Transparency Is Not a Feature. It Is the Foundation.
The construction industry has a long-standing habit of obscuring cost. Fixed-price contracts, lump-sum bids, and allowance-based budgets are all mechanisms that put a number in front of a client while hiding what is actually inside it. The contractor protects the gap between what you paid and what was spent. The client never sees the actual invoices. The incentive structure runs directly against the quality of your project.
Alquimia operates on a cost-plus model exclusively because we believe transparency is not a feature you should have to ask for — it is the only pricing structure that actually aligns our interests with yours.
Every dollar spent on your project is documented: material invoices, subcontractor payments, permit fees, equipment rental. All of it passes through to you at actual cost. Our fee is separate, explicit, and does not change based on how much or how little we spend. We do not make more money by cutting corners. We make more money by being trusted with larger and more complex projects over time — which means our financial incentive is to build your project correctly, not cheaply.
Transparency is how we keep that incentive honest.
Building Science Is Not Optional.
A home is not a collection of surfaces. It is a building system — one that manages heat, air, moisture, and ventilation in ways that either work correctly for decades or quietly fail behind finishes that look perfect on completion day.
Building science is the discipline that governs how that system performs. Alquimia applies building science to every project, at every scale, as the foundation of how we specify materials and design mechanical systems — not as a premium service tier, not as a differentiator for passive house clients only, but as the standard every Alquimia project is built to.
This means we address the building envelope before the first finish decision is made. It means we size mechanical systems from actual load calculations, not rule-of-thumb estimates. It means we specify waterproofing systems that contain moisture rather than merely delaying its migration. It means we require blower door testing on projects where envelope performance matters, and we do not waive that requirement to save time.
The clients who understand why this matters are the clients Alquimia is built for. A home that performs precisely — that manages its thermal environment, that breathes correctly, that stays dry where it should stay dry — is not a luxury. It is what a correctly built home is supposed to be. Building science is how we ensure that is what we deliver.
The Right Specialist. Every Time. Without Exception.
Alquimia does not maintain a permanent crew and keeps them busy across every project type. We maintain a curated network of the best specialists in Houston and across Texas — and we bring the right specialist to every challenge, without exception.
This model reflects a belief about how expertise works in construction. The tile installer who has spent fifteen years working exclusively with large-format porcelain understands substrate preparation, lippage tolerances, and setting material selection at a level no generalist crew will match. The mechanical contractor who designs energy recovery ventilation systems based on building science principles — rather than on rule-of-thumb equipment selection — produces a result that performs differently. The structural welder with the tightest tolerances in the market is not interchangeable with a crew that can also weld.
Knowing who to call is the expertise. The specialist network is the product.
This model also means we never compromise a specialist relationship for cost. We do not select subcontractors based on the lowest bid. We select them by competence — and we manage them to the standard the project requires. The result is a construction that reflects the best available execution at every phase, not the cheapest available execution at every phase.
Right the First Time. Not Right Eventually.
Construction defects are almost never discovered on completion day. They surface at the two-year mark, or the five-year mark, or when the first hard rain reveals what the waterproofing was actually doing. By then, the contractor is gone and the client is left with a problem they paid to create.
Alquimia’s operating principle is to solve every problem correctly the first time — which requires understanding the problem before the work begins, sequencing the work so that systems are verified before finishes conceal them, and not accepting work that does not meet the specification, regardless of schedule pressure.
This is not a promise that nothing will ever require adjustment — construction on existing structures regularly reveals conditions that change what is required. What we promise is that when those conditions appear, they are documented and addressed correctly, not concealed or deferred.
The client should not have to wonder whether their contractor cut a corner they could not see. At Alquimia, they do not have to wonder. The standard is not what we aspire to. It is what we practice.
Small Is a Choice.
Alquimia is a boutique firm. Fulton Davenport manages every project personally. We take on a limited number of projects at any time — the number that allows us to be fully present on each one.
This is a deliberate decision, not a constraint. A general contracting firm that grows by adding project managers who manage other project managers has decided to scale the business at the expense of the work. The client who signs a contract with a principal and ends up managed by a succession of intermediaries is not receiving what they paid for.
At Alquimia, the same person who has the initial conversation about your project is the person who is on site when the waterproofing goes in, who reviews the framing before it is closed, and who walks the project with you at completion. The accountability is not organizational. It is personal.
Staying small is how we keep it that way.