At Home In The Woods

[CurlyDave]

How is it people complain about the economy but don't go out and work. Obey is standing there with money in hand and the BOSS is basically saying i don't need your money. BUT the guys sitting at home with nothing to do probably does need money.

No matter how bad the boss, or how much the worker needs the money, the boss is certain to find out about this side deal. And, given his already proven attitude, is going to take a dim view of the worker undercutting him.

I would be very wary of this situation. Possibly the workers can recommend a free-lancer, which would resolve most of the issues here, without getting them in trouble with a bad boss.

 

[woodlandfarms]

So as a bit of a side note. We too are planning to build, and our Neighbors on both sides are doing their own contracting as we speak.

Neighbor A is done. He is a plumber, and is well connected to all the trades so acting as a GC looked to be quite painless.

Neighbor B is in a different boat. Our weather this year seems to be a lot more wet. It has not helped his schedule. He got a late start due to plan issues, his framer has run late due to family issues (?). What Neighbor B's plan was to build a bigger house with the money he saved by not having a GC. He listed the things he could do and has subbed the rest out. On the upside, he has a "friend" who is a GC and he made a deal with him for 14 on site visits, along with 20 telephone calls for a consulting fee. On the downside his framer left yesterday ( I am thinking 1.5 months late at least) and he is now attempting to put on the roof in the rain). And he is doing it more or less by himself (A BIL and a couple of laborers on a steep pitch).

But now comes the rub. As he is slipping behind, he is running into bank pressure. Having not been in his shoes, ever, I do wonder how he is going to get out of this one. He is committed to the size (and cost) of the structure, and the bank won't sign off without things being done and done at a particular time...

Ugh...

Carl

Carl

 

[EddieWalker]

Do I wish we had hired a GC? Probably not due to the high prices they bid the job. I couldn't justify paying 50% more to build the house than the price for which I could sell when finished. That just doesn't make sense. I got a lot of criticism in this thread for not hiring a GC. I know good GCs earn their pay. However, we have caught important things that a GC never would have caught (or fixed if he did catch them). Also, it has been nice not having a GC between us and the subs. We have really had to watch the subs closely to get things done correctly and even under our watchful eye, some things still got missed. I doubt a GC would have watched the subs as closely. I'm sure the subs would rather do work for a GC who doesn't pay close attention than to work for us.

This is more for those who have been following this thread and thinking about being the GC of their own house. I don't want to be rude or insult anybody here, but felt that as a GC, a reply to this statement is needed

50% more by hiring a GC to build a house seems a bit excessive. To my knowledge, the going rate is 15 percent. The advantage to this is that he hires crews that he knows, gets them to show up when they need to and can usually get a better deal on materials. It's done right the first time and his subs don't try to pull funny things to either cut corners or over charge for what they are doing.

The other assumption that you mention about not making sure it's done right is insulting. There are all sorts of versions of "right." Some are code, others are common sense and then others are attention to detail. Obed has caught some pretty big mistakes by the guys he hired, and it's a good thing that he's beent there to inspect and catch those things. Assuming that good GC would allow them to happen in the first place is saying that he's not competent and knowledgable about what he's doing. This is the differnce between one who earns his money, knows what he's doing and has built up a reputation by doing it right over and over again.

When you consider hiring a GC, think about what you know about building a house. Most people don't have a clue all the little details that go into it, and what makes it a quality home and what just gets covered up with caulking and paint. Hiring a hack who doesn't know what he is doing, and doesn't care about the house isn't the same thing as hiring a professional who takes pride in his work, has years of exprience, a solid reputation, references and a waiting list on when he can get to you. This economy has been great for weeding out the hacks. The good ones are busy and making money. The hacks are out of work and blaming it on the "economy." There is more work out there than I can handle, and the guys that I respect and consider to be good at what they do are also as busy as ever, if not more so because the hacks are dropping like flies because nobody wants to hire them. Clients can be picky right now, and those without work have burned too many bridges.

