Building home question

10 years ago

Hello! We are soon ready to buy our dream home. We were thinking about building with my husband being the general contractor to save money- we would also do some of the work ourselves if we can. Has anyone done anything like this? My husband is a natural leader and very good at organizing and completing work and is a business owner himself; however, he does not work in the construction industry?

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Comments (4)

PRO
Cancork Floor Inc.
10 years ago
Plenty of people have been their own GC. Some have been successful, others have discovered working as their own GC caused more problems then it was worth. What they thought would be a 'net savings' turned into a negative balance sooner than they thought possible. One of the main points where they lost money was the amount of "extra time" it took an amateur GC to complete a project. The extra time off work (as much as 8 months longer than expected) turned the "savings" into a deficit which they never were able to recover.

When it comes to building a house remember your ABCs:

Architect

Before

Contractor

Find the architect. Get them to do all the preliminary work. Get a list of trades they use or their build partners use so that the trades people you call upon are up to the task of the build the architect has designed. The architect can help with the oversight of the project and be a very good resource for the amateur GC. They can offer advice as to when you pull in which trade and what time lines are important and which can be left to flap in the wind.

The other thing to start working on is resource books. Believe it or not their is a "Building Your Own Home for Dummies" or the "Complete Idiot's Guide to Building Your Own Home". I would pick these up and start reading...both of you. Before you do anything else, pick up some resource books on how to become your own GC...and read. And then read it again. And then right after that pick up another resource guide and read that as well.

Once you've read everything you can get your hands on, now you can interview Architects. And make sure you point out, very early on in the conversation, that Husband will be the GC. Get that out of the way quickly. Many Architects will not continue past the hand shake once they know this. Others will be more willing to do this and to work as a supervisory/resource role.
User
10 years ago
It's a full time job, not a part time hobby. If neither of you have any construction experience, how do you propose evaluating subcontractors bids or the quality of the work that you will receive?
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RubyRoses
10 years ago
speaking as a contractor who worked for a homeowner/gc..I would never take another one. the homeowner was a businessman used to arranging things, but it's a lot of time juggling to get the right contractor in at the right time. you can't expect the contractors to work out between themselves who's doing what when..that is the gcs job.
PRO
Nature's Angle, LLC
10 years ago
Being a General Contractor is not easy. Organization is only half the equation. There is also a lot of people management, ask any Home Builder. Getting subcontractors to show up on time and do their work to your standards especially when you are "a one time job" will be difficult. As mentioned in the first post Architects and Home Builders are important. If you can find Architects and Home Builders who have worked together before that is even better as they will check each other during the design process.