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Hi, I need some advice. I recently bought a house and have a pretty long to-do list to get through over the next couple months before we move in. Basically, all the stuff that came up on home inspection needs to get fixed before we move in. We're looking at:
- basement waterproofing
- replacing a furnace/AC
- replace some windows
- install a missing gutter/downspout
- minor roof and chimney repairs
- a few other minor plumbing and electrical repairs
None of this requires permits. It's really just a matter of letting the various contractors into the house and inspecting the work before they leave, right? I'm concerned it would add up to a huge amount of time off work for me to do that myself with all these different contractors. How do people do this? My wife suggested hiring one of those personal assistant services? Is that a big mistake? Do we really need a general contractor to manage everything if we can't do it ourselves?
Well, what I did was ask my friends if they knew a good general contractor.. a jack of all trades. As it were, a friend of mine at works husband was just that. So now, he has full access to my house and anytime I need something done or checked on I simply give him a call and he does it.. no worries.. Over the past 3 or 4 years, he has damn near rebuilt my house it seems. New fence, new deck, new roof, new kitchen floor, new bathroom floor, new ceiling in living room (water leak).. he fixed the leak as well. The last thing he did for me was install a new hot water heater..
It never ceases to amaze me the things he can do.. and the things he can't do alone, he hires sub contractors.. easy peasy..he even has my Home Depot Credit Card on hand..
Not sure what I would do without him... probably lot less I am sure!
Well, what I did was ask my friends if they knew a good general contractor.. a jack of all trades. As it were, a friend of mine at works husband was just that. So now, he has full access to my house and anytime I need something done or checked on I simply give him a call and he does it.. no worries.. Over the past 3 or 4 years, he has damn near rebuilt my house it seems. New fence, new deck, new roof, new kitchen floor, new bathroom floor, new ceiling in living room (water leak).. he fixed the leak as well. The last thing he did for me was install a new hot water heater..
It never ceases to amaze me the things he can do.. and the things he can't do alone, he hires sub contractors.. easy peasy..he even has my Home Depot Credit Card on hand..
Not sure what I would do without him... probably lot less I am sure!
I don't think I trust ANYONE that much...
Hiring a general contractor would be my choice in this situation. A good one will do what he/she can and hire subcontractors for the rest.
Can you help me understand: what is the reason against just paying a personal assistant to let various roofers, plumbers, electricians, etc in and out of the house? What value does a general contractor add?
I don't claim to know much about waterproofing a basement but replacing the A/C and windows is not a minor job. I can't imagine waterproofing a basement is a matter of slathering some crap on the interior walls. You have to cut the water off from the outside and that requires digging. This is more than just letting a couple of guys in to do a couple of hours work. You need a general contractor and who is paying for this? I can't believe the seller is going to foot the bill cause this ain't gonna be a cheap date...to fix it right. Considering that you haven't moved in yet, you don't need anybody there to let them in. What are they going to steal- the sheetrock? Get a good GC and give him a key. After he's done, rekey the house, which you should be doing anyway.
Can you help me understand: what is the reason against just paying a personal assistant to let various roofers, plumbers, electricians, etc in and out of the house? What value does a general contractor add?
We thought the same way. I have an added advantage. I am a construction lawyer. I know a lot about most trades and more about construciton contracts than contractors do. More importantly i know more about restoring old houses than most contractors (in some areas, probably more than pretty much all contractors). I was also able to work from home a lot of the time and keep an eye on things (except for weeks here and there when I had to go out of state). Shouldn't I be able to do as good or better job as a GC? We saved about $40,000 by not hiring a GC. It cost us about $90,000.
The subcontractors are more responsive to a General Contractor because they want to get work from him in the future and know he will have some. If working for a personal assistant or for you directly, they will give priority and their best crews to the jobs where they are working for a general contractor. You are not a signifcant source of repeat business for subcontractors.
Second if you hire a GC and there are any problems, you have one stop for correction of the problem. If you hire subs and there is a problem, they all blame each other, or blame you, or blame the sub that has since gone out of business and disappeared. With a general contractor, you go to the general and he fixes the problem. If there is a subcontractor problem, that is his problem, not yours.
Third, A GC can watch the work and ensure they follow all code reqruiements etcetera. Unless you know the code, and can watch the work as it goes in, you could find code violations years later. Public inspectors do not watch the work and they miss things all the time. If you discover something the inspector missed three years from now, guess whose problem it is to fix?
Fourth, The General Contractor should provide Liability insurance and include you as an additional insured on his policy. If you act as GC, you need to buy special liability insurance for what your homeowner's policy does not cover, or you can just gamble on the risk. THe GC shuld also provide worker comp insurance and ensure that all subcontractors have adequate and current workers comp and liaility (On this last item, I was better able to do that than a GC would be, but you likely are not).
Fifth, a good GC will know who the good subcontractors are. If you hire them, you can go through 8 plumbers before you find a good one (we did), or you can have someone abandon your job in the middle of the work. If someone does not show up on time and other contrctors are standing around waiting for you to get someone to finish the work, guess who pays for the standing around time?
