build
Single-Contract Delivery
Kern County & Central Valley
Service Area
Owner-Led Field Teams
Project Leadership
Scope
What Design-Build Means in Practice
Traditional project delivery splits design and construction between separate contracts and separate teams. When problems surface in the field, accountability gets shared — and schedules slip. Old Ironsides Construction closes that gap. Under our Design-Build model, a single contract binds design, engineering coordination, and construction under one roof. The people who develop your scope are the people who build it, and the project principal stays involved from kickoff through the punch list.
For school districts working inside a summer break window, municipalities managing occupied facilities, airport authorities navigating FAA coordination, and property managers delivering tenant improvements on a lease clock, schedule certainty is not a preference — it is a requirement. Design-Build allows us to overlap design and construction phases intelligently, resolve conflicts before they reach the field, and hold a firm completion date without the change-order friction that plagues traditional design-bid-build delivery.
We serve commercial clients across Bakersfield and the broader Central Valley with Design-Build project delivery spanning institutional renovations, ground-up commercial construction, and complex public works. Our team is experienced working around live operations — active campuses, occupied office buildings, and functioning airport facilities — where construction cannot afford to disrupt the people inside.
From concept through closeout, you have one point of contact, one contract, and one team accountable for the result. That is the standard Old Ironsides Construction holds itself to on every Design-Build project in Kern County and beyond.
Our process
How a project runs
Same workflow whether the job takes a single afternoon or a full month.
- 01
Define scope and establish budget
We meet with your team to understand the facility's function, constraints, and stakeholder requirements, then develop a preliminary scope and a realistic budget range before any design work is committed to paper.
- 02
Develop design with construction input
Our design and field teams work in parallel so that every drawing decision is tested against constructability, material lead times, and your schedule — catching conflicts in the design phase rather than on the job site.
- 03
Build around your operations
Construction is sequenced and phased to protect the facility's ongoing function — whether that means working within a school's summer break, maintaining access routes at a live airport, or protecting occupied tenant spaces during a commercial renovation.
- 04
Close out and hand over
We manage inspections, documentation, punch list completion, and final owner training so the facility is fully commissioned and your team has everything needed to operate it on day one.
How we deliver
One crew, start to finish.
The estimator who walks the property is the same person managing the install. No handoffs, no surprises mid-job.
Talk to the estimatorCommon questions
Frequently asked
How is Design-Build different from a standard construction bid?
In a traditional design-bid-build process, you hire a designer, produce completed drawings, and then solicit bids from contractors who had no role in the design. Design-Build combines those contracts into one. Old Ironsides manages both design development and construction, which means budget and constructability are evaluated continuously — not after the drawings are finished.
When is the project cost established?
We establish a project budget early in the design process — typically during schematic design — and we hold it. Because our team controls both design and construction, we can make real-time scope decisions that protect the budget rather than waiting for a contractor to price completed plans and return a number that exceeds what was projected.
Can you work around an occupied facility or a fixed reopening date?
Yes, and it is work we are specifically experienced with. We have delivered projects inside school summer breaks, maintained active operations at aviation facilities, and phased commercial renovations so tenant spaces remained functional throughout construction. The schedule constraints are built into the project plan from day one, not treated as complications to manage later.
What types of projects are well-suited to Design-Build delivery?
Design-Build is a strong fit for projects where schedule certainty matters, where the facility program is clear but design details are still open, or where a client wants a single point of accountability from concept through completion. It works well for institutional facilities, commercial renovations, tenant improvements, and public works projects where compressed timelines or phased occupancy are requirements.
How does Design-Build affect the public procurement process for government or institutional clients?
Many public agencies and school districts in California are authorized to use Design-Build procurement under state law. Old Ironsides is familiar with the documentation, qualification, and contracting requirements for public Design-Build projects and can walk your agency through the process before a formal solicitation is issued.
Who is our main contact throughout the project?
The project principal at Old Ironsides is involved from scope development through closeout. You are not handed off to a project manager you have never met after the contract is signed. The person who committed to your schedule and budget is the person accountable for delivering it.
Get in touch
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