Assuming that a good GC would not have done as good a job at building this house isn't true. While it's become a very nice house, it's also had it's set backs and mistakes. Obed has been very good at going back and correcting a lot of them, but there is no way to be 100% that he got all of them. A guy who has built hundreds of houses is going to see things that the rest of us don't even know to look at. He's going to go look at the plan and know right off where the problem areas are, and be able to explain to a client why they are problems, and might need to be done differently. If a sub does something stupid, wrong or doesn't show, he'll have resources to move on and get it done. This comes from years of experience. Something you can't get on your first, second or even tenth house.

What I admire about Obed is his honestly in looking back at his mistakes and what has gone wrong. This is why his home will come out fine. I also think it's what makes this such an good thread and something that everybody who is ever thinking about building their own house should read.

Sincerly,
Eddie

 

[mkane09]

What I admire about Obed is his honestly in looking back at his mistakes and what has gone wrong. This is why his home will come out fine. I also think it's what makes this such an good thread and something that everybody who is ever thinking about building their own house should read.

Sincerly,
Eddie

What Eddie said! I agree 100 percent with that first sentence. And, to be honest, I doubt if I could have been as.....cordial....with the sometimes conflicting advice that Obed has received throughout the thread and with the build. But, I also could not STAND to be a year out and not in my house. I don't have the patience for that. I think an important point that Eddie made was that a good GC is worth what it costs to get him. Honestly, I don't know jack about building a house, so if I build one, I HAVE to trust whoever my GC will be. Therefore, I need to be sure to get the one with the best references and track record that I can. This is the lesson to be learned!

mkane09

 

[mikefromnh]

Well said Eddie.

 

[brin]

Here in Georgia even during the boom years of home construction a really good and experienced GC could be hired for 10%. and as far as I am concerned unless you are retired, or are otherwise going to be on site with your construction and you know what you are doing as far as home construction then that 10% will be money well spent.

Obed had been building his house for a year now...and General Contractor would have had the house built in 4 or 5 months including weather delays....so there is that trade off. Further when you have to go back and redo things after undoing things you lose materials, time and sometimes good subs who cannot put up with delays..they have a business to run as well.

I was the GC on our house when we built it 5 yrs ago and it we moved in 4 and !/2 months after we broke ground but I had years of construction experience and knew all of the subs I used personally...big advantage..

When you undertake building a house on your own as the general contractor there are trade offs...somehow I don't think the average guy without prior experience really saves anything when you take into account most folks would have had to pay rent to live somewhere else all that time....Obed had his camper...most folks would not and then add up the do overs...So I agree with Eddie completely.

 

[CurlyDave]

I have done it both ways, more than once.

Eddie is right in that a good GC can help you and save you money. OTOH, I had a highly recommended GC who accepted mistakes by subs that I would not have. And the one where I insisted on a complete do-over, the GC allowed him to charge me twice.

I am on the second time of building my own house as an owner-builder, and would do it again in a heartbeat.

I took the time to make up a bill of materials and faxed it to 7 large lumberyards/building supply houses. All but one faxed a bid back within a few days and I saved about 50% over retail, plus got higher quality lumber and materials. When I need some hard-to-find item, I call up their contractor sales person and she finds it for me. Best of all they deliver in their truck at no charge.

But, I am an engineer and can understand the reasons behind codes and can call a sub-contractor on shoddy work. And, I am retired so I can be "on the job" every day.

If you have a day job, a good competent GC is the way to go.

 

[Obed]

Thinking about the family, how's your cat doing? Complete recovery I hope.

Yes, complete recovery. Thanks. However, she's old and getting more feeble every day. The wife doesn't think the cat will be alive when we move in the house. A year ago I thought the cat would never make it until now and she's still around. We'll see.

Obed

 

[Obed]

It might be a optical illusion but the posts on your porch look bowed?

If you are moving them you might want to go with a laminated post (check with a pole barn supplier it will stay straight

Another thing that might look good if you could get a white vinyl post sleeve (think fence post) to finish it off no paint or maintenance.


tom

I haven't checked for bowing but I think it's an illusion. The posts are pressure treated. We won't be painting them. I don't mind the back porch looking a little "rustic".

