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Service area · Saratoga Springs, UT
Saratoga Springs did not exist as a city until the end of 1997, so almost every house in it is younger than that. That makes it a very specific kind of market: newer homes, unfinished spaces, bare yards, and a water table you need to respect. Blackbird is a Provo based design-builder, building since 2001.
The local picture
Saratoga Springs incorporated on the last days of December 1997. It had around eighteen thousand residents by 2010 and more than thirty eight thousand by 2020. There is almost no old building stock here because there was almost no city here.
That gives the place a very particular contractor profile. Nobody is restoring a hundred year old porch. People are finishing the basement the builder roughed and walked away from, putting something over a bare concrete patio, reworking a production kitchen, or adding square footage to a house that was sized for a smaller family.
Neighborhoods like Harvest Hills, Talus Ridge, Talons Cove, Lake Mountain Estates and Harbor Bay each have their own lot sizes, their own HOA rules and their own relationship to the lake, which matters more here than in most cities.
A finished Blackbird project in Provo. We have no completed project photos from Saratoga Springs to show yet.
The lake, and what it does underground
Saratoga Springs occupies the northwest shore of Utah Lake, below Lake Mountain. Shallow groundwater follows open water, and it is the one site condition worth understanding before you plan anything below grade.
The Utah Geological Survey treats shallow groundwater as groundwater generally within ten feet of the ground surface, and says it is more likely in low-lying parts of valleys and near rivers, streams, ponds, lakes and reservoirs. Saratoga Springs is all three of those things at once.
It floods basements and other below-grade space, damages buried utility lines, and destabilizes excavations. None of that is theoretical on a low lot near the lake, and none of it cares how new the house is.
Before a basement finish, we want to know how that basement has behaved through a wet spring, where the sump discharges, and whether the exterior grade actually falls away from the house. Before an excavation on low ground, dewatering and drainage belong in the estimate, not in a change order.
Saratoga Springs requires a storm water permit alongside the building permit. On a city built this fast on this kind of ground, that is not bureaucracy for its own sake.
What we get called for
The default project in a city of newer homes. Egress, ceiling height under the existing ductwork, and where the original rough-in landed set the layout before taste does.
A new lot hands you a slab and a fence. Covered patios, outdoor kitchens, shade and proper drainage are what make it usable in July.
Houses from the early growth years are now big enough to be worth adding to and new enough to add to cleanly. See home remodeling and additions.
Lots toward Lake Mountain and Israel Canyon sit above the lowest ground and carry a different set of site questions, mostly slope and access rather than water.
Townhomes, condominiums and apartments as the city keeps densifying. See multi-family construction.
Retail and office space catching up with the rooftops. See commercial construction and tenant improvements.
Everything Blackbird does
In a city this young, most of the demand sits in the last four. The first four are what keep the last four on budget.
Scope and feasibility before design, including what the groundwater and the lot grading are going to require.
A line-item budget you can actually plan around, written before drawings commit you to anything.
Independent review of a builder's contract, bid or workmanship. Useful in a city where a lot of homes were built fast.
Design, budget, permitting and construction under one contract, with one person answering for the result.
Custom homes on Saratoga Springs lots, including the higher ground toward Lake Mountain and Israel Canyon.
Retail and office build-outs and renovations as the city's commercial base catches up to its rooftops.
Townhomes, condominiums and apartments, of which Saratoga Springs continues to add a great deal.
Additions and reworks on the first generation of Saratoga Springs homes, now fifteen to twenty five years old.
The most common project in the city. Bedrooms, bathrooms, theaters and gyms in space the builder left roughed.
Covered patios, decks and outdoor kitchens on lots that came with a slab, a fence and not much else.
Questions
Nearby
Saratoga Springs sits on the west side of the lake, with Lehi and the rest of north county just across.
A basement, a back yard, an addition, or something bigger. The first conversation is free and it is with Danny.
Or call or text (801) 735-7186