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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 market. Newer homes, unfinished spaces, bare yards, and groundwater you have to respect. Blackbird draws the plans and builds the job out of Provo, with building experience since 2001.
The local picture
Saratoga Springs became a city in the last days of December 1997. It had around eighteen thousand residents by 2010, and more than thirty eight thousand by 2020. There are almost no old buildings here, because there was almost no city here.
That gives the place a very particular kind of work. Nobody is restoring a hundred year old porch. People are finishing the basement the builder roughed in and walked away from. Or covering a bare concrete patio. Or reworking a builder-grade kitchen. Or adding space 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 work differently. Each has its own lot sizes and its own HOA rules. Each also sits differently in relation to the lake, and that 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 sits on the northwest shore of Utah Lake, below Lake Mountain. Shallow groundwater follows open water. It is the one site condition worth understanding before you plan anything below ground.
The Utah Geological Survey calls groundwater shallow when it sits generally within ten feet of the surface. It says shallow groundwater is more likely in low-lying parts of valleys, and near rivers, streams, ponds, lakes and reservoirs. Saratoga Springs is all three of those at once.
It floods basements and other space below grade. It damages buried utility lines. And it makes excavations unstable. 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 three answers. How that basement behaved through a wet spring. Where the sump pump sends its water. And whether the ground outside really slopes away from the house. Before a dig on low ground, pumping 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 red tape for its own sake.
What we get called for
The default project in a city of newer homes. Three things set the layout before taste does. Escape windows, ceiling height under the existing ducts, and where the builder left the plumbing.
A new lot hands you a slab and a fence. Covered patios, outdoor kitchens, shade and real drainage make it usable in July.
Houses from the early growth years are big enough to be worth adding to. They are also new enough to add to cleanly. See home remodeling and additions.
Lots toward Lake Mountain and Israel Canyon sit above the lowest ground. They raise a different set of site questions, mostly slope and access rather than water.
Townhomes, condos and apartments, as the city keeps adding homes per acre. See multi-family construction.
Shops and offices catching up with the rooftops. See commercial construction.
Everything Blackbird does
In a city this young, most of the demand sits in the last four. The first four keep the last four on budget.
We settle what the work is, and whether it can be done here, before design starts. That includes what the groundwater and the lot grading will require.
A line by line budget you can plan around. You get it before drawings commit you to anything.
This role is called an owner's representative. We check another builder's contract, bid, work and bills for you. Useful in a city where a lot of homes went up fast.
Design, budget, permits and building under one contract. One person answers for the result.
Custom homes on Saratoga Springs lots. That includes the higher ground toward Lake Mountain and Israel Canyon.
Shops and offices fitted out and remodeled, as the city's business base catches up to its rooftops.
Townhomes, condos and apartments. Saratoga Springs keeps adding a lot of them.
Additions and reworks on the first wave 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 in.
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. Lehi and the rest of north county are just across.
A basement, a back yard, an addition, or something bigger. The first talk is free, and it is with Danny.
Or call or text (385) 334-5658