 

[Obed]

Obed -

Thanks for the detailed response. I'm facing a similar scenario - we want to build our retirement house in the next 3-5 years. We just moved to the area, so the property sits 12 miles away. I currently work 6 weeks overseas, 6 weeks home...so that would make it very difficult to monitor progress while I'm away.

Frank,
Your schedule will give you some challenges when you build your house regardless of whether you use a GC or act as the GC yourself. Like someone on TBN said, "You don't get what you expect; you get what you inspect." I can't tell you how true that statement is. If you build while you are traveling, I would make a couple of suggestions.

1. If at all possible, time the build so that you are home when the foundation and basement walls (if you have a basement) are built, and when any concrete is installed. These things are permanent; you don't want a subcontractor or his workers taking ANY shortcuts at this point. Without our personal inspections, the footer for the center load bearing wall in our house would not have gotten rebar in it. Also, one of the plumbing drain pipes below our basement slab would have been installed so that it ran uphill instead of downhill.
2. You might consider hiring a home inspector to act as your eyes. If we had it to do over again, I very likely would hire a home inspector to monitor our build. That way, when things aren't done correctly, I can tell the subs (or GC) that our inspector pointed out the issues and said they needed fixing. If using a GC, I would let him know up front that we would be using a 3rd party private home inspector throughout the process and that the construction would have to meet his approval. I would also put in the contract that nothing would be covered before it could be inspected (e.g. inspect waterproofing before backfilling, inspect plumbing before covering with concrete, inspect flashing before covering with siding or roofing).

My biggest question is - how did you acquire the knowledge for information on the trades?

There's a lot of stuff I didn't know before building this house and a lot more I still don't know. We completely rennovated our last house and we did much of the work so I got some experience then.

Also, we ask lots of questions. When interviewing each sub, we ask detailed questions about how they will do the work. Often, their responses will clue us into things we need to research. Also, each sub's responses give us good questions to ask the competing subs when getting bids. The internet and TBN are great sources of information. I also ask people I who have built their own houses questions.

We read the code book to see if the code is being followed. Sometimes the code book gives us hints on things we need to research on the internet.

Plus, much of the building process is just common sense. My experience with this house has been, if a sub builds something in a way that makes me uncomfortable, 9 out of 10 times I'm right to make them re-do it. Your intuition and common sense will probably be correct. The sub will give you all kinds of reasons why what you're asking is unnecessary. I'm much less willing to give in to the subs now than I was at the beginning our building process based on the things I've seen the subs try to get away with. I do make sure I do a little research before talking to the sub about redoing something.

I remember you bought a code book, but what about the technical info on each trade? Is that included in the code book, or did you read some books on each trade?

The code book tells what should be done but never why to do it. For example, the code book will tell you to overlap the top plates at the corners of the framed walls but will not say why to do so. The code book will tell you to use anchor bolts every 6 feet in the bottom plate of the load bearing walls attached to the foundation but will not explain the purpose of the bolts. To understand the "why's" and the intricate details regarding "how", you will need to find another source. We used TBN, the internet, and people (subs and friends) for info.

I'm hoping to retire in 5 years, and perhaps put off the building phase until I'm able to be there full time.

I believe you'll enjoy the building process much more if you have time to devote to it without the demands of full-time job pulling at you while you are building. However, lot's of people have successfully built houses while working full-time at a regular job. In our case, my wife is working full-time at building our house.

Obed

 

[Obed]

I wouldn't give the mason anymore work,he obviously doesn't want or need any more of your money.
You could always ask one of the guys that did the previous brick work if they want to work on the side.

Shane

Shane,
The brick workers are gone now; we don't know how to get in touch with any of them when it comes time to build the porch steps.

I normally would not try to undercut the sub by hiring his workers on the side. However, the brick mason has forfeited his rights to common courtesies based on his lack of willingness return calls, show up when he says he will, or call us when his schedule gets rearranged. If I knew how to contact one of his workers that we liked, I would.

