how long does it take to complete a build?

15 years ago

I was watching a program on the History Channel the other night that really caught my attention.

In late 1941 when the USA first became involved in World War II the head of the War Department complained to the President that all the branches of the military had separate headquarters scattered all over Washington DC. Just the necessary commuting time alone made it nearly impossible to schedule all the necessary meetings to co-ordinate operations between the different branches of the military and other government agencies.

The head of the war department suggested they build one centrally located office structure to house the HQ's of all the branches of the military.

The idea was proposed on a Friday and the following Monday when they met again the architectural plans for the Pentagon, which to this day remains the worlds largest office building, had been completed over the weekend and a construction site in Virginia had been selected.

President Rooseveldt did not like the proposed site because he said it would block the view of the Capitol from Arlington Cemetery so they set out in search of a new site.

Three months later they approved the site in Virginia where the Pentagon now sits and construction was began. Now are you ready for this? Hold on to your hats folks,,,,Construction was completed in 17 months from the date of the original proposal. Who says contractors can't hustle when they want to?

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Comments (12)

meldy_nva
15 years ago
Many years ago, in far simpler times, I read that it took 10,000 skilled man-hours to build a small house. Man-hours is used because weather, delayed deliveries, and mind-changing (tweaking) can really add on to the number of days. Since on-the-job crews can vary from one to eight men, and there can be more than one crew at any time, it is impossible to predict the actual number of "days" for a build to complete, regardless of house size. You can find hypes about building a house in a day or a week, but consider that a) all materials are on hand and ready to install; b) many portions are pre-done such as complete walls already wired and the foundation dug, formed and cured; and c) you'll get skimpy value to match the reduced time, because proper finishing simply does take time -- for plaster mud to set, the tiles to be laid square [and their mud to cure], for the primer and the finish coats of paint to dry, etc.

Given *all* materials on hand and oversized crews to install them and a miracle of scheduling, I would guess than any regular-sized house could be completed within a month. But it wouldn't surprise me that it would take another year to correct all the flaws that occurred during the construction.

An experienced tract contractor and ditto deluxe builder will have a good feel for the time involved for the complexity of each style/size of house, even though weather etc can throw his guess off. Due to being able to consistently schedule work crews consecutively, tract houses are often completed in 3 to 4 months, while many deluxe builds will take 9 to 18 months -- providing there aren't too many tweaks and the weather cooperates.
cedar32
15 years ago
The TV program Extreme Makeover featured a home in Rhode Island in which the existing home (small maybe 1200 sq ft) was demolished and a new larger home (I believe around 4,000 sq ft) was erected in 1 week. I believe some preliminary work was accomplished prior to the demo.
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Time-wise, they are both at the extremes. In reality, it should take somewhere in the middle. But I have more faith in contractor #2 for a more realistic/gracious timeline than in contractor #1 for his slash and burn, in and out timeline. Allowances: Be careful with the allowances! An allowance simply means that you haven't picked out specific materials, but he's including an "allowance" in the bid so that he can give you an overall $$$ for the job. The allowance should also just be a FINISHED MATERIAL allowance, not a FINISHED MATERIAL AND LABOR/INSTALLATION allowance. Meaning, you have a 100 sqft bathroom and a $500 allowance for bathroom flooring. That works out to $5 a sqft. That $5 should be for the cost of the tile only. The labor to install, the cost of the underlayment or menmbrane, etc, should be buried in the overall cost of the job. If you chose a tile that cost $7 a sqft, you went $2 a foot or $200 over your allowance. The contractor will bill you for the additional $200 at the end of the job. If you chose tile that is $4 a sqft, you should get a $100 credit at the end of the job because you can in under the allowance. Be careful with allowances. $500 for "finished electrical/lighting" might sound fine until you realize you need two lights in your shower, a ceiling light in the bathroom, four sconces in the walls, a vent fan in the shower as well as another over the tub, and fancy wall dimmer/timer switches to control them all. So try to break allowances down into specific things; flooring, countertops, wall coverings, lighting fixtures, vent fixtures, etc. And make sure that the shower glass allowance is JUST for the cost of the glass. Not the cost to install it too. If installation is included, then break out the labor cost in your head so when you get the final bill there are no surprises. And for things like tile or hardwood flooring, break those down into square foot pricing. It makes it much easier to shop that way. Your contractor might have an arrangement with a local supply house or two. You can shop there and "get his price" or you can shop on your own and buy things on your own. Just ask him if he has any additional mark-ups on things you get through him or things you get on your on. It's always better to ask these questions now rather than later. It's simply good business. Mongo
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Questioning the 20 months won't seem as appropriate once you start building :) There are soooooooo many variables, the county, inspectors, timing (lining up the crews), shipping, screw-ups, weather, materials, personalities, site (level, sloped, soggy, etc...), things you weren't expecting and decide you don't like, things you hadn't thought about and you want, labor, transportation (I'm very rural and don't know how many times I heard "they're having some trouble with they're truck/s), deliveries, you can probably think of a dozen more things that may or may not go as planned. Unless you have a contract that SPECIFICALLY states a completion date (not, it will take 6 months) there's nothing that says they have to have it done when they 'think' it'll be done. Only way to hold them accountable is to put some delinquency clause in the contract that states if they go beyond a specified date there will be a X% per week penalty (or whatever). I doubt you could get a builder to sign something like that w/out a LOT of padding.
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We spent two years trying to find an existing house in the area where we wanted to live. In 1999 we bought one of the first houses we'd seen, thinking we could remodel it. We bought it for it's location -- good thing, because we soon saw that we'd be ahead to tear down the 1950's ranch and build all new. We moved into our 2900 sq ft single-floor home in October 2001. (Then we moved out again a month later so the wood floors could be re-done; builder paid.) There was the 'architect' who was unlicensed. There was the stop work order from the city AFTER we had both the teardown permit and the building permit. (Illegal, but it would take at least two years for a lawsuit to come to trial.) There was the College of Fools, the all volunteer Building Review Board, who had time on their hands and enjoyed fussing over our already-approved house plans -- when they got around to meeting. (More illegal meddling.) The actual construction took about nine months. Just remembering the *completely arbitrary and illegal* delays is painful. I lost 30 pounds and had to delay a surgery until I regained ten. We do love our home, but we sure had to fight for it!
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@doc5md, it took us 18 months to get in our house and I think I could have shaved that down to 14 if I had been less patient with ignorance and apathy. This was our first build, and looking back I was too patient with a few particular contractors that were just horrible at their jobs. I didn't know what I didn't know, so I accepted their level of (non)professionalism as the standard. The further we made it through our build and the more excellent contractors we found ourselves using, I eventually realized just how bad some of those guys really were. Knowing what I know now, I would either apply more pressure to those that need it (and demand immediate results), or I would cut them loose much sooner and not let them derail my project. Time is money and I didn't value it as much as I should have.
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sniffdog
15 years ago
My build took 16 months and it ain't no Pentagon. Thanks for making my day :)
heimert
15 years ago
If cost were no object, sniffdog, you could have had a Pentagon in 16 months.

