Need GC Help Builging a House

Looking for GC help building a house. Mine burned down Sunday before Thanksgiving. Got all the demo work done even the slab. Want to save some money and GC it myself. unfortunately I do not know the first thing about how to start. Any help start to finish would be appreciated.

I'm not actually new here but my account was deactivated ans was easier just to set up a new one.

I recommend Joel Carrington, he should be along shortly.

Start?

Get your floor plan, then all your drawings. You need them on PDF file, so you can email them to subs. Of course printed copies on the job site as well.

Make a list of all the trades, in order of when they show up. Get those subs called, emailed, and get bids. Timeline for all of them of when they can get there is why they will need plenty of notice.

Foundation
Plumber
Framer
Roofer
Mason
Electric
HVAC
Foam installer
Sheet rock install, tape/bed/texture
Flooring
Paint
Cabinets
Trim

I did grade work and jobsite clean-up myself. But those subs also exist.

I actually already have have the plans to the architect. The house and slab are already demoed.

Off topic question.Good caliber for 1,000 yard shooting?

I understand they are demoed. A new foundation has to be built again. Concrete man, and plumber have got to work together. Concrete man is right after the dirt work (if you need dirt work) He stakes, forms, pier drills, trenches, then he has to stop. Let the plumber come in and do his thing. Then concrete crew comes back and finalizes it for the pour, cushion sand, plastic, rebar.

You can routinely hit 1000 yard steel with a .223 Rem loaded with an 80 gr.
.243, 6X47L, 6mm Creedmoor, 6.5X47L, .260 Rem, 6.5 Creedmoor, 7mm-08, .308 Win and hundreds of others.

Contrary to what some people think, you do not need a big expensive, hard recoiling magnum.

.284 Winchester?

Won't you pay about triple to 6x more by hiring these trades yourself?

I assumed a GC already has all these trades in hand and gets the newbies to work for cheap

Mighty fine!

That was not the case for me.

I don't want cheap, I want right. Plenty of subs work for builder's sure. But they are still free-lance. They handle their own schedule. They ply their trade on a project, not caring who the top boss is.

My house easily doubles in value what It cost me to build it.

I can't see any trade that requires a license for a homeowner to be able to hire them and not pay out the nose for their services

Going rate for GC to do just the scheduling / hiring is 18% - 20% of the value of home. $400,000.00 home GC Charge is $72,000.00 @ 18%, 20% is $80,000.00. Then you have the liability of him either not being any good or walking away from the project because of material cost, financial problems or any other reason. Then taking all monies I have already given them. Only recourse is to sue them. Right now it takes 2-1/2 to 3 years to go to trial on a case like this. if they file for bankruptcy they are protected by law and may not get anything back or very little. If you go with a builder they already have the 18-20% (most likely more) built into the sale price of the house. Really just depends on the risk you are willing to take. if you GC yourself you could save thousands of $ and put back into your home.

The difference between you and the OP is this quote from his post, "unfortunately I do not know the first thing about how to start. Any help start to finish would be appreciated."

I built for over thirty years and quit when all the price insanity started a couple of years ago. I still communicate with some of the subs. I can say that the best subs are booked up with their regular builders until the next printing of calendars.

I've heard many good subs say that they won't work for a new do-it-yourself homebuilder.

I done my own with the ranch cabin years ago out at the place.. Saved a ton. Had Satterwhite Log homes pour the slab and build the shell. Hired all the support people. Had to take Insurance out on the project.

Even home builders are backed up. Right now Cuto in homes in Granbury start to finish is 12-18 months to complete.
Same with Tilson homes. It's even harder to find builders to build on your land versus their subdivisions.

You do have to get an an LLC license.

What is a LLC Licenses? New one to me. Do you mean you have to form a LLC?

I know many subs who will not work for a GC either

Pop Pop ,

I applaud your efforts, you have openly came here to fulfill a dream, not bluffing your way through. I think you will eventually build what you want, just be consistent and demand what YOU
want. There are answers here, just keep digging.

This country was built with efforts like yours.

Good luck

Nope. In Texas To become a general contractor , To build your home, you do not need to apply for a license at the state level. These licenses are mandated on a local level. You must therefore check whether your municipality or city requires you to get licensed to perform this type of work.

Is insurance and a mortgage involved? If so, they may require a GC or home builder. Not saying that’s the best way, there are snakes everywhere, but both of those entities have a financial interest in getting you’re home rebuilt as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Texas has no such license as General Contractor. it doesn't exist.

