Custom Home Series Part 3 - Going it Alone

You will need a contract for your trade contractors. The contract should include not only the scope of work for each subcontractor or supplier but also general conditions with agreements on such things as when and how do the subcontractors get paid, who is responsible for clean up and safety, do the trades supply their own generators or do you supply temporary electricity, when will temporary heat be supplied and by who, who pays for dumpsters and trash removal.

The scope of work should be as detailed as possible; for example, who wires the furnace the heating contractor or electrician? You will also need a list of items you will supply for your trades to install such as doors, windows, door hardware, etc.

The trade contractors will need to know quality and quantity of installation items; for example they will obviously need to know if there are thirteen doors to install but are they solid oak or hollow core veneer (one is heavy and hard to install the other light and easy.) Are the doors pre-hung or do they need to be prepared for hardware and the frames built from pieces? Are they pre-finished or do they need to be stained or painted in the job? Each trade and item needs to be similarly defined.

You will need to prepare a detailed construction schedule that lists each item to be installed, how long it will take to install, what order the items will be installed, when the supplied materials such as cabinets and windows will need to be delivered - too early and they will be damaged or stolen, too late and it delays the house, - the lead times such as manufacturing or delivery time of the specialty items such as flooring, whirlpool tub, light fixtures, and stairs and railings.

You will need a disaster plan. If you there are cost overruns due to weather or missed items in scope of work such as you forgot to include the cost of the gas piping or when you dug the basement there was bad soil that needed to be removed and the foundation built deeper, you will need to have the resources to pay for these overruns?

If the house is not finished on time where will you family live? Remember delays mean additional payments on the construction loan. Do you have the resources to cover those payments?

You need to consider the day-to-day supervision. Decide who will be on the job each day to answer questions and solve problems. Experience tells me nearly all problems develop and need to be solved between eight and ten in the morning. If you are continuing you regular job stopping by after work will probably not be sufficient.

And finally consider the warranty you get from each trade. When you move into your beautiful new home what happens when there is a leak at the window? You call the window supplier who comes out and tells you the window is fine but it must be installed wrong. So you call the carpenter who installed the window out and he looks at the window and tells you he has been installing windows for thirty years and the installation is fine it must be the siding contractor did not install flashing. So you call the siding guy who says "What flashing? There's no flashing shown on the plans." If you had a builder you would call him up and let him worry about the leak. When your spouse looks at you with her hands on her hips and says "Well call them and get it fixed." remember your them.