Sixth. A general contractor is better able to determine when a sub is giving you a line of BS and when he raises a real issue of concern/added cost.
Seventh, a general contractor knows how to schedule a job to ensure the critical path to completion is continuous and not delayed. Between the electrician, HVAC contractor, insulation guy and plumber do you know which part of each of their work must proceed another part of on of the other guy's work? Do you have Microsft or primavera scheuling software to schedule the work? On a simple job like yours, scheuling is not all that complex, but it does matter. Your insulation guy may increase his price when he suddenly discovers lots and lots of wires and pipes in the insulation space that was not there when he gave you the price - ooops you forgot to tell him about the other work beign done before his. On the other hand, the electrician and plumber will nto be happy if they find themselves now working in insulated walls where there was none when they looked at the project.
Do you know the lead times on all materials you will need? Are their any items that need to be ordered three weeks before your project starts? What will you do if some material does nto show up on time or some subcontractor either fails to complete on time or fails to show up at all? What will you do if they find aesbestos or mold somewhere in the house? how fast can you get someone in to deal with it? Who will pay the subcontractors to stand by? Will the subcontractors agree to go away and then come back whenver you call them? (hint - probably not if you are not a GC who can be a source of future work, they will go away and come back when they can fit you in again).
I am just giving you random examples, not specific to your project. You will have similar problems if you go without a GC. Let me know if you are not convinced, I can give you another 8 or 9 reasons.
I don't claim to know much about waterproofing a basement but replacing the A/C and windows is not a minor job. I can't imagine waterproofing a basement is a matter of slathering some crap on the interior walls. You have to cut the water off from the outside and that requires digging. This is more than just letting a couple of guys in to do a couple of hours work. You need a general contractor and who is paying for this? I can't believe the seller is going to foot the bill cause this ain't gonna be a cheap date...to fix it right. Considering that you haven't moved in yet, you don't need anybody there to let them in. What are they going to steal- the sheetrock? Get a good GC and give him a key. After he's done, rekey the house, which you should be doing anyway.
There is no such thing as "waterproofing" a basement. A basement cannot be made waterproof. If there is water intrusion 99% of the time, you need to get the water away from the outside of or underneath the basement. Attempting to turn a basement into a big boat by sealing all of the currently existing cracks and leaving the water around and under the basement is foolhardy. Usually, If you make the water go away, it is not necessary to seal cracks. Many (most?) dasment waterproofing services are more about marekting than they are about actual success. If you do nto have a knowlegable GC, then you better learn a lot about water intrusion so you do nto get taken by clever saelmen with even more clever fancy marketing materilas, charts, grpahs and psychological training. Many or most of these salesmen have much more training in psychological sales techniques than they do in hydraulics or concrete technology.
Your meaningful fixes involve either diggin outside the basement to instal french drains, cutting out part of the basmeent slab and putting drains underneath, or trenching to find the source of the water and putting in an exterior sump pit and pump. None of those are minor. Slather goo is at best a very temporary repair. Sure they may guarantee the rpair will not leak, but they will not guarantee there will be no cracks appearing an inch away a few months or years later.
I think the OP and others on this thread SERIOUSLY arre missing the point of a General Contractor. The kinds of "fix this broken thing / upgrade that old thing" type jobs the OP lists are NOT what any sane person would hire a GC to do. You hire a GC to be the PRIME contractor on a BIG job like BUILDING a new house, renovating a kitchen, adding a bathroom, MAYBE building out a basement. Anything smaller and most honorable GCs would just refer you to the appropriate tradesperson.
The OP seems to have not just a unreleted "laundry list" of to-do items BUT a set of PROBLEMS that truly need to be priortized and addressed systematically.
Number One with a BULLET on that list in my book is the MISSING gutters and downspouts. If that is NOT addressed ASAP the next heavy rain could turn a basement into a stinking mess. Get a quality referal for a honest gutter guy and fix that before the end of the week. In a close NUMBER TWO status get a referal for roofing contractors -- a leaky roof is the SECOND most common way to turn an otherwise decent house into a wreck. Third is the CHIMMNEY -- get a qualified MASON to inspect / tuckpoint/ repair the chimmeny.
WIth those three areas addres the house out to be "rain tight" and other issues can be addressed. On the list the OP posted there is no indication that "plumbing repairs" involve LEAKY supply or drain lines, if that is the case they go to item 1b, behind the gutters and downspouts. If the issue is more like slow draining fixtures / frequent clogs maybe a call to RotoRooter instead of a real plummber is in order. Swap out ugly / poorly functioning faucets? Learn how to DIY...
If the furnance / AC puts out warm/cool air as needed it probably DOES NOT need to be replaced and instead an HONEST HVAC service tech will simply CLEAN and INSPECT it, perhaps checking the refrigeant charge / verifying temperature drop / increase. Spending money to replace an older unit before it is needed is NOT cost efficient EVEN if the new unit gets better efficiecneny. New units that are no longer safe / repairable will generally result in savings on energy AS A BY PRODUCT, but any honest HVAC firm will show you the projections of why this should NOT be the primarly mmotivation.
