I should also add that we have received bids up to 50k and as low as 40k for the job. By subbing it out, I hope to be under 30k.

Thanks for your feedback!

Anyone??? Please help with advice!!

Thanks!

Here's my advice: Don't pay anything up front. Make him earn the money. Pay him, and he probably won't even return your phone calls.

This GC was recomended by guy who did my plans. He is basically a Concrete Contractor now but also has a GC license.

So, that's where I went with the consult idea... it would be nice to have someone knowledgabe to atleast be there if anythign comes up...

I will probably use them for the concrete but just dont want to pay the other fee up front....

Maybe I should just pull the permits myself.... Any other advice?

My take is that you should pull the permits yourself if you are comfortable with understanding the technical details of your plans and the building process. In other words, could you stand with the inspector and answer questions about the job?

I faced your question quite a while back and have found that I much perfer to interact with the instpector directly so that I can instruct trades as necessary for changes (there will be some, hopefully minor). The best advice I can give is establish a good working relationship with the town and the inspectors themselves. If they see you are trying to meet code and ask questions, they will usually work with you.

Bill

I can't imagine why he would charge anything but an hourly rate for consultation, unless he's convinced you won't pay him if he bills for the hours after the fact. What guarantee do you have that he will ever show up or return your calls once you make your payment?

I use a structural engineer for consultation on structure issues, and he's never asked for anything up front; he just bills me for the hours afterwards. I've done quite a bit of consulting as well, mostly on obtaining permits and other approvals for large industrial projects, and I can say it's industry practice to only charge for actual hours. If I asked for my fee in advance, they would just laugh as they showed me to the door.

Not sure why they would want the whole consult up front. Like I said, I would probably be using them for the concrete work also. But, that would be billed seperately, like normal subs would... If I don't do the consult route with them, I will probably still do the concrete...

They said that since they would be pulling the permits and handling the inspections, they need to be covered... Oh well, it sucks because I was thinking seriously about going with them.

I already have the plans and have a basic knowledge of everything. Very basic. :-) I really like the idea of dealing with the subs myself and that way everything can be on my schedule... The only thing holding me back from doing my own permits is the fact that I work during the day. It would be hard for me to be home for the inspection times.

Anyone else deal with this?

I'd take a BIG step backwards and re-evaluate your plans. If you can't be home to meet inspectors, then who is supervising the subs and their work? It's nice to save a lot of money, but that savings comes at a major investment of your time. You don't get anything for nothing.

Thanks for the tip fairegold.

The thing is, this is a small addition (less than 350 SF). I also live at the home.

As long as I have a set of plans, and the licensed plumbers, masonry, electricians, and roofers do their jobs, where does the problem come in? Interior (drywall, flooring ,etc.) will be done by me.

Are you saying it would be better to pay the $2800 for the consultation fee? That just means the GC would be doing the scheduling for the trades and inspections. I still would be finding the subs.....

Your thoughts?

The plumbers, masons, electricians, and roofers may or may not show up, do their jobs, do their jobs properly.

You said: "As long as I have a set of plans, and the licensed plumbers, masonry, electricians, and roofers do their jobs, where does the problem come in?"

I suggest that you are really being terribly naive. Life might work this way in other endeavors of life, where people say what they will do and then do it correctly, but that simply is not true in the construction trades. (Disclaimer: yes, there are many fine honest good workers in the trades. Your luck in finding them all for one project is remote.)

I suggest that you go back and read all the case histories on this forum, the Building a home forum and the Kitchens and Baths forums for a thousand examples of exactly what CAN go wrong.

Thanks fairgold... Your candor is appreciated....

I think the point that I was trying to make was missed. My original question was about "Paying for a GC Consultation Fee".

I know many problems can go wrong with any building project... But.... am I write to assume that the smaller the job, the less chance of something major going wrong? What if you know the subs and trust there work?

This is a small addition. I DO like the idea of having a GC consult but my orginal question was about paying the fee upfront....

Does anyone else have any experience with this? Is it better to get a GC for the whole job? I like the consult option because I have a more hands-on role and so far, it looks like we will save a bunch!

Thanks again everyone for your feedback!

Consultation is not the same as the GC supervising the subs. Unless you and he spell out in a contract exactly what his duties are, to include permits, supervising subs, follow-up with subs, getting lien releases, plus inspections. If you get the GC to sit down with a contract that has been vetted by an attorney, that he will do all that, maybe....

"Consult" means nothing if it isn's spelled out completely, legally.

The smaller the job, the better chance that things can go wrong, IMHO. On larger jobs, more money involved, there is less a chance that the workers will just walk.

You are saying two different things. One is that you want the GC to "consult" because you will have a more hands-on role, but then you say that you work full-time and you will not be there onsite during work hours.

That's what a GC does. (Or should do... no guarantee on that, either.)

If you are considering the GC consult with an up front fee, are you basically saying that you want a 1 time consult or do you want someone "on call" for the duration of the project? If it's only a 1 time consult, I'd say you have to pay in full up front. If you want the "on call" approach, I'd say that paying in installments would be the way to go.

I GC'd our recent remodel which ultimately took 4 1/2 months. In deciding to take that role, we interviewed 5 GCs, and assorted individual tradesmen (3-4 per trade) ahead of time. We learned alot about the actual construction of our house and what our project would involve through the interview process (we had architect's drawings to work from). We pulled our own permits and learned alot about what our city was expecting through discussions with them. We knew ahead of time what we wanted and we learned how it needed to be done. The ultimate decision to GC ourselves was made because I tend to be a perfectionist, am a good planner and am very detail oriented. I, too, work full time and used a fair amt of vacation time when I was needed on site for questions/specific meetings etc. In addition, my employer was flexible with letting me leave early for meetings and I made up the time by going in early and working late on other days.

Every tradesman that we worked with came with at least 5 personal recommendations and we checked every single recommendation. We put in about 4-5 months of doing our homework to make the decision to GC ourselves and yes, save some $$. This was after we had the plans in hand and before the first speck of demo started.

We ended up using one company for alot of our project and the lead fellow told me about 3/4 of the way through the project that he was very surprised how smoothly it was going especially since I wasn't on site regularly. I'm convinced it turned out that way because of how "on top" of things we were as homeowners.

Did any of this planning prevent some scheduling difficulties - No way! We progressed pretty well from day 1 of demo to the day the cabinets were delivered. However, one cabinet had been measured wrong and that threw an entire wall off...which threw the countertops off...which threw the backsplash off...which threw the stove off...which threw the plumber for gas line hookup off. That one cabinet added 1 month to the total project. At all times, I was working with scheduling two weeks out while following up with the day to day details.

A small project does not guarantee fewer problems. In my experience, any project will have surprises and it's the surprises that affect how smoothly things runs. One of the things we were advised of repeatedly during our planning phase was to expect time and cost overruns due to the surprises. We could not see how the cost overruns could happen due to our planning but we remained open to that possibility and it did ... due to having to deal with some unexpected structural matters.

Would I GC again? Yes. Is it a very time intensive process to GC? Yes. Did my eyes get opened during this process? Yes. Would I want a concrete guy in the GC role on a total build job? Nope. I guess my bottom line thought is that a homeowner should realize that if they act as the GC, they are going to have a part time job in addition to their full time job during the duration of the project.

Only you can decide about your commitment level.

I haven't read the entire thread but what struck me is his reasoning for getting all the money up front. He wants the money up front because you can fire him at anytime? Well, he can take off with all your money at any time.

Sounds like a pretty unprofessional reason to me.