Assisted living and senior housing construction costs in Texas

From the parking lot, an assisted living community and a garden-style apartment complex can look like the same building. Inside the corridor the difference starts at the door: a wider leaf, a closer with a delayed action, a rated frame, a strobe over the head. Multiply that across two hundred doors and you have the first reason this building type prices above multifamily, and it is not the finish package.

Egress, ratings and hardware

Residents who use walkers, wheelchairs or need help to leave in an emergency change the code path. Smoke compartments, rated corridors, wider doors, hardware that meets accessibility and fire rules at the same time, sprinkler and alarm coverage and generator-backed egress lighting all go into the structure. None of it can be value engineered out later, and all of it has to pass a fire marshal who reads the licensing rules alongside the building code. Our framing and drywall crews build those rated assemblies daily, and we photograph every penetration seal before it closes so the inspection is a walk, not a hunt.

Two reviewers, not one

The city reviews the building. The state licensing agency reviews the care. Those two lists do not match, and the second one can demand room sizes, bathing rooms, medication storage, dining and activity space and staff areas the building code never mentions. We bring the operator's licensing consultant into design coordination at the start so the drawings satisfy both reviewers on the first pass. Finding a licensing rule after drywall is one of the most expensive things that can happen on this building type.

Nurse call and the systems behind the wall

Nurse call, wander management, door access control, oxygen or medical gas in some memory care and skilled units, and the extra electrical and plumbing behind resident bathrooms add up to a mechanical and electrical package well beyond an apartment. The operator has to define the care level before those systems are sized, because the number is different for independent living, assisted living and memory care, sometimes in the same building.

Residential on the surface, durable underneath

Families choose a community that feels like home, so the design leans warm: wood-look floors, soft lighting, real millwork at the reception desk. Under that, the flooring has to handle walkers and spills, the walls need protection at chair height and the finishes have to survive a cleaning regimen closer to a clinic. Getting both at once costs more than a standard apartment spec, and it is money well spent. Our millwork, tile and paint crews carry those finishes, which lets us control the look and the durability with the same hands.

Residents at home while we work

Much of the senior living work in Texas is renovation of a building people live in around the clock. Residents cannot simply avoid the construction, so we phase by wing, build temporary corridors, control dust and noise to a written plan and coordinate every day's work with the executive director. A principal of the company is on site for that coordination, and the goal is a wing handed back on the promised day with the FF&E installed and the punch complete.

As a planning range, senior housing lands above multifamily on a per-square-foot basis, with memory care and skilled units at the top of the range and independent living nearest the multifamily number. Those are planning ranges only, and they move with the care level, the licensing jurisdiction, the site, whether the building is new or occupied and the year it is bid.

We build and renovate senior communities with the owner on the job and the licensing survey and move-in as the finish line. Put your care program and your drawings in front of us and we will return a number built around them.