I am a renovator that is going to take on a full home project. While doing my apprenticeship and after I worked for a custom homebuilder that took jobs from the ground up through finish so my skill set is there. What I am missing the process behind it all when everything should happen and maybe little things that just being an employee you don’t see. Any advice would be great is there any book suggestions as well. Also, I am looking to find a book that will help with the process of taking the blue prints and putting them into an action plan for my project.
Thanks for any and all advice.
Replies
I'd suggest talking to your local community college and finding a construction management class. An Excel class would be good, too. And a print reading class.
Or go to work for a quality builder for 10-20 years and work your way up. You may make more money than the route you seem to be thinking of.
Go ahead. Ask me how I know.
"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."
~ Voltaire
My first suggestion is visit a local lender that does construction loans.
The ones I have dealt with have detailed spec/cost estimate sheets for a house. A good one will have a line item for every single thing used in the building. That includes nails, glue and caulk.
These are what they use for itemized appraisals on loans.
These breakdowns are also available in a lot of books on construction estimating, management or superintending, they are often so detailed you won't need every line item. First ones I used were from the State Veterans and FHA loan depts. They didn't miss a thing.
Once you have that then sit down and do an accurate materials take off from the plans of the materials you are going to purchase yourself. Take that to your suppliers and get the prices.
Then contact the subs you need to use and have them bid the project for their specialty. You don't need to have them itemize the bid by $ amount but want them to itemize it for supplies they use (faucets, HW tanks, sinks, light fixtures for which room, doorbell, microwave hookup etc. , this will help fill in the blanks in some forms.
Then look at the plans and mentally build the project , one stick at a time if need be , estimating how long each part takes based on your actual experience doing it. Start just as if you are visiting the site for the first time, imagine placing the grade stakes, showing the excavator where to dig etc. right on until you are looking over your shoulder at the finished project as you drive out the driveway. Place a $ amount on each days or hours work from this.
Now sit down with the original line item sheet and start plugging in costs on each line.
Labor for labor, materials for materials, subs for subs.
When you are done entering everything you have look at the sheet for blanks, think about each line item again, check for math or entry errors.
Now take that sheet and spend a 1/2 day walking around your own house and with sheet in hand compare your items listed to things in your house. Everything in your house on the list? If not add it.
Remember how long it takes to clean a project up once a week? add a 1/2 man day to labor.
Did you remember towel bars, medicine cabinets, door locks, flashings for the roof, house numbers? How about closet shelves & draperies? Sheet rock backing? Fill rock,?
Done? Then Add it all up again.
Now add a figure for Overhead and another for profit. These are usually figured off the total of all the preceding work.
Your done, go have a beer.
"My first suggestion is visit a local lender that does construction loans.
The ones I have dealt with have detailed spec/cost estimate sheets for a house. A good one will have a line item for every single thing used in the building. That includes nails, glue and caulk."I think that is very excellent advice. If I was smart enough to come here and ask questions many years ago, that answer would have saved me a lot of grief. Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
draperies??????... draperies???? I don't do no stinkin draperies.... :-)
That my friend, falls under the catagory of: " Owner Allowances included in Total Project Costs" be surprised what all you can fit in that box if you work at it. ;-)
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
Actually I was kinda kidding but kinda not. About a year ago we had some decorators doing a model home. Direction from Boss Man to Me: "Go over there and do whatever they need." Me - with a horrified look on my face "Are they installing window treatments?" Turned out they didn't want my help. So, I skated through again.... Really though - here I have never known a new home to come with window treatments - OK - maybe some blinds in which case you just get a company to come install.... and usually that is being coordinated under a separate budget by some fru-fru designer who talks about fung-sway and looks down here nose at you as she messes up your budget by picking a bunch of crazy paint colors and trying to get granite and bronze faucets in a 200k house.... You know - like the one my wife had who picked out some $800 window treatments (per window!!!) thank god the $800 ones came with installation...
I guess the fear was instilled by my DW - "you know - I think I want you to move them up an inch" Translation: You can patch and paint walls while I decide if I'm gonna change my mind again...