Obed

 

[Obed]

This is more for those who have been following this thread and thinking about being the GC of their own house. I don't want to be rude or insult anybody here, but felt that as a GC, a reply to this statement is needed

50% more by hiring a GC to build a house seems a bit excessive. To my knowledge, the going rate is 15 percent. The advantage to this is that he hires crews that he knows, gets them to show up when they need to and can usually get a better deal on materials. It's done right the first time and his subs don't try to pull funny things to either cut corners or over charge for what they are doing.

The other assumption that you mention about not making sure it's done right is insulting. There are all sorts of versions of "right." Some are code, others are common sense and then others are attention to detail. Obed has caught some pretty big mistakes by the guys he hired, and it's a good thing that he's beent there to inspect and catch those things. Assuming that good GC would allow them to happen in the first place is saying that he's not competent and knowledgable about what he's doing. This is the differnce between one who earns his money, knows what he's doing and has built up a reputation by doing it right over and over again.

When you consider hiring a GC, think about what you know about building a house. Most people don't have a clue all the little details that go into it, and what makes it a quality home and what just gets covered up with caulking and paint. Hiring a hack who doesn't know what he is doing, and doesn't care about the house isn't the same thing as hiring a professional who takes pride in his work, has years of exprience, a solid reputation, references and a waiting list on when he can get to you. This economy has been great for weeding out the hacks. The good ones are busy and making money. The hacks are out of work and blaming it on the "economy." There is more work out there than I can handle, and the guys that I respect and consider to be good at what they do are also as busy as ever, if not more so because the hacks are dropping like flies because nobody wants to hire them. Clients can be picky right now, and those without work have burned too many bridges.

Assuming that a good GC would not have done as good a job at building this house isn't true. While it's become a very nice house, it's also had it's set backs and mistakes. Obed has been very good at going back and correcting a lot of them, but there is no way to be 100% that he got all of them. A guy who has built hundreds of houses is going to see things that the rest of us don't even know to look at. He's going to go look at the plan and know right off where the problem areas are, and be able to explain to a client why they are problems, and might need to be done differently. If a sub does something stupid, wrong or doesn't show, he'll have resources to move on and get it done. This comes from years of experience. Something you can't get on your first, second or even tenth house.

What I admire about Obed is his honestly in looking back at his mistakes and what has gone wrong. This is why his home will come out fine. I also think it's what makes this such an good thread and something that everybody who is ever thinking about building their own house should read.

Sincerly,
Eddie

Eddie,
Your comments for the most part are right on and I agree with you. Being your own GC has many trade-offs, some benefits, some negatives.

Yes, our house would be finished now if we used a competent GC. There is no way we could complete the construction as fast as a GC could. However, when the building boon was going on in this area not too long ago, it was commonly taking 12 to 18 months to build a house; that's the schedule we are on now. Yes a good GC could finish our house in 4 to 5 months and a bad one could finish it even quicker.

Regarding pricing, I said the GCs bid the job at 50% more than we could sell the house, not 50% over cost. One GC supposedly bid the job at cost plus 12%; the other GC bid the job at cost plus 15%. What I can't figure out is how they came up with the "cost" part of their bids. The bids we got on our own were significantly lower than the "costs" that the GCs had on their bids so I wondered if they were padding the "cost" portions of the bids to pad their wallets. For example, the foundation and poured concrete wall bids of the GCs were about 40% higher than what we paid and I believe the foundation guy we got did an outstanding job. Cost plus bids are not always what they appear. I might have been willing to do cost plus 10% or 15% if I could believe that's what I would really be getting.

Yes, there are all kinds of versions of "right". However, when you, the bill payer, specifically state how you want something done, then there is only one version of "right" - the way the person who is paying for it says to do it. Many times we spec'd how certain things were to be done, often in response to suggestions made in this thread, and time and time again they still got missed.

For example, we told the framer to install a cricket here on both sides of the dormer. The cricket and kickout flashing were our solution to shedding water. Well, a cricket got installed on one side of the dormer but not on the other. The vinyl sub installed the vinyl on both sides without telling us the cricket was missing on one side even though the vinyl sub knew we were supposed to have crickets on both sides. My wife caught the error when she was on the roof working with the brick sub to grind a groove in the brick for the over-flashing. A GC would not have caught this mistake - unless he were up on the roof specifically checking this fine detail - very unlikely.

