Author: Robert Kempe
Source: articleage.com
This article, garages, is intended for the DIY (Do It Yourself) home
builder;, garages, however, it is very useful information for the new home
buyer, garages, to understand what processes you can monitor even if you
are not acting as the general contractor and hiring a general
contractor. For the, garages, inexperienced DIY home builder, acting as a
general contractor is one of the most stressful things anyone
can undertake. After, garages, that statement, you ask yourself "Why would
anyone really want to be the general contractor for their new
home?" Well the number one reason is to save money, and in our
society it's all about the money isn't it? It doesn't
necessarily mean that you are building the home (but with this
approach sweat equity has a whole new meaning), you are only
managing the sub-contractors. Successful general contactors are
either born, garages, , garages, good, or have been trained to be good. You, as your
own general contractor, do, garages, not have the time to be as good as a
contractor who makes their living building homes. For this
reason, I will give you some, garages, guidelines to help you out, garages, and feel
a bit more comfortable managing your new dream home as your own
general, garages, contractor:
Define, garages, Your Project; I have published an article on very
effective ways to decide on a dream home floor plan. I recommend
that you read, garages, that along with this article. The article is
called Home Floor Plan Designing for Your Future, garages,, garages, Home by Robert
Kempe. Once you have decided on the floor plan and all the
associated up front planning projects, such as finding the right
plot of land, gathering information on building codes and
permits, having signed construction drawings, etc. you have to
apply for the building permits. With the homework of gathering
all this information prior the application process and having
your construction drawings drawn to comply with city, county and
state codes this process is just a paper work issue. If you have
not properly done this entire process prior to the application,
this will slow your time frame down considerably. Most DYI
builders, garages, wait for the building permit application to find out
what is needed. Make it easier on yourself and do it first.
Execution, garages, of the Project; Now that you have a clearly defined
project, garages, you can get accurate quotes from the contractors. The
construction, garages, disciplines you will need are as follows:
Electricians, Plumbers, HVAC (Heating, garages, Ventilation Air
Conditioning),, garages, Framers, Concrete, Drywall,, garages, Finishers, Painters,
Roofers, Siding, Landscaping, Windows and Doors, Garage door.
Etc. Keep in mind that most contractors will have multiple
disciplines and will try to combine them as much as possible
either with their own work force or they may hire out
subcontractors as well. This is how you execute the project. Do
your homework on the contractors that you will want to work with
on your home. Ask people who you know that have recently built
homes who they have used as contractors. Actually any resource
on contractor, garages, evaluation is helpful. Have them evaluate the
experience. With this process you can then get three to five
contractor references from trusted resources without involving
any salesmen. Have a set of construction plans ready for each of
the, garages, contractors that you are going to have bid from the list you
have, garages, generated. Make sure that all the disciplines will be bid
upon.
Deciding who to hire as your subcontractors; You do not always
have to take the lowest bid!, garages, You want the contractor that is the
most qualified and most prepared to build your home. It is
highly suggested that each of the contractors break down the
categories and itemize how they arrived at their price. This is
best done by communicating this up front before receiving their
price, garages, . Once you have all this information, evaluate the prices
according to their breakdown. Rate, garages, the contractor on their
responses on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest rank. If
the bids are close then it's a matter of what contractor you
favor the most. If there is a large gap in the prices, you need
to determine why. This is where your breakdown of the work
performed, garages, and the associated prices can help you determine this, garages, .
This is also where you find out which, garages, contractors are the most
serious and most qualified and which contractors are easier to
work with. This might lead you to conclude that the best
contractor isn't always the lowest price. You get what you pay
for!
Managing the Subcontractors;, garages, You thought deciding who to hire as
your subcontractor was difficult, try managing them! This is
where most of the stress and "sweat equity" occurs. I have been
a construction project manager for 15+ years and honestly, every
time I am assigned a new project, garages, the fear of the unknown working
relationships with each of the subs is a major concern. I feel
your pain! To help you in your management, have a schedule ready
during the bidding war between, garages, contractors. Have this presented
at the time you present the construction drawings. In fact, have
three schedules! What this will generate is three different
prices from each contractor. Use this as part of your evaluation
as mentioned in the previous paragraph, garages,, garages, . Your long schedule,
medium schedule and short schedule will generate different
responses. You want this information, garages, up front so that when it
comes time to sign a contact with the subs, you can put in
clauses that if they do not hold the schedule there are
financial burdens placed on them. This will protect you from
mismanagement, garages, on their part. Typical content found in a
residential building contract,, garages, garages, can be found at the following link
http://www.b4ubuild.com/resources/contract/index, garages, .shtml
After all the schedules and contracts are agreed upon, you
become more than the customer, now you are the boss. Everyday
you need to communicate with the subs and get an updated
detailed report on what, where, when, how and why they are on or
off schedule. Manage the project by the schedule. Keep in mind
that the schedule will change if you decide to change your scope
of work by issuing change, garages, orders (example: changing the cupboard
or cabinet size, the flooring, or appliance). Keep in mind that
during this time, this is a small business and your profit is
represented, garages, by how close you come to your, garages, original agreed upon
costs associated with the schedule after the contract signing.
We could talk about management all day long. In fact, garages, there are
training courses,, garages, garages, on this subject that cost thousands, garages, of dollars.
Hopefully this bit of information will get you on the right
track and help make a smooth transition from concept to actually
building your dream home. Remember this rule of, garages, thumb, the more
you prepare, garages, the better you will be when handling the bumps in
the road. Gathering information prior to, garages, needing it will
actually save you more money, time and stress than you can
probably calculate.
If you find this information useful you should visit the site http://www.homedesign
floorplans.com/where you will find lots of interesting
articles related to this topic provided by Robert Kempe.
