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We are about to begin a remodel of our 1970's home, in Spring, Texas. We plan to remodel most of first floor, including 3 new exterior doors, full new kitchen, powder room, 1400 sq feet wood floors, recessed lighting, remove paneling in one room and replace with Sheetrock, paint and retexture 4 other rooms plus replace outlets and light switches. We already replaced the windows a few years ago, but we want almost all visible areas of several rooms to be updated. We have never done a big job like this before. It has always been small jobs where we have worked with a company that specializes in that area. We have a good idea of the design and features that we want. My wife has been planning this for years!! I would like some advice. Is it better to find one contractor that can coordinate the full thing, or is it advantageous to hire individual companies , for example one company to do the kitchen, one for the flooring, one for electrical and one for painting and finish work? It seems hiring one contractor may be the easiest, but maybe we can get good deals by getting bids individually for each project. My worry about getting individual bids would be the timing as it may take longer to sequence the jobs appropriately. Would it really save any money? Any advice from someone who has gone through this type of process would be appreciated. Thanks.
One contractor will work. Just be sure that if your contractor hires subcontractors to do specific jobs like plumbing or electrical, Etc., he pays them. Many contractors are honest but there are some who will hire subs to do work they don't prefer to do and then forget to pay them. Those subs can come back to you for the money your contractor owes them.
DIY.
People do this all the time on the House Porn channels.
They seem to live through it.
Hmmm....going through that now and gotta say, living through it is not so much fun. Especially if your'e talking a big job. Small stuff, sure, but otherwise, I would go with a GC who can run the job for you. The stress of living through a remodel is enough. Having someone to run the job and not having to do it yourself will be nice. If I had to do it over again, I would never try to DIY a huge job. We've hired for some big stuff like residing the whole house, etc but I wish, desperately, that we had budgeted for and gotten a GC at the beginning. Hindsight - it's a real kick in the pants.
Too many chiefs, not enough indians...
Too many cooks spoil the stew!
There's one leader in a three ring circus...
Getting the idea?
LIVING in the house while going through a major renovation is stressful enough- why torture yourself by being your own GC- especially if its something you've never done before! And if "Critical Path" to you means- the way to the bathroom, you're in over your head.
If you have no experience coordinating trades to do the work you're better off hiring a contractor. Make sure they are licensed bonded insured and check referenced, they should have at LEAST one job going in your area. Go check on it look at the craftsmanship
There are pros and cons on hiring a GC vs being your own GC.
Just remember GCs are in business to make themselves the most profit and in most cases they hire the cheapest subcontractors. The GCs want the subs to give them lowest price and that usually involves shortcuts and questionable work.
If you act as the GC you can hire the best of the best in each trade to complete your project. It's not hard to GC your own project.
1. Design
2. Demo
3. Rough in electric/plumbing/hvac
4. insulation
5. drywall
6. paint
7. flooring
8. trim out call back electrician/plumber/hvac/painter
We are about to begin a remodel of our 1970's home, in Spring, Texas. We plan to remodel most of first floor, including 3 new exterior doors, full new kitchen, powder room, 1400 sq feet wood floors, recessed lighting, remove paneling in one room and replace with Sheetrock, paint and retexture 4 other rooms plus replace outlets and light switches. We already replaced the windows a few years ago, but we want almost all visible areas of several rooms to be updated. We have never done a big job like this before. It has always been small jobs where we have worked with a company that specializes in that area. We have a good idea of the design and features that we want. My wife has been planning this for years!! I would like some advice. Is it better to find one contractor that can coordinate the full thing, or is it advantageous to hire individual companies , for example one company to do the kitchen, one for the flooring, one for electrical and one for painting and finish work? It seems hiring one contractor may be the easiest, but maybe we can get good deals by getting bids individually for each project. My worry about getting individual bids would be the timing as it may take longer to sequence the jobs appropriately. Would it really save any money? Any advice from someone who has gone through this type of process would be appreciated. Thanks.
Everyone has his/her own ideas but here is what we did and we are in the middle of the project right now, finally. We are having our very large screened in porch glassed in, all new windows, railing put in the front porch, new floors throughout and the kitchen re-done. We are not having cabinets replaced, but we are having the ceiling raised, new counter tops, new back splash and all new appliances. We did get the appliances from Home Depot, but the rest we are having done by the same contractor. He is sub contracting some of it out or should we say, getting the materials from several places. We have been very happy so far with his work. We originally planned on splitting the jobs up, but am glad we did not. To us, the most important thing was to make sure the contractor we used came recommended by someone we could trust. Like you, we had never tackled anything like this before.
There are pros and cons on hiring a GC vs being your own GC.
Just remember GCs are in business to make themselves the most profit and in most cases they hire the cheapest subcontractors. The GCs want the subs to give them lowest price and that usually involves shortcuts and questionable work.
If you act as the GC you can hire the best of the best in each trade to complete your project. It's not hard to GC your own project.
1. Design
2. Demo
3. Rough in electric/plumbing/hvac
4. insulation
5. drywall
6. paint
7. flooring
8. trim out call back electrician/plumber/hvac/painter
Not all contractors hire cheap labor or take shortcuts. Besides you ALWAYS pull permits and the work gets inspected. If its substandard it won't pass. There are plenty if trades who won't do crap work. Back when I was contracting one of the first things I wanted to know was the budget. Nit because I wanted to get all the money but I wanted to know if you were realistic. You would be surprised how many customers wanted a 250k remodel on a 25k budget.
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to pay them. Those subs can come back to you for the money your contractor owes them.