It is going through insurance and a mortgage co. I have already talked to both and being the GC is fine with them. Actually the insurance co lawyer suggested being my own GC. I already have the funds for the dwelling. Well it was made out to me and my mortgagor. Mortgage co will release funds per work scheduling. Even though I'm outside the city limits I still have to pull permits since it is an insurance claim.

Johnson County does require me to get licensed. And so does the insurance company (since it is an insurance claim).

Built my own did fine.

Prepare to be frustrated and deal with people stretching themselves. Don’t pay for labor until labors done. Weekly draw by % completed is acceptable. Material draw for material onsite is normal too.

Good luck.

Ignore red ranger he had to hire out finding a wife. DIY ain’t his deal.

Huh?

If you decide to go through with this you might consider hiring a home inspector to do phase inspections for you. They may see some things that won't jump out to you.

Do you have a day job? That may put you in a tough spot. Having the time required to manage this first time effort involving so much you do not know about and which you have never been confronted with may well be a task in and of itself to consider when realizing you will have actually live in it when finished.

I know many, many artisan contractors in these here parts. If they will even find the time to work on a self build, most provide a surcharge on the well intentioned rocket surgeons who manage their own jobs when trying to cut out a GC so they can save $ because, after all, it is so easy and GC's don't really earn their $. The most common complaint from subs about self builders is wasted time and additional efforts created by the well intentioned guy performing on his own, who does not know how to appropriately schedule the various trades and provide for a well coordinated process.

Somes can do it, but many just screw themselves.

I would get in line for Couto Homes even if it took as long as you said. They will actually take bids from all subs (even for lighting and appliances) for your build, unlike some cost-plus builders who use the same subs over and over again without trying to be competitive with your money. I will admit that the cheapest sub is not always the best route to go though. They built our home, and it took 1 year from the first time we talked to them till we moved in 5 years ago when they built our home on our land north of Stephenville. You get a lot more house for your money. Go to their website and check out their specs. They built my sons house just before starting ours also. Not all that impressed with Tilson at all.

Agreed.

My FD schedule at the time put me on site two out of three days.

Every day, phone calls, texts, emails had to be answered or initiated.

And don't forget to have a stout skid steer on site at all times. Your house arrives on tractor trailers. Some can unload themselves, many cannot. All the way to the end, when furniture and appliances show up. Some freight companies asked if this was a "commercial location" and I said yes. They were just making sure they could get unloaded.

I built my house without a skid steer on-site fyi. Not important

So I'm lying?

20 pallets of stone, 4000 pound weight tags on them.
Trailer did not have a donkey lift. Gonna handle all that stone by hand? The Masons needed those pallets moved around the house as they went.

I unloaded trucks almost every week for a year. Otherwise much of it would have been sat in the driveway and watch the truck leave. At least the ones with a lift gate. Including a 3600 square foot house worth of cabinets. Cabinets palletized. I would have had to bust them all down, and carry them into the shop by hand. Yeah, no thanks, ain't nobody got time for that.

I kept the ground graded off all the way around the house, every time the ground was dry enough. Skid steer traffic and foot traffic got fixed. 6 months before moving in, I was mowing around the house with a ZTR mower.

I’ll drive through the country side and get the % of houses under construction with a skid steer sitting.

Would it help yes. Is it required….. no.

Telling someone they need one to build a house is silly.

Like saying you need a lift to change your oil.

If you do NOT know what you're doing then you may end up spending more than the 18-20% a GC will charge. Relationships with trades in this business are everything. If you don't have any then you will fail. I highly suggest you listen to everything FiremanJG says. He knows what he's talking about and has the fruits of his labor and experience to prove it. Ignore Red Ranger.

I got my best friend to be the home builder. He’s a hot shotter by profession. I’m currently a builder for a friend as well. Banks know.

I gave you specifi examples and you ignored them.

You are a bad mo-fo! Unload over 40,000 pounds of stone by hand. And then move them several times for the Masons, by hand again. Appliances by moved by hand (maybe you used a dolley). Graded your yard with nothing but a shovel and rake. Bravo, I admire your physical strength and fitness!

Homeowner wouldn't be able to afford licensed guy since they would charge them out the nose, or the guy doing the skilled trades is just a handyman, or maybe you live out in the sticks where people work cheap.

The city/county can make you register as a contractor and pay a fee, State of Texas doesn't have a general contractor nor a contractor licenses.

What you do on city or county level is dictated by where you are located.

Who is gonna issue this "Licenses'?

I passed 4 houses headed from Collin county to the house under construction. None had a skid steer sitting.


Guess everyone is tougher than you.

Err I mean smarter

Pop I’m sorry. Hose team 6 is correct; you’ll need to rent a 75 hp or bigger skid steer for a year and leave the keys in it for all your contractors to use. This will negate your savings as no home builder on earth does this.

