Building a new house - upgrades thru builder vs. contractor post closing (Red Oak: credit, water heater)

[SuperPollito]

On some things you might try to negotiate to have your own subcontractor come in and do during construction. Not sure how often that works but worth a shot if their price is outrageous but you also don't want the inconvenience of tearing the house apart after closing.

[Kikelch]

just got an email from the DC.

They say If I want to do woods after close, then glue down is recommended (rather than nail down) because
1. it can mess up the starter step?? (what do they mean? If I do post close, then I am doing stairs, too).
2. it will mess up the dishwasher in the kitchen because I will not be able to pull it out if I need to.

is this true? I don't get it....

[Kikelch]

Originally Posted by SuperPollito

On some things you might try to negotiate to have your own subcontractor come in and do during construction. Not sure how often that works but worth a shot if their price is outrageous but you also don't want the inconvenience of tearing the house apart after closing.

Thanks.
I will definitely try but not sure if the construction manager will let do it.
I imagine the house should be exactly same as it was originally planned/designed.

[anksagr]

what rate per sq ft would you get from an outside contractor on 2 1/4" Red Oak if you do it post closing ?

On a separate note, my builder (KHov) would not allow any outside contractor to work on the house before closing. My guess would be that the same applies to all the big builders except for some custom builders.

[turf3]

To nail down standard tongue and groove flooring in a slab house, they will first attach (I saw it done with powder fired nails) 3/4 tongue and groove plywood to the slab. Then they will nail the actual flooring down to this underlayment. In my opinion, this is the correct way to attach wood flooring to a slab foundation, but it adds 1 1/2" to the finished floor height.

If you do this in a kitchen, for example, you really need to yank the lower cabinets and set them high enough so you can pull a dishwasher out, for example. But wood floors in a kitchen are a terrible idea anyway.

The increase in finished floor height may also affect doors. I had to cut a bunch of doors.

The effect on a staircase would depend on how the stairs are framed. The treads would be nailed directly down to the stair framing, whereas on the floor there would be the 3/4" additional thickness. However, when we had this done in a slab house, we had the 3/4" underlayment, and they nailed the treads right on down to the stair framing, and I don't remember any issues. So I'm not sure what they did there.

If you glue down a wood floor, it seems to me that any future repairs would be very difficult (whereas if it's nailed down they just take out the bad plank and replace it), plus if you got any kind of water damage, leakage, etc. it would be a big problem. On our house, they put heavy plastic sheeting down on the slab before affixing the underlayment, so moisture uptake by the flooring or underlayment would not be a problem. I have no idea how you would get such a moisture barrier if you just glue it down.

If you want straight talk about this project, I recommend you contact Ashmore Floors (you'll have to look up the number) who have done hardwood floor work for me and my family for almost 20 years.

[dallasmaverick1]

I have gone through the similar dilemma last year and did bunch of stuff in the house after move in. My honest advise is that anything that will require ripping the old stuff and putting back new, go with the builder even if costs higher. The hassle is not worth it.
Things that are just added on - Lights/Fixtures/Fans/Additional Tiles, you can do it later on.
But even then you have to worry about related damage - scratches floors/doors, dust, damaged baseboard, cabinets plus the smell of the stain that stays for ever. Last but not the least, it is much easier to deal with the builder on the quality of the work and post warranty.
Looking at it after the fact, if I were do it all over again I will just suck it up and pay the builder to do everything.

[Johnhw2]

The upgrades may add time fir the builders hence they charge for the upgrade cost please some more for any delay in funding the constructed cost of the home. That is one reaso they won't let you bring a contractor in to do it before closing, I'm sure liability and other issues are reasons too. I added hardwood flooring, hand scrapped after closing on my used home purchase. It cost me around $6 or $7 per sf and did take more than two days once started.

I've done granite and tile in existing home too which is really what you are doing. Granite wasn't messy tile was.

Ideal case is obviously downgrade.items you are certain you will change assuming you can get a credit for doing so. Listen to EDS and others who know construction methods not me. This board has some incredible resources for a well stated question as you have. Good luck and congrats.

[Threestep2]

Mirrors
An easy DIY project. Good mirrors with somewhat elaborate frames are not cheap.

Wood floors
The dishwasher issue has already been discussed. We had issues with existing stain grade floor boards being a bit off and stained wooden doors getting nicked.

Counter tops
Upgrading after a fact hopefully an easy job. I can recommend a DFW fabricator who did some retrofits for us. Will you need new sinks?

Tankless water heater
It is not the cost of the heater. DFW is license and inspection happy. Not much savings there.

What your original builder puts in your house is covered by the one year warranty. He may turn around and claim damages are based on your own work/contractors. We had a huge framed bathroom mirror come off the wall. Slap stick 101 - granite counter, sink, cabinet, silk rug, tile floor. It was covered.

[mSooner]

Pretty bummed that the small peak thru hole (the apartment door like peak thru hole) on the front door is also an extra.

Ha, that's the cost of a drill bit and a $10 part. You can easily do this yourself

[ThomasCrown]

Have the builder do the floors you want. It's way too much hassle to have the existing floor ripped out and a new floor put in afterwards. Been there, done that. There were lots of additional costs that we had not been expecting, all the baseboards had to be ripped off because the floor was now too high, so all the trim/baseboards needed to be redone, and our baseboards weren't cheap.

However, you can go with cheap countertops and have those done with higher end stuff later in the kitchen, bathrooms, etc, and save money over what the builder charges. Done that too.

Some builders are now "bundling" their options. Example, two friends of ours were each building new houses. They wanted some upgrades in the laundry room, one wanted cabinets installed, the other wanted a sink but no cabinets. The builders told them they had to do both together as a whole utility room, they couldn't just pick one thing they wanted. So they each had the builder do nothing except rough in a water line and drain for where a sink would go and they each had a contractor come out and do what they wanted done after their homes were finished.

Flooring isn't the place to save money over the builder, unless it's carpet. Countertops, fixtures, etc... these can be upgraded more cheaply by outside contractors, or even yourself.