On Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:03:49 -0500, "Reginald P. Smithers III, Esq."
wrote:

We are thinking about using this downturn in the housing market to build
a new home, and acting as our own General Contractor. Has anyone in the
group done this and do they have any words of advice?

Haven't done it myself, but have you looked for a book called "Acting
As Your Own General Contractor For Dummies"?
Seems there's a book for everything.
I'd be most careful about the architect. You ever watch "Engineering
Disasters" on the History Channel? Make sure your architect wasn't
featured on that show.
After that, I'd make sure the weather was right. No building in the
rain or during a hurricane or tornado. It's ok to do plumbing once
the roof is up even if it's raining.
Stuff like that.
And some money stuff, like don't give Irish Travelers any money.
And make sure about bonding.
Those kinds of thing. It's doable.

--Vic

"Reginald P. Smithers III, Esq." wrote in message
...
We are thinking about using this downturn in the housing market to build a
new home, and acting as our own General Contractor. Has anyone in the
group done this and do they have any words of advice?

Reggie,

Be careful. I'm a General Contractor in CA (30 years in the trades, 18 with
an active GC license), and it's not as easy as letting your fingers do the
walking to find the sub-trades you need. Most GCs have relationships with
the various trades, and those relationships can make a job move along much
more smoothly. A group of subcontractors that have worked together before is
much like the workings of a swiss watch. Haphazardly gathering subtrades
based on price and/or references can wind up working like a busted up cuckoo
clock.

Another problem, is settling disputes that always arise. These are also best
handled by an expert. There's always one tradesman that says, "it's not my
job." So whose job is it to install the roof to wall flashing? The roofer,
the siding contractor, the mechanical contractor, maybe the framer? A good
GC will sort it out quickly, so you don't have to. What about the condensate
line from the air-handler? A union plumber will not install that line, a
non-union shop will. Sure, a small item, but the small items add up.

That brings us to cost. Can you save a few bucks... yup, you probably can.
Will a (sub)contractor work for free? Nope... they might as well stay home
and watch Oprah. A good GC will (hopefully) already be getting the best
price possible from his/her subs. There is not usually much room to
negotiate the price much further. Many people think that a price from a
person providing labor is different than that of a supplier. It's really
not. If you estimate that the job is going to take xx hours, and you pay
your guys xx dollars, there's not a lot of room to work. The GC will take
your plans, get estimates/proposals from all the sub-trades, and provide you
with an accurate estimate for the work. In general, there are no surprises,
unless you switch from Millgard windows to Pella g. Depending on your
arrangement with the GC, he will either mark up the job (generally 15%), for
your final cost, or simply add on a flat "GC Fee" to the total for your
cost. Either way, he is charging a service for his "expertise." It's up to
you to decide if it's worth it. Do you constantly want to be calling 10
people to get your job done, or only one. Someone here said you can save
40%... that's ridiculous.

One last thing... your budget is your biggest enemy, or your greatest
friend. A neighbor of mine chose to remodel his home, acting as his own GC.
I wasn't an option since I only do small subdivisions, and custom homes (no
remodels). He came up with his own budget, and proceeded to gather subs. I
begged him to get a GC involved, but he didn't want to spend the extra
money. Bottom line, he was 50% over budget, and it took 14 months instead of
8 because of all the unforseen "stuff" he had missed. It still would have
cost him that extra 50%, but he would have known up front if he had a GC
involved, and could have planned accordingly.

Just my friendly advice.

--Mike

On Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:03:49 -0500, "Reginald P. Smithers III, Esq."
wrote:

We are thinking about using this downturn in the housing market to build
a new home, and acting as our own General Contractor. Has anyone in the
group done this and do they have any words of advice?

Yep.

Don't do it.

Tom Francis wrote:
On Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:03:49 -0500, "Reginald P. Smithers III, Esq."
wrote:

We are thinking about using this downturn in the housing market to build
a new home, and acting as our own General Contractor. Has anyone in the
group done this and do they have any words of advice?

Yep.

Don't do it.

I don't know, Harry was very successful GC'ing his N. VA home.

On Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:44:06 -0500, "Reginald P. Smithers III, Esq."
wrote:

Tom Francis wrote:
On Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:03:49 -0500, "Reginald P. Smithers III, Esq."
wrote:

We are thinking about using this downturn in the housing market to build
a new home, and acting as our own General Contractor. Has anyone in the
group done this and do they have any words of advice?

Yep.

Don't do it.

I don't know, Harry was very successful GC'ing his N. VA home.

That's Harry. Harry is successful at everything he attempts.

He's the Leonardo DaVinci of modern times. To date, Harry has proven
extensive knowledge of a whole host of subjects including, of all
things, opera. I mean roof loads, foundations, plumbing, electrical -
he's got the knowledge base - apparently.

So it follows that Harry would be the General Contractor for his own
home - he has nothing but time on his hands (as is obvious by the
number of posts just yesterday) which is a key element in being a GC
for your own home.

It's hard for the rest of us mere mortals to understand that.

Tom Francis wrote:
On Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:44:06 -0500, "Reginald P. Smithers III, Esq."
wrote:

Tom Francis wrote:
On Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:03:49 -0500, "Reginald P. Smithers III, Esq."
wrote:

We are thinking about using this downturn in the housing market to build
a new home, and acting as our own General Contractor. Has anyone in the
group done this and do they have any words of advice?
Yep.