Things can go a lot faster if you're not worried about efficiency and can have crews on standby all the time. Most contractors don't work like that, though.
jasonmi7
15 years ago
Top quality on a home build; 30 days.
mdc08
15 years ago
Your kidding right? 30 DAYS???
worthy
15 years ago
How about 2 hours and 52 minutes?

Here is a link that might be useful: The Two Hour House
worthy
15 years ago
The key: lots of planning, thousands of helpers and every trick in the book, such as concrete with an initial setup of 20 minutes.

Piker that I am, I take 6.5-8 months for custom homes in the 4K feet range.
mightyanvil
15 years ago
The first drawings for the Pentagon have been described as "very very preliminary". At the height of construction, over 1,000 architects worked in an adjacent hanger and revised drawings were often delivered to the site each morning. The number of workers reached a peak of about 15,000 working on two and sometimes three shifts a day. There was a separate construction crew for each of the five sections of the building working on a Time & Materials basis.
stinkytiger
15 years ago
Hi,

I think a good rule of thumb is twice as long as you think. If you factor in stuff like geting building permits, design archictects etc. From start to finish it took me two years for my house in new York

Mind you my brother took nine years on his project in italy.

best, Mike.

Here is a link that might be useful: Brother's hotel in Italy
ccoombs1
15 years ago
For me...five or six years....I sort of lost track. But I am doing it myself and paying as I go, so that's really not too bad. We move in January 1st. finally.

Cindy
mainecoonkitty
15 years ago
Get an Amish builder!

We built a very custom, 3200 ft two story Craftsman farmhouse with high-end finishes through-out. The time frame estimates we got from other builders was 9 - 12 months. Our Amish builder finished it in 92 days!

Of course, his crews work 12-15 hrs a day, 6 days a week and we didn't lose a single day for weather delays. He was building 4 other houses at the same time, so he is able to schedule his crews from house to house without any delays. I've never seen men work as hard and efficiently as they did. There was so little waste and no wasted time or motion that we were constantly amazed, and the woodworking and finishes are superb. And the county building inspector said it's the best quality building he's seen in ages.

how long does it take to complete a build?

Comments (12)

meldy_nva

cedar32

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