Connor Homes – Anyone put one together??
CapeFramer
| Posted in General Discussion on
I just got a plan for a house that will be built using prebuilt wall panels. The roof rafters also come pre cut and much of the detailed trim comes pre-assembled. Builder tells me it will take me half the time to frame. Has anyone ever put one of these together, I need to know how much labor I will actually save. I want to do the house but not for free.
Replies
Not that manufactoror, but have and it cuts time by about 30%. 50% is what he probably figured when he was sold on the program.
We built a 2000sq ft., with prebuilt walls and trusses in 2 days with 8 men. 128man hours and my boss made $128.
Offer to build the first on an hourly basis, as a test. That means no fooling around because it is hourly, but this would be the fairest to you and the builder as it won't do any good for you to bwe out of business.
While I am talking to you, do you think the bottom is close on the house prices on the cape?
I don't think that they could fall to much farther. Seems to be a lot of activity in the 300-400 range, 500-750 is still a tough market. The high end doesn't seem to have ever skipped a beat.
I agree hourly would be the way to go but unfortunatelly around here there is so much competion it has become all about the price. In the past year I am all of the sudden not just in competition with the other local guys but crews coming from 60 miles off cape. Seems like I used to get jobs do to reputation and quality of work and now it just doesn't seem to be the case.
+What happened to loyalty? Is this a regular customer?
My wife and I up until I had an auto accident 2 years ago, spent every other weekend on the cape. I am still trying to talk her into buying.
I have been in business for 4 Years now since finishing college and have yet to find a truely loyal customer. The builder I do the most work for uses three framers and pits us against each other all the time. The ones that do seem loyal are only doing a couple projects a year which isn't enough to keep us going. And the rest i can't figure out. This is the first time working for this builder but i really want the job as it is the first house in a 72 lot subdivision.
Your right the cape is a great place to be. We lose site of how good we have it here sometimes.
Where is the developement?
In Sandwich
Figured, after reading where you are!
I didn't work on it but my younger sister had a Connor home built a couple years ago in Ma. From what I saw the quality was very high, especially exterior millwork. She said the local contractor who put it together was also impressed. Hers was a reproduction Greek Revival farmhouse with great attention to authentic detailing. I just don't know how long it took but 30% time savings sounds about right for a good prefab system.
I did go visit a Connor home that was built a few months ago but all framing was covered up. The exterior was quite impressive. I would really love to get this job as it seems quite intreging to me.