construction bid: which materials considered 'finishes'?
nikita tovstoles
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
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nikita tovstoles
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Am I crazy for considering this type of construction?
Comments (15)If you want a 'super insulated' home what about SIPs?? osb sandwiches foam, minimal loss of ins value due to little use of framing members, and imo the best building system to date. Granted you are not in my climate, but I met a friend here years ago who lived in Michigan, He was a SIPs builder and it performed as well there as here, so I feel comfortable in recommending it to you as well. SIPs panels are being used in our hurricane recovery areas, as prefered systems due to high wind requirements, strength and the energy efficiency savings. With SIPs as well as ICF as Rbadger noted, adhering to load calculations is a must for not only an efficient home, but a healthy one. Less tonnage of hvac is one benefit with these better building systems. Don't expect the hvac industry to provide you a 'free' load calc. The more tons of hvac they can sell you the more their profit. And sadly, many companies either don't use the proper input values .. ie SIP or ICF true values & air leakage reduction values, and the load calc is not 'true'. * reread this when you see the same symbol below... Rbadger does unbiased load calcs, and can also do a duct design & layout..( I think he does the latter two..). Unbiased is the key word in that statement. You should at some point 'talk' with him. There may be a hvac co in your area that does the true calcs. But be prepared to shop around. With SIPs in my area we are achieving 750 sq ft per ton..although I hate rule of thumb sizing,,it is a term you will hear alot as you shop hvac co's. Rule of thumb is at best a guess. * see above For fast quotes- many hvac co's use them..around here the ones who haven't chosen educate themselves use 400 to 500 sq ft per ton. Steer away from these hvac co's. Be prepared to shop. Also SIPs panels come in different insulation values, this differece is due to thickness of foam 4", 6" and possibly 8". panels come as blanks, meaning that window and door openings are not cut, or precut, but there is little room for error in precuts. If this is a system you may be interested in ...I'll email the retired SIPs builder and ask him to chime in. Windows..they can be trimmed out, additional cost, but for me it is not the way it looks that is as important at this stage. Buying a better window is important. The windows and doors are the weak spot of any wall. Look for a NFRC sticker on the window brands that you are shopping. NFRC is an independent (see how I keep comming back to an independent source of info..beware of sites selling you products) company that tests & rates all windows worth buying. You'll find that the common numbers to shop for are on this sticker..Solar Heat Gain Coefficients (SHGC) and U-factors. .4 SHGC or LESS is the best buy, invest in Low e glass as it will keep heat in the house in the cold months. I see a lot of .35 SHGC windows around here, of course the Low e install is in my climate, your Low e will be located on a different glass surface as per your climate. The important thing is to buy a window that will not transfer heat or cold from the outside to the inside. Metal windows condensate and cause a LOT of moisture/mold issues that take years to show the total depth of damage. The only way that metal windows don't have some degree of condensation is if they have a wood frame to the interior. Metal transfers heat/cold and is a good conductor..wood is a poor conductor. Oberon is the window expert here that is happy to share his expertiese & years of experience. Best of luck and enjoy your learning experience. Keep in mind the house as a system..not individual componets. Everything has to work together, not against each other to achieve a healthy house....See MoreNew construction Heat & Air bid questions (long)
Comments (3)prinesurf 1.you have extremely good utility rates 2.this is your home, not the builder's or his HVAC dealer. You have to live there. I still recommend you seek a quote on the Carrier Infinity system with the Infinity controller and their complementary zonong controls. 3.The g60 while two stg does not have a var spd blower and is only 80% eff. Big mistake! The G60v while var speed, it is only 80% AFUE eff and unless paired with a heat pump, this is a big mistake as well. 4.disagee. You want comfort and that includes even heating/cooling and quiet. That's what you get with var speed. 5.good 6.I would at least move up to the XC14 which is quieter. 7.good on having zoning controls. Unfamiliar with the Jackson brand. I assume this is a 3rd party control rather than the Lennox Harmony control. Perhaps other members can comment. I don't care for 3rd party HVAC equipment. Carrier has a tried and tested zoning control system. 