Acting As Your Own General Contractor When Building Your Dream Home
By Robert Kempe
This article is intended for the DIY (Do It Yourself) home builder; however,
it is very useful information for the new home buyer to understand what processes
you can monitor even if you are not acting as your own general contractor and
hiring a general contractor. For the inexperienced DIY home builder, acting
as a general contractor is one of the most stressful things anyone can undertake.
You, acting as your own general contractor, do 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 guidelines to help you out and feel a bit more comfortable managing
your new dream home acting as your own general contractor:
Define Your Project; 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 wait for the building permit application
to find out what is needed. Make it easier on yourself and do it first.
Execution of the Project; Now that you have a clearly defined project you
can get accurate quotes from the contractors. The construction disciplines you
will need are as follows: Electricians, Plumbers, HVAC (Heating Ventilation
Air Conditioning), Framers, Concrete, Drywall, 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. 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. 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 contractors that you are going to have bid from the list you have generated.
Deciding who to hire as your subcontractors; You do not always have to take
the lowest bid! 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. Once you have all this information, evaluate the prices according to
their breakdown. Rate 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 and the
associated prices can help you determine this. This is also where you find out
which 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!
Acting As Your Own General Contractor
Managing the Subcontractors; You thought deciding who to hire as your subcontractor
was difficult, try managing them! This is where most of the stress
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