Home Building advice do I need a GC ?

[saltman]

I am in the process of building a new home on my 175 acres. I have a building permit, have the septic in place and have several out buildings and a well on the property.

I have 3 bids and have selected a general contractor but am getting cold feet.

How much money will I save by being my own GC and bidding out the project to licensed contractors of different trades?

The GC I was going to use is already slow to respond to my questions and has yet to produce a contract.

I had planned on doing the interior myself and getting my own roofing contractor anyway.

I appreciate any advice and feedback.

I am in no hurry and have 3 years before I would need to renew my permits. The contractor was going to take 9 months to complete the job anyway which to me seemed a little slow.

 

[CurlyDave]

9 months is about average for building a new house. Maybe a little optimistic.

I have been driven nuts by non-responsive and slow-responding contractors. If he is doing this at the start of a project, it will only get worse.

I have built my own house and am in the middle of doing a second time due to a fire, caused by a real estate agent's candle.

It can be done, but it will take longer and you will need to vet each subcontractor. A good GC has a "stable" of subs he uses because he can trust their work. You can do the same thing, but have to check references exhaustively on subs.

If you finish in less than a year, my hat is off to you.

 

[EddieWalker]

Sure you can do it yourself. There's nothing all that complicated about building a house. Just make sure it's to code and take it one step at a time.

Around here, a GC makes 15% of the total job. He does all the organizing, and problem solving. The bigger he is, the more unlikely you are to ever see him. Most of the busier GC's have formen that oversea a certain number of jobs. If they are good, you'll see him all the time, but if he's bad, he'll play all sorts of games at avoiding your calls unless he's looking for payment.

The big advantage to hiring a good GC is that he knows who can do what and who to avoid. For whatever reason, the duds out there have a way of always being available when you need them. Your GC will know that it's better to wait a week or two for the good guys instead of using the guys who are available, but will mess it up or disapear after starting.

Speaking of subs, be very careful about payment. Some will want cash up front to buy materials, others will come up with a sob stoy to get an advance. They will promice you anything. Don't believe it. Put all your payment shedules in writing. How much and when they get paid. I do this in my contracts so the client is fully aware that it's time to pay me. Usually they come out to me to see if it's time for them to pay me.

One thing that I'm told over and over again is that they wanted to fire the GC, but didn't because the hoped it would get better. When you start hearing that inner voice that you should fire somebody, listen. By the time I get the job, it's so far gone that allot of things have to be torn out and redone. It's a huge waste of money for them in material and labor. They knew it wasn't what they wanted, but like most people, the assumed that the contractor knew what he was doing and it would turn out good. It's not that he doesn't know what he's doing, it's usualy that he's not listening to what the clients wants done. I've made allot of money by just doing what the client wants done.

Hope this helps,
Eddie

 

[dave1949]

I agree with Eddie and CurlyDave,

If you are capable of overseeing the sub-contractor's work and have a relaxed timing schedule from start to move in date, you should be able to save some money and probably headaches. There will be headaches, but you have a lot more control over their resolution than by going through a GC.

In a tight contractor market, the only downside is you may get pushed back in subs schedules if they are getting work from a GC. After all, a GC will be calling them for jobs on a regular basis, you won't be.

Dave.

 

[brin]

I agree with what has been said, I have been my own GC on 2 houses...What really helped me on the first house I built - I took my time and interviewed the framers very carefully and checked their references and especially the last few houses they built and I hired a good framer who really helped me with the process. A good framer has been around for awhile and knows other subs and has participated in the construction of many houses and knows the process...so if you find a good one you can lean on him.. As far as time to build ..We built our current house 4 yrs. ago , 3,000 sq ft. with a basement and 3 car garage, brick - we started in April and moved in on Nov 1st...You can do it and it is very rewarding and then you really know your house ...inside and out.

 

[MarkV]

I'll add that you need the time to be there daily when subs are working on the house. It is the only way to see that the work is being done to specification. You need a good understanding of the order that different trades are brought in during the build. Also what they require done by the pervious trade to do their job. You will have to be knowledgeable about suppliers in the area and set up accounts to get supplies in a timely way.

Another way to go at it is to find a good carpenter to work for you as the job foreman. They can be your eyes, often know local subs, and there are always those little things that fall in the gaps between subs that have to be done.