Don't do it.
I don't know, Harry was very successful GC'ing his N. VA home.

That's Harry. Harry is successful at everything he attempts.

He's the Leonardo DaVinci of modern times. To date, Harry has proven
extensive knowledge of a whole host of subjects including, of all
things, opera. I mean roof loads, foundations, plumbing, electrical -
he's got the knowledge base - apparently.

So it follows that Harry would be the General Contractor for his own
home - he has nothing but time on his hands (as is obvious by the
number of posts just yesterday) which is a key element in being a GC
for your own home.

It's hard for the rest of us mere mortals to understand that.




Ok, you talked me out of it.

On Dec 30, 7:55*am, Tom Francis
wrote:
On Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:44:06 -0500, "Reginald P. Smithers III, Esq."

wrote:
Tom Francis wrote:
On Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:03:49 -0500, "Reginald P. Smithers III, Esq."
wrote:

We are thinking about using this downturn in the housing market to build
a new home, and acting as our own General Contractor. *Has anyone in the
group done this and do they have any words of advice?

Yep.

Don't do it.

I don't know, Harry was very successful GC'ing his N. VA home.

That's Harry. *Harry is successful at everything he attempts.

He's the Leonardo DaVinci of modern times. *To date, Harry has proven
extensive knowledge of a whole host of subjects including, of all
things, opera. *I mean roof loads, foundations, plumbing, electrical -
he's got the knowledge base - apparently.

So it follows that Harry would be the General Contractor for his own
home - he has nothing but time on his hands (as is obvious by the
number of posts just yesterday) which is a key element in being a GC
for your own home.

It's hard for the rest of us mere mortals to understand that.

I wish he'd talk to me, I'd like to know his design parameters like
earthquake loads, wind loads, snow and drifting snow loads, etc. I
wonder which codes he used in his area, including building code,
plumbing code, electrical code, gas code, ADA compliance, fire safety
code etc. What was the tested soil bearing capacity at his site? When
he did his analysis, did he use LRFD or Ultimate Stress Design, (which
is limited stress design and has been changed to be PERMISSABLE stress
design, I hope he caught that!)

On Tue, 30 Dec 2008 06:18:43 -0800 (PST), wrote:

I
wonder which codes he used in his area, including building code,

It's got to have four walls and a roof.

plumbing code,

It's gotta flush - somewhere.

electrical code,

AC or DC?

Or both?

gas code,

No beans.

ADA compliance,

No teeth.

Tom Francis wrote:
On Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:44:06 -0500, "Reginald P. Smithers III, Esq."
wrote:

Tom Francis wrote:
On Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:03:49 -0500, "Reginald P. Smithers III, Esq."
wrote:

We are thinking about using this downturn in the housing market to build
a new home, and acting as our own General Contractor. Has anyone in the
group done this and do they have any words of advice?
Yep.

Don't do it.
I don't know, Harry was very successful GC'ing his N. VA home.

That's Harry. Harry is successful at everything he attempts.

He's the Leonardo DaVinci of modern times. To date, Harry has proven
extensive knowledge of a whole host of subjects including, of all
things, opera. I mean roof loads, foundations, plumbing, electrical -
he's got the knowledge base - apparently.

So it follows that Harry would be the General Contractor for his own
home - he has nothing but time on his hands (as is obvious by the
number of posts just yesterday) which is a key element in being a GC
for your own home.

It's hard for the rest of us mere mortals to understand that.





Reggie, of course, is full of schitt. I was successful with the house in
NoVa because I had to be. If I had let the original GC get away with his
shenanigans, it would have been a financial disaster. And all successful
at the time meant was that I was able to complete the project a little
over budget. It was a hellacious, time-consuming, aggravating project,
and I would not do it again, especially these days.

Boater wrote:
Tom Francis wrote:
On Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:44:06 -0500, "Reginald P. Smithers III, Esq."
wrote:

Tom Francis wrote:
On Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:03:49 -0500, "Reginald P. Smithers III, Esq."
wrote:

We are thinking about using this downturn in the housing market to
build a new home, and acting as our own General Contractor. Has
anyone in the group done this and do they have any words of advice?
Yep.

Don't do it.
I don't know, Harry was very successful GC'ing his N. VA home.

That's Harry. Harry is successful at everything he attempts.

He's the Leonardo DaVinci of modern times. To date, Harry has proven
extensive knowledge of a whole host of subjects including, of all
things, opera. I mean roof loads, foundations, plumbing, electrical -
he's got the knowledge base - apparently.

So it follows that Harry would be the General Contractor for his own
home - he has nothing but time on his hands (as is obvious by the
number of posts just yesterday) which is a key element in being a GC
for your own home.

It's hard for the rest of us mere mortals to understand that.





Reggie, of course, is full of schitt. I was successful with the house in
NoVa because I had to be. If I had let the original GC get away with his
shenanigans, it would have been a financial disaster. And all successful
at the time meant was that I was able to complete the project a little
over budget. It was a hellacious, time-consuming, aggravating project,
and I would not do it again, especially these days.

How do you ever find time to work on all these projects and stay glued
to your computer screen. A mortal who has done all you say you did would
have to be at least 175 years old.