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Help,
I’m Going my new home, and I’m learning the hard lessons. Today my concrete contractor finished striping the forms and the grade of the house is fine. But my garage is sticking way out of the ground 4 feet. My new neighbor is not happy about the grade difference neither I am. I also was informed my corner maybe encroaching on the set back line by 4 inches. Here is where I need the advice. I am having the corners surveyed tommorrow, but I am thinking of ripping out the two garage walls and footing and stepping down 2 feet. Two wall 20 I 21 any thoughts. Garage is attached so I would have to cut the wall and reattach. I’m building in WI.
thanks
Replies
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David,
You better put on your hard hat because I think some stuff is going to rain down on you.
I have a question-is the garage floor level correct?
Also, what's the deal on the setback? Did the plans show it coming this close to it? Why take a chance without a survey first?
You're supposed to be building, not tearing down.
Right?
*Oh yeah--I forgot to ask what the concrete contractor had to say about it? Was it on the plans this way? I suppose you didn't see the pour or the forms being placed?
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The lot was surveyed and staked. If there is an error in the setback it would be the concrete subs fault. The elavation was set correctly to my instruction, but now after seeing it I don't like it and would rather lower it and make it easier to live with in the future. This was the only part of the process I really didn't understand and I have learned.
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So David,
How much money did you save by not having a real GC build your house?
Didn't they cover this issue on "Home Time"?
Sorry to be so blunt but this is only the begining of a long list of how do I fix this now that it's wrong questions.
Vince
*Hi David,This would be an excellent time to rethink the GC part of your plan.If you're the GC, the location of the foundation is your responsibility and no one elses.Unless you're a lottery winner and you don't care about the cost or the end product, you would be well advised to hire a qualified and respectible GC in your area.You're off to a disastrous start and it will only get worst.That's not what building your new home should be all about.Gabe
*Good Morning Vince,I've got a concrete pour that started at 6 this morning, what's your excuse for starting work this early?Have a safe one,Gabe
*David,In addition to really knowing what your doing, you also need to be there everyday to supervise. You tell the concrete guy if the footings are in the wrong place before their poured. You make sure the toilet is roughed in at the right place, you make sure the kitchen cabinets are going up at the right height. You just can't do this from your office.
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Thanks for all the kind words,
In response to your posts. I'm going to save about 40,000 in this job. I'm building the home with to my specs with the materials I want to chose and in most cases. Bought at better prices than the builder. I used to sell building materials for a
living and know all the subs and the suppliers.
I found out today my change of mind is going to cost me $3000. Don't get my wrong I respect and admire the General Contractors. For the home I'm building it made more sense to do it myself. I look at this as a hard lessoned learned, but one I can overcome.
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Well you've just out of the ground and you're $3,000.00 down.
Hope you do better for the other 90% of the house.
Gabe
*david... some people can save money.. they trade sweat equity for cash... you ain't gonna save squat..yur subbin everything out without knowing how to supervise subs...kiss yur $40K goodby...oh & p.s.-----stop using the spell chkr...it's screwin up your posts..cain't herdly red it...hah, hahb but hey, whadda i no ?
*Good afternoon Gabe,I have no good excuse,for me the best thing to do is be there to keep an eye on everything.If I don't, who knows, the foundations could all end up to high and to close to the neighbors. I must have just missed you this morning,I had to run.Kind of weird that we both thought the same thing at the same time.Vince
*Hi Vince,Some situations have only one possible answer and even though I'm north of the border, the language of construction has no boundaries.My laptop is connected to unlimited internet and I keep it with me 24 hours a day so I monitor at will.I'm in the same boat as you are, if I wasn't on the site all day long, I might find my foundation 2 feet too high and over on the neighbours lawn.And it would cost more than 3 thousand to fix.Gabe
*When I first started out (and even now sometimes) I did alot of jobs where I was gonna save money by doing this or that. Truth is, that 40K will be eaten up in the unforseens before you have the paint on. If you can save the builder's fee of 40K by supervising (or not) subs yourself, why aren't builder's driving nicer cars?Don't count your 40 thousand chickens quite yet. Every job I've ever done has cost me more than it was supposed to on paper.
*Everytime I have tried to save money, for whatever reason, by doing construction work that I am not a professional in, the results were less than I hoped for, and cost me more than if I had hired a specialist to do them right the first time. So what part of the building trade do you really understand? Do that part, if the GC you hire will let you. Then you can save a little dough, and still get this thing done on a schedule that will leave you on reasonable terms with the neighbors that are already worried about you.
*David, I am a G.C. and wether you G.C. or not is up to you. I wish you all the luck in the world. I often see qualified contractors run into similar problems and gauge expertise in this business by how well we rebound from those problems. One concern I have with regards to your setback issue is that here in N.Y. vertical airspace is also included so check your soffets and overhangs too. I speak from experience. I nearly had to remove aluminum gutters because of a 3" projection beyond property line. Instead, I replace a few flagstones for the cranky neighbor.
*I'm with the majority on this one. The only way you are going to save a dime is by delegating your authority to a qualified General Contractor with lots of homebuilding experiance.It doesn't matter where you're building or your language barrier, Life is too short to undertake a book of failures. The only way you will really enjoy building a new home is sitting back an watching the pro's do it for you.
