Given the opportunity, would you act as general contractor on your own house?
- Absolutely! It’s the only way I can micromanage the details.
- Maybe… of course, I don’t pay as much as my clients do.
- No way; I like being married.
You will not be able to change your vote.
Replies
Holy smokes! This poll has been out here for a couple hours, had 20 people vote, and no one has bitched & moaned about the selection of answers yet?! Better write that one down as a first.
;)
jt8
"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."
-- Mother Teresa
we are trying not to encourage these stupid polls...I don't Know what I am doing
But
I am VERY good at it!!
if you was building yourself, all the labor , skill, material yourself with no help..... yesif you was hiring out all the labor and trade, hell no, it cost 4x as muchi do live in Alabama, so my advice might be worthless
I had pretty good luck with mine. I knew all the sub crews, except for the concrete flatwork and the drywallers, and it turned out pretty well. I tried to get on site at the end of almost every day to go over any issues that had cropped up.
I did a lot of the layout, much of the framing punchout, and all the trim and cabinet work.
I trusted the guys on site, and was only disappointed a couple of times.
I did my whole house myself, so no labor was involved. I could of bought one cheaper.i do live in Alabama, so my advice might be worthless
Not only would I... I did. I didn't micromanage the crew one bit. I hired them to do what they do best and that was put a house and garage up. I paid attention to the details so that what was built is what we wanted. My wife didn't get to involved. I had to force her into picking out some finishes.
Things learned were...
My plasterer really sucked. The distance apart between home and home was over 260 miles, that was killer. I spent more than I wanted to. I'd rethink the azak trim. I'm thankful I have a flexible job that let me escape on Thursdays so that I was on the job with the crew. Hire the best carpenter you can find. (I did) My post and beam guy was a dirt ball so have a back up plan. I did but it still cost me 30K. Someday he'll get his.
I'd still do it again.
Dear John,
If I had 3 wishes, the first would be taking on the role of G.C. on my own project. I'd want to have my architect in close proximity throughout in a supporting role, so I guess that's wish number 2. Then, I suppose. wish number 3 would be to have sub's giving stellar peformances from start to finish. With only 3 wishes, I could only hope that, in the end, I'd be awarded the Oscar for "best house of the year." ( if, by chance, I managed to finagle a 4th wish, it would, of course, be for world peace).............NOT!
I like that quote
It's not that I want to micromange the details, it's just that of the three ways to do it, I want to make sure it's done the third way.
SamT
There are three kinds of people: Predaters, Prey, and Paladins. The really strange thing is that Prey feels safer from Predators by disarming Paladins.
Shoot, I'm middling certain I'd farm out part of the drawing work (or the design work and do my own CD's or some such); just to get some "distance" from the project.
Yeah, the response choices are kind of one-sided.
However, I've done it before and I'd do it again. DXW didn't like the process, but at the end we enough cash left for the fence she wanted, and she loved (for the most part..... don't ask me about the windows...grrr) the house after it was done.
Given the opportunity, would you act as the general contractor on your own home?
Not only would I, I have. But it wasn't so much a question of micro-managing the details; it had more to do with micro-managing the budget, LOL. Which means I could have voted for your second choice, I suppose.
I also acted as the framing sub, the roofing sub, the electrical sub, the plumbing sub, the insulation sub, the drywall sub, the siding sub, the trim sub, and the painting sub. I subbed out the excavation and concrete work, though....
Dinosaur
DON'T MISS THE FEST!
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not brought
low by this? For thine evil pales before that which
foolish men call Justice....
micromanage seems a poor choice of word...without giving a different choice
I just did. I guess that's a yes.
On the other hand, I would be willing to provide a long list of warnings to those who dare. It worked out well for us, but there is definitely a price to pay, and it's not monetary.
Scott.
Always remember those first immortal words that Adam said to Eve, “You’d better stand back, I don’t know how big this thing’s going to get.”
Managing residential construction is what I do for a living. So I guess I'm gonna hire someone else to do my own home, otherwise I'm a micro-manager? :-)
Another poll not really geared toward building professionals?