8.Which Honeywell Media filter? Nothing is wrong with a good media filter as long as it is placed in an accessible area for easy changeout. 9.That is an absurd price on the upgrade to the XC16! You might check on the XC15. I see a pattern to the Lennox quote and your HVAC dealer's pricing and upgrades. It tends to benefit someone other than you! A couple of suggestions. I would put the G61v furnace downstairs with the XC15 AC. Upstairs, I would put the G60v with the XC14 AC or XP14 heat pump. You also need a stat that controls humidity by controlling blower speed on the var spd blowers. I would investigate the Zoning control dealer is planning on using. And insist on load calc in writing! You will regret not getting var spd blowers on your furnaces. IMO...See MoreHelp evaluating a bid in Michigan
Comments (2)Sounds high to me - esp. some of the upgrades. An automatic pool cover should be about half of what you're paying. The upgrade costs from standard plaster are also super-high. Unless prices have doubled from what I paid 2 years ago, the costs for similar upgrades and options for my 45 x 14 foot pool were about 40 percent of what you are being charged (and I'm in So. Cal., where construction costs are high). Also, if you're putting in a volleyball thing, it would seem that a sport pool (with the deep part in the middle and shallow on both ends) would be more conducive to playing volleyball....See MoreCost-Plus, Fixed Bid, Time & Materials
Comments (25)I wrote a lot a long time ago and have learned a lot since then. We did three projects with two contractors. All were done to high standards. The first contractor, the one I thought I could trust to do cost plus, ended up being a mess. He wasn't dishonest, just incompetent as a GC. His estimates were almost worthless. He didn't really care if his subs ended up spending more because it just got passed on to me. His scheduling was horrendous so there were too many periods of time where nothing was happening. He always had excuses for why things were late/over estimate. I really don't think he knew how much things were going to cost. In the end, he was no less expensive than the other high priced contractors we talked to, though he appeared to be at first. Hard to say if he was more expensive. And like I said, the quality of work was very high: he did have good subs, so quality didn't suffer. (And his custom cabinet maker walks on water: the nicest guy and such great work. We use him for lots of stuff.) So we went with another contractor for the second project (an extensive cottage remodel) and a finished workshop. We did another extensive search. Both of these projects were fixed price and were fairly expensive. The cottage contract ended up having lots of change orders: but that was because the cottage was a mess. We expected a lot of issues and we got them. It really wasn't possible to know what we would find when we started and the contractor made that clear. When we called references on him, one person, maybe a realtor?, said "I can't believe I'm actually recommending a contractor ..." The second and third projects were fixed price but it wasn't just given as a lump sum: he gave us a breakdown for cost for every division (though that doesn't break out labor/materials). And he added profit and overhead at 25%. The biggest thing about him was there was never an excuse. If something was wrong, it was always "we'll fix it." We mostly dealt with a super (which we also really like) but dealt with him directly on stickier issues. So the big thing for us is finding someone we trust. We've been lucky to find that with a landscape contractor, too: same attitude: "we'll fix it." Sometimes there are issues of "has to be this way" but always trying to achieve what we can and always fixing anything that goes awry. We do smaller cost plus jobs with them on an ongoing basis so we've done both fixed and cost plus. Trusting is not just about the way the work gets done: it's also about pricing. We trust that he's charging market rates and not trying to take advantage of us. We ask about costs for projects now but it's more to see if we can afford it than it is to price shop. (With the cabinet maker, we don't even ask ahead any more ... we totally trust him and have no comparable sources anyway.) We feel really fortunate to have found folks that we have such a good relationship with....See Morenikita tovstoles
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8 years agoVirgil Carter Fine Art
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8 years agolast modified: 8 years agonikita tovstoles
8 years agoOaktown
8 years agoUser
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoOaktown
8 years agonikita tovstoles
8 years agoRachel (Zone 7A + wind)
8 years agoOaktown
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8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
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