Oct/110
Building Your Own Home Is Not An Easy Task
General contracting the construction of your new home is without a doubt one of life's top 5 most stressful events. It is definitely not something that you should undertake unless you are ready to give it 110%. I personally know a few couples who tried building their own home and were sent over the edge and right into divorce court because of their dream house.
The first thing I suggest you do is find another couple that has been through the process, buy them dinner and pick their brain. Secondly find a community college that has a general contracting class and attend it. The instructor will be a great source for you to find, and to put you in contact with people who are or have been through the process.
If I can provide you with one catch phrase to consider, something you'll be able to go back to repeatedly, it would be "Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance". Plan, plan and plan much more, and recognize that despite every one of the planning you do there will be items which will still show up unexpectedly.
Remember you're acting as the builder, so when unforeseen things come up, they may be your responsibility to treat. A sample will be, the excavator is digging your foundation hole and hits a vein of black dirt or ground that is not structurally ideal for the foundation to take a seat on. He needs to dig out a place 10' square by 4 'deep. That means Another load of dirt needs to hauled over site, another visit to the site by your engineer and a pair of loads of 3" rock to fill the outlet and keep the foundation. Give a contingency line in your budget.
Decide everything you can before beginning the actual construction process. Make your entire material selections before beginning construction. There will be enough decisions to generate once construction begins. Be aware enough time of the season you plan on actually building, and research precisely what are normal weather patterns for that time of the year in your region. You don't want to be digging the groundwork inside the rainy season if you can avoid it, or keeping the framing members repeatedly soaked.
Dealing with subcontractors can be very stressful. Something to remember is that your subcontractor gets repeat business from other builders, but not from you. That means if a regular builder really needs the plumber, that's where he will be, and your job will sit. If this happens, refuse the natural tendency to just call your HVAC subcontractor to work in front of the plumber, because when the plumber does get there he will undoubtedly tear some of the duct work down to run his plumbing pipes and then you will have the added expense of replacing the duct work and have an upset HVAC contractor.
Local inspectors may be another challenge. Although your plans happen to be approved so you built exactly for the specifications, look into the small print. Any local building department offers the authority to cause you to change, or add something they missed throughout the plan review. Sometimes I have had to vary something wish particular inspector just wants it done his way.
Fire stopping is definitely an ambiguous area. Put a compelling effort into pursuing the fire stopping guidelines and be sure the framing carpenter knows and follows the foundations as well and you will have minimal complications with fire stopping. Another area inspectors hate are changes towards actual building structure that had been and not on the plans. And here , the design, planning plus more planning comes into play yet again. More than likely if you change a structural member the inspector will require an engineer or architect's letter stating the change is structurally sound simply uses proceed.
When you are dedicated and you take your time to educate yourself and plan, plan and plan you'll make out alright. Show you'll need is often a tremendous amount of patience and understanding specifically if you absolutely are a husband and wife building home of your dreams.
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