hire a builder/GC or manage yourself?

[grumpydasmurf]

As some of you know I am in the planning (hoping to break ground spring 05) stages for building a summer/retreat/vacation home at a local lake near my house. This is going to be a family home, since my Dad donated the land and I will donate the house.

I found a GC firm a year back that we did some bids for. They never hired us because our price was too high for them BUT they have an interesting strategy. Theya re not realy GC's and more of construction managers acting as advisors but making no decisions themselves, on who to hire and what material to use. Their fee is 10k per project no matter what size.

My question is since I have planned to manage this project myself and sub out all the work, but act as the GC... Do you think it's worth the 10k to prevent silly first-timer type mistakes and basically buy an education?

P.S. If it works out I can see myself building a few houses here and there throughout my life time.

[Rich]

If I had never built an entire home myself I would probably do it, just like you said, for the education alone. Now me being me and what I've done - I would say save your money and research research research. The 3 R's. Research the local subcontractors, research the local suppliers, and research the clients of the people above. What people say about a supplier or subcontractor goes quite a ways.

[koha]

10 k with no apparent responsibility or liability.

[Dragon]

And hey, you've got us to sound your ideas and problems off of.

[grumpydasmurf]

Wow this thread is ol. The plan got put on hold due to my pending wedding. Perhaps 06, we shall see.

[rabadger]

Plan plan and plan again. Get a complete set of detailed prints for all your subs to bid from. When it comes to your heating and cooling make sure the contractor can show you up front the detailed room by room load calculations. This will tell you register and grille counts run out sizes, cfm, and BTU for each room and total building. Make a material list from all the drawings and tell your subs exactly what you will be suppling.

Remember once the ducts are up and closed in it is yours.

[Tom R]

Welcome, - - rabadger, - - we can use all that knowledge of yours around here.

[Rich]

Right on - an HVAC guru.. we've needed one of those for awhile now :) Welcome to the forum rabadger.

[Cole]

Welcome to the forum.


Oh by the way, Grumpy said this thread is dead.

[Rich]

not dead - we just revived it and then hijacked it.. HAHA

[Cole]

lol


take that grumpy

[Rich]

no disrepect at all towards grumpy - at least not intentionally

[grumpydasmurf]

Ummm why would I disrespected?

Anyways damn you all for disrespecting me! ;)

[Rich]

LMAO
Just in response to Coles "take that grumpy" :)

[rabadger]

How maney quotes did you get from the HVAC subs? How did you figure out the difference in the quotes? If you need to create a level playing field check out my web site. www.HVAC-consult.com Give me a call and we will talk.

[spence]

Newbie here.
I'm getting ready to build a log cabin in a remote area, and there is not much to pick from in the way of construction companies. I have found one guy who comes highly reccomended that says he can act as GC, but he does not have insurance and doesn't want any.
I thought about being the GC myself.
I have called around to insurance companies and only found one that does contractors liability. He said it would be 5 to 10 grand minimum. I'm in shock. It's just a 850 square foot cabin with a half loft.
Any suggestions about how to handle this?

[rabadger]

This is way over my head. I am not an insurance expert. If you hire subs and pay them by a company check and issue 1099's at the end of the year, do you have to cover them?

If you have homeowners insurance for liability on your property will you be covered if a sub gets hurt on the job?

Can you purchase homeowners insurance to cover liability and theft while building on a lot? If not, could you if you had a mobil home on the lot and a mail box, with proof of address?

I have no idea. :? sorry

But stick around, it will get better. :wink:

[Tom R]

Can't imagine why it would be that much unless it's either because they know you're not a builder, - - or they're just flat out trying to take advantage of you. Don't know where you're from, - - but here in Jersey I only pay about $1200 year (general re-modeling).

[Rich]

Look into builder's risk insurance.
Personally I wouldn't let a non-insured GC near my project. He might be the best in the world - but it only takes one thing to put him under and your project along with it. Just seems odd that a GC wouldn't want insurance - ignorant in fact.

[Tom R]

That's exactly what I thought, Rich, - - highly recommended GC that refuses to have insurance, - - kind of an oxymoron.

[spence]

Thanks for the replies.
The guy is kind of a backwoods outfit. He builds one or two log cabins a
year, hauls gravel with his dump truck, does a little backhoe work and snow removal. Just barely getting by. The location is a limiting factor. He built a log cabin for my neighbors and they think he is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I went on one of his jobs last year and looked around. Craftsmanship was very good and two man crew looked professional, one is his son. I might be able to talk him into getting insurance, especially if he has more job prospects for the season.