I avoid window treatments like the plague myself. When I contracted custom homes though the list of items included on lending forms often included them. Our solution was to ask a few people in that business what was a middle of the road price for what we were having to cover and then use that number as an "Owner Allowance"
"Owner Allowance" meant that here is an amount of money we believe you can do the job for, do it cheaper you save, do it more expensively you pay but either way the lender was satisfied that the line item had a $ amount attached to it.
Bean counters at the bank or FHA did not accept blank lines they wanted to know that whatever was going to happen was being counted in advance . We expanded that idea and had it cover the draperies, floor coverings, light fixtures and a few other items after we figured out that it was a PITA to argue with owners about why they couldn't have what they wanted. easier to tell them: "Here is a pot of money , here is what items you need to purchase with it, we don't care what money goes where but if you exceed that total amount buying the list of items you pay the difference."
Some people choose expensive carpets and cheap lights, other vice-versa but it allows the client to please themselves.
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
With your background, it shouldn't take much more than what you've demonstrated here, a willingness to ask questions, to work your way through the building process.
This board has a lot of experienced builders so why not just start a thread about your project and take it step by step, with plenty of photos. You'll soon learn who knows what they're talking about and who's blowing smoke. And you'll have the best answer to any question within 24hrs.
Going about it that way will provide an excellent tutorial for you and many others who read this board and would love to be in your shoes. Just keep your camera handy so that you can record each step from several angles.
Blackcomb,
What I did is thought through the process step by step. I mentally considered everything and every step to get all that I required.. How would I run this wire, where would the plumbing go. How would this attach to that.
Considering all the unique features, construction techniques of my home no book would ever list all the processes or steps so I used mental imagery to achieve everything..
It worked so well that my building dept. has only simple sketches instead of blueprints.. All I have left to do now is intererior finishing details and minor stuff.
There is a book by George Nash.. Something like Do it Yourself Home Building. I carry it around in the work truck and read up if I have a brain fart, or don't have the time to explain things to the greenies. However in the front of the book there is a step by step list (including ordering ahead and blah blah blah)from ground to finish..It is a really cool book, very comprehensive with lots of pictures...cause you know us carpenters....write it down and we look awestruck..Draw me a picture and I'll build you 10..good luck
All I ever wanted in life was an unfair advantage...
It's Do-It-Yourself Housebuilding - The Complete Handbook, George Nash, Sterling Publishing, ISBN 0-8069-0424-0.
Thanks bro...I'd assume that being as specific as you were you have read it...I really like how he breaks down the empirical method of hanging rafters..Makes a trying job rather easy no matter what the skill level. I would advise it to young ,old, advanced and novice...At least at lunch time when the technique arguements arise you goy some backing by a publication right?All I ever wanted in life was an unfair advantage...
Yep, George Nash fits the bill for message 1. The process outline in chapter 1 was the basis for computerizing a generic build schedule. It does have a lot of detailing.
Now that I think of it, blueprints and bill of materials... Some on that in Handbook of Construction Contracting, Volume 1, Plans, Specs, Building, Jack Jones, Craftsman, ISBN 0-934041-11-3.
Most of my books were gathered on the road on out of town jobs. Life changed after getting married and grey in the beard.
I will check that one out.. Here in Alaska we don't have road side trash service but in a few spots around town, so there are borough "dumps" (every one here calls them transfer sites,) anyhow there is always a pavillion for re-usable items,and short of my Nash book and a few select engineering books, most of my literature came from said transfer sites.Infact that is where I first saw FHB, someone left a box of 50 for the taking(actually, they have a wealth of great building materials at them as well, I once found enough brand new joist hangers to to a deck that I was building)All I ever wanted in life was an unfair advantage...
Get all your subs together in one room and on a dry erase board start a basic outline of the process with timeline and you'd be surprised how much you'll learn. They are used to working at specific stages and will let you know. If you can't get them all together simply ask them separately where they need to be and when. That's the easy part.
The hard part is knowing what they aren't telling you, especially if any part of the house is going to change, or if your standards are higher than average. Many of your subs will know a little about all stages of the job so pick their brains.
You might find a sympathetic ear with an experienced carpenter/builder who could check in on you from time to time and point out things you might have missed otherwise. I do this all the time, mostly when I'm working on a small section of a larger project and the home owner is the GC. If you need it, an hour of good advice each week can save days of screwed up headaches.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.