MarkV

 

[JimLS]

I agree with everything said so far. I was the GC on my current house and saved quite a bit but couldn't tell you exactly how much. I ended up doing lots of the stuff between subs. Did all the wiring myself. Was able to make a deal with a good plumber as it was a few months before Christmas and he wanted some extra spending money. But you have to be careful as has been stated. Anyone can say No problem, done that before. Had a supposed finish carpenter that didn't know how to trim the sides of cabinets when the space was a little tight. Claimed the situation had never come up in 18 years. So I talked to a carpenter friend about how to do it and did it myself. Really frustrating to hire people that know less about their trade than I do. (I work in electronics). I second holding payment, or at least partial payment, until you make sure the job was done and done right. Would have never gotten several things fixed if I hadn't owed them substantial money. And I don't consider myself hard to get along with.

We got several good deals on things by making minor changes. Ran across a bunch of top quality windows (Marvin and Anderson) in local dealers "bone" rooms. They had had a whole house order returned that was just the style we were wanting (casement) because they weren't exactly what the original buyer wanted. Since they are all made to order they were willing to sell them at a substantial discount. The county wasn't very particular about exact details like window sizes. Framing hadn't been done yet so I just gave the framing sub the changes and was fine. Front is Anderson, back is Marvin.

Was also able to do a few things like heated basement floor by doing the tubing layouts myself. Might not have done it if I had to pay someone else to do it.

Even had one case of a recommended carpenter ignoring the fact that some porch beams were structural (and even telling me they weren't when I showed him notes on the plans that they were) and spliced them between posts when I had material that was more than long enough to go from post to post. They saved a few cuts their way.

Bottom line is that you can save some substantial money, make sure it is done right, and it's much easier to make minor changes as you go. But you will spend a lot of time and effort to stay on top of it or things will get missed. Do you have more time or more money? Took us a little over a year to finish and I am glad we did it the way we did.

 

[dave1949]

Do you have more time or more money?

Hopefully, you have both

On a serious note, time is very important. If you hire a sub, and it turns out to not have been a good choice, you might end up firing them. If this happens, you need the time to find the right replacement. While you are doing this, probably not much construction is happening.

When you do locate a replacement, they have other commitments to finish before they come to your project. This means more time lost.

Add in some bad weather, waiting on materials, inspections, subs running late; do not underestimate how the process can stretch out. Hope for the best but have a plan B.
Dave.

Dave.

 

[Nissan197]

Do lots of research, research, research. I was my GC on my new house, which is a ranch style at 2,750 sq ft with a full basement. I don't know if I did it at the right time and lucked out but overall it went real smooth and I had no experience prior. I read tons of books and the county inspector really helped me out a lot. All of my subs, except for the tile guy (wife picked him, I did not feel comfortable with him but wife really wanted to use)were at the job site when they said they would be and were very friendly and helpful. I started the day after Memorial Day, 2007 and was moved in the second week of December, 2007. In order to get a loan I had to get a bid from a licensed GC and that was almost 350K. I was the GC and completed the house for under 250K. It was well worth it!!

Forgot - when you get bids make sure you get a minimum of three and make sure they have good references. Good subs will be more than willing to provide that information. Obviously get the bids in writing and make sure EVERYTHING is written down.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

I am in the process of building a new home on my 175 acres. I have a building permit, have the septic in place and have several out buildings and a well on the property.

I have 3 bids and have selected a general contractor but am getting cold feet.

How much money will I save by being my own GC and bidding out the project to licensed contractors of different trades?

The GC I was going to use is already slow to respond to my questions and has yet to produce a contract.

I had planned on doing the interior myself and getting my own roofing contractor anyway.

I appreciate any advice and feedback.

I am in no hurry and have 3 years before I would need to renew my permits. The contractor was going to take 9 months to complete the job anyway which to me seemed a little slow.

With 175 acres I am going to assume that you are out in the county and not in any city limits. What part of the county, just wondering, my brother and I have 120 acres in Ranchita. Being in the county, you will need to have your first inspection within 1 year of the date that the permit was issued and an inspection every 6 months from the date of your first inspection. The permitted project must be completed in the 3 year period.