Another poll not really geared toward building professionals?
but niether is the magazine!
Doug
Actually initially an analogy to Home Depot came to mind but I didn't want to get too nasty... ;-)
The two times I've built my own house I not only generaled them, I also designed the house, drew the plans, My wife and I did most all of the actual building with the exception of the trades that need to be licensed, (plumbing, electrical, Hvac) the insulation, drywall and most of the concrete work. Everything else we did ourselves as a team. All this while we both worked our regular full time jobs as well.
It worked so well both times that we have both seriously given a lot of consideration to finding some niche where we could work together side by side 100 percent of the time." If I were a carpenter"
--- Another poll not really geared toward building professionals? ---Well, you can certainly be a building professional without being a GC ... (maybe not you personally, but the impersonal you)Rebeccah
Like John said, not the right answer present, but only way to vote given the question.
Would never be a GC on own house, would DIY everything, as others have indicated.
Way under $50 sq ft even for everything in today's dollars - case history below.
Note: just the stinkin' permits now would be about $7000, talk about inflation!
Edited 4/18/2007 8:23 pm ET by junkhound
I've done it twice and am hoping to do it again for a third time! It was amazing how much money ya can save doing it yerself. However, haveing an understanding boss helps out a lot. I ended up using all my vacation and sick leave doing it myself.....thought I was going to lose my job and my mind but in the end it was all worth it. Now that I'm retired it wont be nearly the problem as the first two were.
Save the american cowboy, dont let the spirit die!
Hypothetically speaking, it depends on what I was doing for a living at the time and how much time I could spend with the project. If I was bogged down working 50 hrs per week at a career, I would not do it. If I was free and clear and could spend unlimited time, for sure!!!
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I can't answer this poll as some questions come up:
Is this directed to professionals in the trades? There is a huge difference between someone not in the industry to manage such a project and one who is managing their own without such experience. The questions do not make a distinction, which I think is an important one.
When you say 'opportunity' do you mean financial as well? Economic concerns usually drive people's decision to cut out the 'middle man'. As a professional, I'm sure I could do this with success, given a larger economic pool than I presently have. I discourage and try to stay away from homeowners who minimize the difficulty of such work as in my experience we get stuck being unpaid advisers or blamed for HO's stupidity which I highly resent.
If I had the money available to hire out everything, I wouldn't think twice about it; I'd hire out and stick to my job of running my business. I know well the headaches of such work and frankly, I'd rather have a portion aside to not increase my headache to income ratio more than I need to, as time away from work is lost money.
Also, I don't harbor the vain idea that I'm the only and the best GC out there, far from it. So I'd find hiring someone else a great learning opportunity.
Let's have another survey:
Would you give yourself a root canal given the opportunity?
Would you represent yourself in a large, complicated lawsuit given the opportunity?
Would you write and broker your own insurance policy given the opportunity?
Smart people know their limitations and realistically work within them, sometimes that means accepting the inevitable over the desirable, but with a realistic consideration of how the balance of loss increases when our ignorance/lack of skill increases. I don't often see this attitude when it comes to the carpentry/building trades unfortunately.
There's an old adage in the legal profession about just this topic: "The man who represents himself has a fool for counsel."
Would you give yourself a root canal given the opportunity?
Would you represent yourself in a large, complicated lawsuit given the opportunity?
Would you write and broker your own insurance policy given the opportunity?
Well yeah, but, it's not the same, any Foo can build a house if he just wanted to.
duck, cover, and run(|:>)SamT
Praise the Corporation, for the Corporations' highest concern is the well being of the public.
Yeah I know, just a buncha sticks and nails, but don't let the word get out.
"Is this directed to professionals in the trades? "Taunton has long proclaimed that their target customer and subsrption base is the DIY HO or the wannabe DIY.
Understanding that as a first principle helps you understand a lot of things around here.
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Thank you Piffin and now I am so much the wiser.
Yes... Giving the limited choices and I'm not married.
Best to you and yours, Chris.
Building as thou art paranoid never harmed anyone.