I put WINDOWS in a similar category. Yes, of course BROKEN panes of glass can be replaced by a decent HARDWARE STORE or specialty glass shop. If that needs to happen I would be shocken that any seller other than an "as is" situation would NOT have agreed to such repairs prior to closing. It is darned EXPENSIVE to switch out a house full of windows and truth be told well designed storm units are remarkable energy efficent. Of course if you WANT something easier to maintain that is awhole other motivation, and depending on the age of the house / style maybe perservation is not practical...
Notice that ONLY now am I going to address "basement waterproofing" becuase unless the OP did not get an inspection / has SUCKER written all over them/ did not have a competent buyers agent or is otherwise impaired the ONLY reason that the basement is other than DRY is becuase of some issue that GUTTERS AND DOWNSPOUTS should have fixed. If there is still a need to examine the SUMP PIT AND PUMP it is crucial to deal ONLY with the most ethical basement waterproofing firms. If those firms determine that additional work is needed I would caution that even highly trained Professional Engineers generally DECLINE to certify any basement waterproofing beyond "perimeter drain tiles and sump pit with pump" because of the lack of success in other "crack sealing" in fully addressing the myriad ways such efforts fail to achieve their aim...
Finally I will say I have NEVER seen any home inspection report for existing construction that did not find at least a few minor areas that the pickiest interpretattion of the National Electrical Code might show as less than fully compliant. If that is what you are dealing with then MAYBE also make a list of "wishlist" items like adding an exterior light , ceiling fan or three way switch and then hire a skilled electrician. If there were serious issues of life safety you should not have closed on the property until they were addressed and/or electrical repairs were scheduled.
We thought the same way. I have an added advantage. I am a construction lawyer. I know a lot about most trades and more about construciton contracts than contractors do. More importantly i know more about restoring old houses than most contractors (in some areas, probably more than pretty much all contractors). I was also able to work from home a lot of the time and keep an eye on things (except for weeks here and there when I had to go out of state). Shouldn't I be able to do as good or better job as a GC? We saved about $40,000 by not hiring a GC. It cost us about $90,000.
The subcontractors are more responsive to a General Contractor because they want to get work from him in the future and know he will have some. If working for a personal assistant or for you directly, they will give priority and their best crews to the jobs where they are working for a general contractor. You are not a signifcant source of repeat business for subcontractors.
Second if you hire a GC and there are any problems, you have one stop for correction of the problem. If you hire subs and there is a problem, they all blame each other, or blame you, or blame the sub that has since gone out of business and disappeared. With a general contractor, you go to the general and he fixes the problem. If there is a subcontractor problem, that is his problem, not yours.
Third, A GC can watch the work and ensure they follow all code reqruiements etcetera. Unless you know the code, and can watch the work as it goes in, you could find code violations years later. Public inspectors do not watch the work and they miss things all the time. If you discover something the inspector missed three years from now, guess whose problem it is to fix?
Fourth, The General Contractor should provide Liability insurance and include you as an additional insured on his policy. If you act as GC, you need to buy special liability insurance for what your homeowner's policy does not cover, or you can just gamble on the risk. THe GC shuld also provide worker comp insurance and ensure that all subcontractors have adequate and current workers comp and liaility (On this last item, I was better able to do that than a GC would be, but you likely are not).
Fifth, a good GC will know who the good subcontractors are. If you hire them, you can go through 8 plumbers before you find a good one (we did), or you can have someone abandon your job in the middle of the work. If someone does not show up on time and other contrctors are standing around waiting for you to get someone to finish the work, guess who pays for the standing around time?
Sixth. A general contractor is better able to determine when a sub is giving you a line of BS and when he raises a real issue of concern/added cost.
Seventh, a general contractor knows how to schedule a job to ensure the critical path to completion is continuous and not delayed. Between the electrician, HVAC contractor, insulation guy and plumber do you know which part of each of their work must proceed another part of on of the other guy's work? Do you have Microsft or primavera scheuling software to schedule the work? On a simple job like yours, scheuling is not all that complex, but it does matter. Your insulation guy may increase his price when he suddenly discovers lots and lots of wires and pipes in the insulation space that was not there when he gave you the price - ooops you forgot to tell him about the other work beign done before his. On the other hand, the electrician and plumber will nto be happy if they find themselves now working in insulated walls where there was none when they looked at the project.
Do you know the lead times on all materials you will need? Are their any items that need to be ordered three weeks before your project starts? What will you do if some material does nto show up on time or some subcontractor either fails to complete on time or fails to show up at all? What will you do if they find aesbestos or mold somewhere in the house? how fast can you get someone in to deal with it? Who will pay the subcontractors to stand by? Will the subcontractors agree to go away and then come back whenver you call them? (hint - probably not if you are not a GC who can be a source of future work, they will go away and come back when they can fit you in again).
I am just giving you random examples, not specific to your project. You will have similar problems if you go without a GC. Let me know if you are not convinced, I can give you another 8 or 9 reasons.
Sound advice.
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