As another example, the roofer ran out of ice and water shield and tried to install the shingles in a valley without the ice and water shield. I just happened to be onsite at the time and didn't see the ice and water shield when the roofer was installing the valley so I climbed up on the roof to check it out. In my opinion, it is doubtful that a GC would have caught this. GC's for new house construction just are not on site that often. If we had been using a GC, we would not have been keeping as close of an eye on the construction and might have missed some of this stuff. While a GC might be good and his subs might be good, they will always have workers who will cut corners if not consistently watched.

These are just two examples where my opinion of "right" was not done and we had to have them corrected. Both situations were specifically stated as part of the job but didn't get done the first time. I could fill a book with other examples, many of which a GC who is only on-site less than 20% of the time (8 hours in a 40 hour work week) would not have caught.

Now, I'm not flaming GCs. A good one can save the owner a lot of time and stress; having a mediocre or bad GC is worse than not having one. Although we haven't yet finished the house and compared our final cost to the GCs' bids, I'm fairly certain that we will come in at a lower cost than if we had hired a GC, even considering the rework that a good GC would have prevented. In our case, the GCs were more expensive in dollars than being our own GC. However, we have many, many hours of our own time invested in managing this project so nothing is free.

Obed

 

[jcims]

I haven't checked for bowing but I think it's an illusion. The posts are pressure treated. We won't be painting them. I don't mind the back porch looking a little "rustic".

FWIW that bowing is generally called 'barrel distortion' and is a byproduct of taking a short focal length (wide angle) shot close up. Try taking the exact same shot by zooming in the camera to it's max optical extent and backing up until the picture looks the same. (Mind your step, lol). The posts will look more straight, but everything will be more 'flat'.

Same thing happens with portrait shots. If you take a shot too close, people will have a big nose and a football shaped head.

 

[mikefromnh]

Shane,
The brick workers are gone now; we don't know how to get in touch with any of them when it comes time to build the porch steps.

I normally would not try to undercut the sub by hiring his workers on the side. However, the brick mason has forfeited his rights to common courtesies based on his lack of willingness return calls, show up when he says he will, or call us when his schedule gets rearranged. If I knew how to contact one of his workers that we liked, I would.

Obed

Obed -- I'm sure I could say this more delicately if I took the time, however,
your level of OCD makes it seem like you might be a difficult person to work for. Not that what you want is wrong. There is just many different ways to accomplish the same end result.

There is a difference between being on site and micro managing. While expecting the subs to return calls is reasonable. Undercutting them because of bad customer service is a bit excessive.

Established GC's develop a sixth sense for people they will have a hard time working and often raise the price for the headache factor. They don't want to get bogged down on a job and have there subs mad. They will also know the best subs who will not look to cut corners.

Have you kept an honest accounting of how much you actually have spent? Including your missed work, travel expenses to pick up materials, your wives times, time value of money (tied up in unoccupied home) Legal costs or fees for living on site w/o approval etc?

House is looking good though

 

[eepete]

I've always claimed I'm borderline OCD, and most of the good engineers I've worked with are the same way. When you by a product or cross a bridge, do you want the people working on it to have a "Close enough for government work" attitude or do you want someone who has trouble sleeping at night worrying about stuff and triple checks even the minor details?

Yes, that makes it hard for engineers to get along with the rest of the world. And often each other :laughing:.

I was the GC on my house, it was a cost plus, was on site the whole time. Tracked my time and the value of what I did based on bids we got or prices we've heard of. I broke even at a minimum, and some of the stuff I did was so different that when I could get pricing for it it was sky high.

I think part of the discussion about the value of a GC is difficult because I see two different roles wrapped up into the concept of a GC:
The first role is someone with broad knowledge of the construction trade, a good list of competent subcontractors, and good logistical skills for the process.
The second role is that of a site manager- someone to be at the site a great deal of the time (I'd say at least 3 hours a day) to keep up on things and catch errors.
Note that it's very hard to get all this in a single person. I also think that people in general would not pay for a site manager as they don't see the value.

