Can I get some tips to function as my own general contractor?
S W
4 years ago
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Comments (12)Aulani - I just used wire hangers, twist/bend them apart and just stick them in the ground. If you want a more perminate approach you could sink rebar into the ground on either side, put pvc electrical conduit over one rebar and bend over to the corresponding rebar. I am thinking of doing this next year because the hangers will rust out pretty fast. Here is a link were you can purchase floating row cover from Johnny's flora2b - Thanks for the time frame, I have a metal halide light for over wintering plants so I will defiantly start some under it in January. I am figuring the seedlings I purchased were not started early enough, they were rather small, just two or three leaves....See MoreKitchen Designers/General Contractors not getting back with me
Comments (22)Adrienne, First I wanted to put in a mini-apology because when I reread my post this morning it read as more "attackish" then I wanted it to. My only excuse is that I had a longer day then I had thought and this is a sore point with me. It is SO true that I don't want to deal with annoying people. Lol! I am an independant contractor so in essence I am my own business. I don't sell cabinets, or make a profit off of someone else's time like a GC does. I rent my time on an hourly basis. When we talk about the making money side of things (why don't they want to make the money) it's not that we don't want the money, or even that we won't make the money, it's that we think our time is better spent making the money somewhere else. I only have a certain amount of hours in a day. If my goal is to work/charge for 8 hours in a day and I have two jobs available to me for that same time frame I'll take the job I'm more interested in and people are definitely a deciding factor. With something like an appliance salesmen the question may be why doesn't he want the money because it doesn't require anything more of him to get that second sale while with someone who sells their time it means late nights and working weekends. If I size up a situation and think that for whatever reason the job will end up costing me more than I'd get paid for (or would be frustrating or would take forever or etc) then I'll just take the second project. I can only sell my time once! I don't know if I've ever actually said "you smell" to a client, but I have definitely had things like unsanitary conditions play a role in if I want to move forward with a job. It's helpfull to know that I specialize in working with small budgets and often work giving advice to DIY. That's what I enjoy doing. And that entails spending a lot of time with the clients and often at their home. If I go to the home and they are heavy smokers so the house reeks and they have three big dogs that they can't keep off me and they keep talking about the neighborhood going to hell because of a mexican family moving in next door (true stories) I say things like "I don't feel like we are a good match. I don't particularly like dogs, the lingering smoke smell is bothering my allergies and I don't know what to say about the Mexicans. With these things in mind I would certainly give you a referral to another designer if you like and of course, I won't charge you for this visit." Something like that. I do try and be polite but I also want to be honest. Maybe when the next designer comes over they will put away the dogs and air the house out. I DO work with people I don't particularly like. As long as I feel like we have similar goals and values that's where I am at. But often, the reasons you might not like someone are reasons that seriously affect working together on something as intense as a full kitchen remodel. For instance, someone who is disorganized to a fault but still wants to be their own GC, someone with no construction understanding or background who demonstrates an unwillingness to listen to the GC, someone who complains at the quotation of your pricing (not a bill but the up front quote of amount per hour). None of these things make someone a bad person and if the job is interesting and we agree on other levels we may still move forward. But if you combine them together you get a project that is going to take forever, be painfull to execute, and I'll be stiffed somewhere along the way for my fee. In the same way you don't want your remodel to be a horrible process where everything that can go wrong, does go wrong, I don't want that either. I get very invested in the jobs I do. You don't want to start a job with a weirdo designer or a nut job GC and I don't want to start one with a nut job GC and a crazy person for a client. Somewhere a GC is thinking "that dang weirdo designer and crazy person client". A good remodel is a team effort! A bunch of us stuck in a life raft together until the thing is over. In sum, when you panic at 6:15 in the morning because you had second thoughts about your faucet and the guy is unloading the tools to start drilling your counter holes I want to laugh and say good morning! Not think to myself, why did I get into this mess!...See MoreIf you are going to be your own general contractor...
Comments (17)jannicone, You are correct and reminded me of a situation I encountered. We were doing a large addition to our home. A lien was placed on our home by the concrete supplier used by our concrete contractor. While I had a GC on that project, I raised holy hell about it. I was on the phone with the supplier. I ate him a new one. I told him that we would happily pay COD for the concrete it that was what he needed. Just let us know. But, to slap a lien on the property before the bill was even generated was pretty much ridiculous. I was sending my GC over right then with a check and a release of lien form and he better sign it. Did he want my check, certified check or cash? I remember how pissed I was about the whole thing. My GC was terribly embarrassed about it. I didn't hold it against him. He didn't do anything wrong. Neither did the concrete contractor. I also understood the position of the concrete supplier. He wanted to be paid. My position was he should be up front about it, demand payment and we can work it out. I was pissed about the supplier's business practices. It wasn't like the concrete was going anywhere and I didn't expect credit. That's a lesson of how you can end up with a lien through no fault of your own. The lien was cleared. I checked that at the Courthouse....See MoreCan I get estimates from General Contractors if I plan to GC myself?
Comments (43)I would say best practice for hiring for a position like yours is to include in the posting that there is a preference for internal candidates. I know when I was a job seeker I found that a fair way to give me a heads up about the likelihood of getting the job. That is a great response and thank you for offering a reasonable and thoughtful response, however, that could be an ethical violation. This is a perfect demonstration of the difference between ethical and honest. You have a fiduciary duty to the company you work for. If revealing a preference for internal candidates will yield a less qualified pool (which it definitely will), and there is even a chance you would hire an external candidate (which might apply), then your honesty would be an ethical violation. You were not hired by your organization to look out for the interest of applicants, you were hired to look out for the best interest of the organization that pays you. You were free to turn down the job, but you didn't. ----- So let's turn this back around to a contractor. Suppose a contractor has a couple of partners in his business, and he is asked to do a bid for someone, which is a service he charges for. As the bid comes together he realizes that he has no intention of accepting the job. What should he do? Obviously, the move with the most integrity is to give the money back and come clean, anything else is tantamount to stealing. However, returning money that he had no obligation to, would be a violation of his fiduciary duty to his partners. Ethics aside, I don't think you are well equipped to GC your own home build based on this information. I completely agree with this. This is also why I think finding out how much you will have to pay someone to do it for you is a really great option....See MoreGreenDesigns
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