Acting As Your Own General Contractor When Building Your Dream Home

Home Improvement Decorating
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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 the 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.
After that statement, you ask yourself Â“Why would anyone really want to be the
general contractor for their new home?Â” Well the number one reason is to save
money, and in our society itÂ’s all about the money isnÂ’t it? It doesnÂ’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 good, or
have been trained to be good. You, 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 as your own general
contractor:

Define Your Project; I have published an article on very
effective ways to decide on a dream home floor plan. I recommend that you read
that along with this article. The article is called Home Floor Plan Designing
for Your Future 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

Big Or Small Home Improvement Projects - Planning Comes First!
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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

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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

Do It Yourself Home Improvement
There eventually comes a time when most people are faced with the complex decisions of how to go about remodelling their home in the hope of giving it .....

know that have recently built homes who they have used as contractors. Actually
any resource on contractor 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 contractors that you are going to have
bid from the list you have 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! 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

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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 itÂ’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 isnÂ’t always the lowest price. You get what you pay
for!

Managing the Subcontractors You thought deciding who to hire as your
subcontractor was difficult, try managing them! This is where most of the stress
and Â“sweat equityÂ” occurs. I have been a construction project manager for 15+
years and honestly, every time I am assigned a new project 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 contractors. Have this presented at the time you present the

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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. Your long schedule, medium schedule and
short schedule will generate different responses. You want this information 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 on their part.

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 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 by how close you come to your original agreed upon
costs associated with the schedule after the contract signing. We could talk
about management all day long. In fact there are training courses on this
subject that cost thousands 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 thumb, the more you
prepare the better you will be when handling the bumps in the road. Gathering
information prior to 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 title=http://www.homedesignfloorplans.com/
href='http://www.homedesignfloorplans.com/'
target=_top>www.homedesignfloorplans.com/ where you will find lots of
interesting articles related to this topic provided by Robert Kempe.

I have 15+ years in industrial construction and industrial engineered
manufacturing as a project manager and a part time home inspector. Through my
experience in construction and management and my unique prospective in the home
industry, I have been able to simplify and make sense of home building and
designing in what looks to be a complete chaotic project and decision making
process. My articles will guide you through the most difficult decisions and
make it a positive uplifting experience.

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