Home construction methods in Pacific NW?

[Eric G.]

Originally Posted by davefr

Subs detest working for homeowners.

I'll bear that in mind.

[whirnot]

Originally Posted by davefr

Good luck negotiating contracts with subs.

When they fail to show up at the job to complete the work because one of their regular GC's needs them then good luck finding another sub to come in to finish a job. (you'll likely get the bottom of the barrel trades at an inflated price). Subs detest working for homeowners.

Don't count on legal recourse if cost and time is important.

A GC will know how to negotiate best price from the subs. You won't.

The building industry is based on relationships and this is part of what your getting from a good GC. A good GC will save you more then his costs and get you a higher quality job on budget and on schedule.

What I'm describing is based on standard residential construction in normal economic times. Maybe a homeowner can make it work in this building depression with many out of work trades people.

Having built 5 homes as the GC I would have to disagree. I always hired the best subs available and had no problems. I do however, let them know that they will be paid Immediately upon sucessful completion. That gives me an advantage over GC's that take 30 to 90 days to pay.

The biggest issues I ever had as far as loans was to show, experience and a short time frame. Banks don't want year long construction loans.