While I was the GC for my house, the design build group had the experience building houses and acted in the GC capacity for most of the job. I took over all grading, HVAC, electrical, sprinkler, and low voltage wiring.
My main role was as the site manager. Watching and catching things. Sometimes it was because I had a bigger view of the whole process than a particular sub. Sometimes it was catching errors or laziness of a sub. I'm sure that my borderline OCD engineering side made it hard for some, but I'm also sure it saved a lot of trouble. Like Obed, I could write a long list of stuff caught and stuff missed. On balance, things came out much better than if I was not here. Our old house had a site manager who was also a carpenter, so he could do a lot of stuff on the house instead of just standing around watching. Site managers also fill in the inevitable gaps between the trades and with ownership of problems. Most of the problems with that house were in the finishing stages when he was not around and the subs cut corners.
Another fun comments that I think speaks volumes about the majority of the construction and trades people out there. I have never had someone that did work for me ask me how it was all going a year later. So just how do they know that what they do is right, and how do they improve? Every time someone tells me they've been "doing this for years", I think about this.

Agree with Eddies comments. The biggest problem I see here is that everyday people have no way to qualify GCs and tradesmen. I wish Eddie lived close by- I'd work with him in a heartbeat. I've never worked with a GC who had that 6th sense, and if I found one I'd do all sorts of stuff around here with the GC.

Random viewpoints that I hope are relevant to the discussion .

Pete

 

[EddieWalker]

Eddie,
Your comments for the most part are right on and I agree with you. Being your own GC has many trade-offs, some benefits, some negatives.

Yes, our house would be finished now if we used a competent GC. There is no way we could complete the construction as fast as a GC could. However, when the building boon was going on in this area not too long ago, it was commonly taking 12 to 18 months to build a house; that's the schedule we are on now. Yes a good GC could finish our house in 4 to 5 months and a bad one could finish it even quicker.

Regarding pricing, I said the GCs bid the job at 50% more than we could sell the house, not 50% over cost. One GC supposedly bid the job at cost plus 12%; the other GC bid the job at cost plus 15%. What I can't figure out is how they came up with the "cost" part of their bids. The bids we got on our own were significantly lower than the "costs" that the GCs had on their bids so I wondered if they were padding the "cost" portions of the bids to pad their wallets. For example, the foundation and poured concrete wall bids of the GCs were about 40% higher than what we paid and I believe the foundation guy we got did an outstanding job. Cost plus bids are not always what they appear. I might have been willing to do cost plus 10% or 15% if I could believe that's what I would really be getting.

Yes, there are all kinds of versions of "right". However, when you, the bill payer, specifically state how you want something done, then there is only one version of "right" - the way the person who is paying for it says to do it. Many times we spec'd how certain things were to be done, often in response to suggestions made in this thread, and time and time again they still got missed.

For example, we told the framer to install a cricket here on both sides of the dormer. The cricket and kickout flashing were our solution to shedding water. Well, a cricket got installed on one side of the dormer but not on the other. The vinyl sub installed the vinyl on both sides without telling us the cricket was missing on one side even though the vinyl sub knew we were supposed to have crickets on both sides. My wife caught the error when she was on the roof working with the brick sub to grind a groove in the brick for the over-flashing. A GC would not have caught this mistake - unless he were up on the roof specifically checking this fine detail - very unlikely.

As another example, the roofer ran out of ice and water shield and tried to install the shingles in a valley without the ice and water shield. I just happened to be onsite at the time and didn't see the ice and water shield when the roofer was installing the valley so I climbed up on the roof to check it out. In my opinion, it is doubtful that a GC would have caught this. GC's for new house construction just are not on site that often. If we had been using a GC, we would not have been keeping as close of an eye on the construction and might have missed some of this stuff. While a GC might be good and his subs might be good, they will always have workers who will cut corners if not consistently watched.

These are just two examples where my opinion of "right" was not done and we had to have them corrected. Both situations were specifically stated as part of the job but didn't get done the first time. I could fill a book with other examples, many of which a GC who is only on-site less than 20% of the time (8 hours in a 40 hour work week) would not have caught.

