What We Offer
À la Cart or Complete Services
At Merit Building Advocates, we ask a simple question as inspiration to begin your process, "What do you want?" We understand that for both first time and experienced builders, getting from concept to completion, including governmental and nongovernmental jurisdictional hurdles can be confusing, arduous, and exasperating. Here is where we would like to begin to assist you.
- Land Search and Acquisition
- Jurisdictional Privileging
- Pre Construction Architectural and Engineering, Design and Plans
- Jurisdictional Planning, Plan Check, Review and Approvals
- Jurisdictional Building Permits
- Utility Application Submittal, Plan Check and Approvals
- General Contracting Service, or Advisory and Oversight
- Specialty Subcontractor Services, or Advisory and Oversight
- Construction Architectural and Engineering Collaboration
- All Phases and Types of Construction
- Building Inspection, Administration and Scheduling
- Final Jurisdictional Sign Off and System Commissioning
- Commercial, Institutional and Residential
- Almost No Job Too Big or Too Small
Cost Estimating and Budgeting
We provide accurate cost estimates and budgeting for your construction project, helping you to stay within your budget and achieve your goals.
Project Management and Oversight
Our team provides comprehensive project management and oversight, ensuring that your construction project is completed to your specifications.
Quality Control and Safety Management
We prioritize safety and quality control in every aspect of our work, ensuring that your construction project is completed to the highest standards.
Design-Build Services
Our team provides comprehensive design-build services, ensuring that your construction project is designed and built to your exact specifications.
Green Building and Sustainable Design
We prioritize green building and sustainable design in every aspect of our work, helping you to achieve your sustainability goals while reducing your environmental impact.
Our Mission, Vision, Values and Team
Mission Statement
Our mission at Merit Building Advocates is to collaborate with clients, leveraging our expertise, drive and experience to achieve outstanding results—no matter the scope of the project. With a client-centric approach, we build strong partnerships while working together to understand and fulfill your needs. This means delivering on accurate estimates, communicating clearly, solving problems and setting realistic timelines. Focused on honesty and integrity, we deliver innovative, sustainable, reliable construction solutions that meet the highest standards and ensure successful outcomes. All aspects of our operations reflect our core values of merit, safety, quality, teamwork and transparency. We are passionate about our work. In turn we treat everyone including clients, employees, subcontractors and vendors with respect, fostering a positive work environment.
Our Vision
What do you want?
How can we help you?
We will hear and understand the needs of our clients and do our best work to help them build their vision.
Our Values
Merit: The quality of being excellent or worthy.
Empowerment: The process of giving people the tools and resources to achieve their goals.
Respect: Treating someone with consideration, valuing their views, and accepting them as equal.
Integrity: A quality that describes someone who is honest and adheres to their values and principles.
Teamwork: The combined action of a group of people, especially when effective and efficient.
Our Team
David M. Duncan, Owner and Principal Consultant of Merit Building Advocates, began his professional life as a cabinet maker after high school. He greatly enjoyed the creativity of being a cabinet maker and the long, hard days helped establish and build his strong work ethic. David earned his Contractors State License Board (CSLB) license at age 29, becoming a C-6 contractor. He engaged in all phases of commercial and residential construction upon joining Pacific Building, Inc., where he worked for 30 years reaching the position of Senior Project Superintendent and Project Manager. At age 45 David earned his CSLB B license (General Building Contractor). Now, he has begun a new career as entrepreneur and consultant.
David believes one of the best traits he has had the luxury to learn during his career is the ability to communicate effectively and persuasively when needed. While he admits it is a skill he will forever be improving upon, he feels it is one of the most important in business and life. It goes along with his philosophy of asking people, “What do you want?” When working with others, he uses his logic and influence to reach agreement on common goals and move forward together to achieve them. He also admits he suffers from “visions of grandeur” when surveying a new construction project. That is what feeds his talent for brainstorming ideas and using his creativity to come up with exceptional results—but always within the scope and budget of the project.
Contact Us
We would love to hear from you! Contact us today to discuss your construction management needs and learn more about how we can help you achieve your goals.