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>The only way you will really enjoy building a new home is sitting back an watching the pro's do it for you.
Oh, bleeech. How many exceptions to "the only way" will it take for this statement to be wrong? I'm not gonna speak for any pro or amateur GC--just for myself--but I've enjoyed the process IMMENSELY and have found it incredibly rewarding. Would not enjoy the house nearly as much if I had let someone else GC. Wouldn't trade the experience for anything. And I'd betcha anything that my subs would tell you (except none of them hang out here, sorry to say) that we didn't sacrifice an iota of quality, and created a work environment and project with which they were proud to be associated.
That said, I've learned what a difficult job it is--what difficult jobs all construction trades are--and won't pretend I could do it for a living. But in our case it was the best way to get the job done exactly the way we wanted it done, and we don't regret a single moment.
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Hey guys, I gotta problem with a tooth and I was kinda thinkin about steralizing my vise grips and yankin that bad boy outta there, whadda ya think?
*Hi Allen,Never done it myself, but I seen it done once on tv, so it must be easy to do, I say go ahead. It would be so gratifying to DIY dentistry.Can't be any harder than general contracting, right?GabeMet a genius who tried to use a drill on a tooth once. Never tried it again. Apparently, the drill caught and drove itself into the pulp real quick. Excendrine number 9
*I took out my own gall bladder........cut it out with a razor knife and stapeled it shut with my Senco. My wife held the mirror. She did insist on pouring in some Black Jack before I closed it up. But we are a little tougher here in Texas.Ed. Williams
*I stitched up a guys leg once. Medicine's not as hard as the doctors want you to think it is.
*I cauterized a bloody cut once with hot drill bit, it actually worked quite well!
*David:There was a thread some months ago called foundation nightmare vent that you ought to read. Similar situation to yours. The thread includes quite a bit of bashing, but it also contains some good advice about being your own GC.Also, you say your going to save $40k. Be prepared for that to be whittled down more than a little bit. There are always unforseen expences, and since you are your own builder, there's no question who is going to pay for them.
*Oh Pleeease! Excuuuse Meeeeeeeeee! Let me re-phrase that to (one way to enjoy the new home building experience.)I'm happy you enjoyed Your Building process, but apparently you didn't start off the job in your neighbors yard . Buy the way Jim, how would you have handled this garage footing problem?.
*Can you take a picture and scan it? It would be easier to tell if there might be an alternative solution.
*Hey me too! Well not a leg, but an arm. He had all the equipment, and I figured it wasn't MY arm , so what the hell! He walked with a limp for sometime after though.......Jeff......always take out my own stitches......
*We can't post bloody pictures here any more, they edit them off in a heartbeat.
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Pro, I won't pretend I can offer an informed opinion on his situation, be/c I didn't run into anything like it. The best I could do is wish him luck. I only know our situation, and know we are w/in the setbacks--checked, double-checked, and triple-checked. We even checked w/ the city and discovered a more stringent requirement than in the covenants (we're county, not city, but the city still determines our setback requirements, it turns out).
I'm not a GC by profession, and don't even play one on TV. Doubt I could make a living at it, and wouldn't want to try. I voiced respect for the job, which is why the bullshit in some of the subsequent posts is so pointless. I learned firsthand how difficult it is and said nothing to disparage the profession. So I don't know why my contracting my own home, and having fun doing so, would give reason for _anyone_ to be bugged.
Respectfully, Jim
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I'm just hoping that I don't have to get stitches so often that I establish a policy as to who takes em' out.
*I was only bugged by the fact that you were bugged by the fact that I said (the only way) so lets forget it. I'm a general and build more decks than remodels because it is much more profitable for me.If I do build my own house I will be my own general but I will sub out almost everthing to the guys that specialize in their field and even then I know It will be almost a full time job to see each step thru to everyones satisfaction.
*b TVMDCGabe, Nice Truck! Is it a King Cab?
*Sorry Bill,I drive the zoomboom home on weekends.Gabe
*I don't expect that David is following this thread any more.
*Can you blame him? Poor guy came to the experts with a question, and ended up getting his ass beat.
*No, I don't blame him.
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I would call it tough love. His post talked about the hard lessons...
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Messi & Mad Dog
At least he doesn't have to try to explain it to the homeowner.
*http://www.aroundalone.com/coverage/news/set_news.fhtml Talk about do it yourself ! OOPS ! Right page but not enough directions. Go to bottom of the page "The Victor Yazykov Story"A little off topic but pertinent.
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Help,
I'm Going my new home, and I'm learning the hard lessons. Today my concrete contractor finished striping the forms and the grade of the house is fine. But my garage is sticking way out of the ground 4 feet. My new neighbor is not happy about the grade difference neither I am. I also was informed my corner maybe encroaching on the set back line by 4 inches. Here is where I need the advice. I am having the corners surveyed tommorrow, but I am thinking of ripping out the two garage walls and footing and stepping down 2 feet. Two wall 20 I 21 any thoughts. Garage is attached so I would have to cut the wall and reattach. I'm building in WI.
thanks