Now, I'm not flaming GCs. A good one can save the owner a lot of time and stress; having a mediocre or bad GC is worse than not having one. Although we haven't yet finished the house and compared our final cost to the GCs' bids, I'm fairly certain that we will come in at a lower cost than if we had hired a GC, even considering the rework that a good GC would have prevented. In our case, the GCs were more expensive in dollars than being our own GC. However, we have many, many hours of our own time invested in managing this project so nothing is free.

Obed

Obed,

I don't think it's possible to build a custom house like you are doing in 4 months, or even 6 months. The bulk of it should have been dried in within 2 months, but schedules, deliveries time to do it right would easily add another six months to the job. The nice the house, the more time it takes to get it right. Tract houses can be whiped out in 3 to 4 months easily. I built my 1,000 sq foot house by myself in 5 months and took four days off in that time.

I wouldn't sweat the time it's taking you, it is what it is and you will never regret spending more time to get it right. NEVER.

I can't speak for prices in your area or what you are experiencing. Those things are way to unique for every part of the country. I don't build many houses and don't want to. I'm a remodeler mostly and I like to go in to messed up jobs and make them right. That's what I enjoy, and it's where I make a decent living.

Something that you said stikes me as being very common and a huge concern in the trades. It seems that way too often a client wants something done their way and the contractor does it another way. I get paid to do what the client wants, but to do it legally, to code and to be able to gurantee it. I almost always do it the clients way, but with my own modifications to make sure it's going to last and be "right." If you want it, I'm going to do it. I will also charge you for it if it's extra, but most of the time, it's insignificant in my time or overall aspect of the job. Why every contractor doesn't do this is a mystery to me. Might be an ego thing, or just a stuborness to do what they want and the client doesn't count. I dont' get it, but since it's so common, I've made a point to let my clients know that they are paying the bills and it's their home, so what they want, is what I want. Heck, I might never see the job again, so I don't care what it looks like except to take some pictures of it and get a reference or referal from them. Doing it their way might be ugly in my opinion, or impractical or wasteful, but if it's their money and thats what they want, then I'm all for it.

For me, that referal is more important then anything else. That means it has to last and not be something to come up later on after I'm gone. It means being polite and understanding when my clients tell me they want it done differently or specific to their needs. Because of this, I think that's why I stay busy when others are out of work.

Your doing a fantastic job and it's going to be an amazing home,
Eddie

 

[brin]

" ( I don't think it's possible to build a custom house like you are doing in 4 months, or even 6 months. The bulk of it should have been dried in within 2 months, but schedules, deliveries time to do it right would easily add another six months to the job.) "

Eddie I have to respectfully disagree...Here is my part of Georgia, large a beautiful custom homes are routinely built from grading to finish in 4 to 6 months. In the past before this recent economy it was unheard of for a custom home to take much longer than 6 months to construct unless there were extinuating circumstances. Our house is 4,000 sq. ft. with a basement and it is a custom home..we had an architect draw up the plans and it took about 5 months to complete. Time is money and planning and knowing your subs and having a schedule and sticking to it is key as I am sure you know. When you have a home owner / GC trying to do part of the work himself..it delays the subs, derails the schedule and eats up time..Just my 2 cents.

 

[ruralruss]

Yes, that makes it hard for engineers to get along with the rest of the world. And often each other .

Pete, I assume the ee means Electrical Engineer. When my Engineer brother and me the Engineer get together we drive our wives crazy!

Russ

 

[eepete]

My wife is also an electrical engineer. We still drive each other crazy, but it's a short trip to a familiar location :laughing:.

Pete

 

[Obed]

The cabinet maker came out yesterday measuring for the cabinets. The cleanout in the master bath vanity is located right where two cabinets meet. That won't work. We're going to have to tear out the drywall here and have the plumber move the cleanout.

The vanity will consist of 3 cabinets, one cabinet for each sink and a center cabinet with drawers.

I'm not really sure how we could have prevented this issue.