Did you get a "Contractor License" from the State of Texas? Don't be lying

Red I assume that you’re not stupid being that you are in the construction field a little bit but in case you’re not joking I’ll go ahead and answer your question there is no such thing as a licensed contractor through the state of Texas you have to be licensed to do electrical work you have to be licensed to do plumbing work you have to be licensed to do HVAC work but there is no state licensing for general contractor again I made a big assumption coming into this conversation but that was probably wrong

You are making assumptions based on incomplete information, which makes you look foolish.

Licensed electricians, plumbers, and HVAC? Yeah all those guys were licensed. They charged me based on the size of the house, same as any other house. They gave a bid, and I accepted or not. I am out in the sticks, but my subs came from all over the place. They are pros at what they do, and if they built in travel time because I am in the sticks, that was the correct thing to do.

In fact, pretty much every sub told me my house was far higher quality and a more organized job site than the "builders" they typically work for. My spray foam installer asked permission to take photos to submit them to a publication. Because of the type of steel house it is, and the type of foam I asked them to install.

Carpenters only use hammers, and no nail guns in your world?

He could buy one, run it himself, and then sell it when the house is built.

You are disappointing me, I thought you were fairly intelligent. I was wrong.

Well I’m intelligent enough to build a house without a skid steer so there’s that

Out in the sticks you can get deals from licensed guys, since 2014 most of these licensed guys are way too busy to deal with homeowners, unless like you said they are out in the sticks. Doesn't mean there work is subpar just means you can find deals out in the sticks vs inside the big cities.

You two could get rich if you just stuck chunks of coal between your head. Eventually y’all could split an 8 ct diamond

I always get a kick out of the people who think Texas has a GC license.

Like I see these "Roofers" some will actually say "Licensed" & "Bonded", what does that mean they have a driver license?

Op biggest issue is you have zero industry knowledge and no pre vetted subs.

What you want to do is very doable but it may end up not being the savings you in visioned.

Your time is worth something but only you can put a value on it

Exactly

I hear people say that. “Licensed builder” I stay away from them.

Just a FYI

If you have a house that is "homesteaded" in Texas you don't need a license to perform plumbing, electrical on your own home, I am not sure about HVAC but would think you don't need it either, I remember they had a EPA test you take to be able to buy refrigerant.

How does that work out on insurance claims…….

Yeah you can't do without one of these. Still have this Guy, bought new and still use it often. This has been used on
3 houses and countless projects..

When I built mine it is in the city limits and I put that I was the electrician HVAC and plumbing contractor that did not make me pull permits for each trade

Expand on question.

Builders risk claim?

Say you do your own electrical and insurance fire inspector blames a total loss on out of code faulty wiring job

I don't know, I would assume you just pull permits and get them approved or green tag and that should work.

HomeOwner Insurance won't cover faulty installation

What’s your house is built it’s built the insurance company owns it. Maybe an insurance company would do an investigation and decide to sue the installer of the electrical or plumbing or whatever was faulty it would probably cost more than court fees and to just pay for the house so probably not. Again my house was inspected by a licensed inspector with the state of Texas so maybe the city would have some skin in that game too I would assume

City has zero skin in the game

Over my thirty years of building I wired three of my personal homes, one of which was in the city. I signed some form for the city. The city inspector had me pull a permit. He inspected each electrical phase just as if a licensed electrician wired it. It worked out OK.

I'm still waiting on the OP to say if he's retired or has a day job. Did I miss that? If he has a day job, this just won't work out.

Do it yourself builders had a much easier time when building was slower. It just isn't that way anymore. Like I mentioned earlier, I still communicate with some of the subs. They are people I've known a long time and consider to be friends. Heck, some of them are burned out.

My son is a project manager for one of the big name builders in Austin. It's a pretty wild time these days. Pallets of OSB can be delivered this afternoon and be stolen before the sun comes up.

The interaction tween duckie & fire guy is entertaining, but listening to the ladyboy lover can get you into trouble. Seems saving $ is the ultimate goal. Anything goes. That may well work well on the streets of the red light district in Manila, but applying that to building your personal residence is just setting you up for trouble.

Certain trades have licenses for a reason. The guy in business who doesn't have the required license or has lost it ain't gonna be working on my job unless I know the reason for not having it. Besides a required knowledge set, having a license also requires insurance to be in place, something I prefer. I don't go for that ridiculous notion that nothing will happen. That just puts yourself within the jaws of jeopardy. I don't put myself in positions where I can get hurt so much, something my Mom refers to as maturity.

Btw, insurance companies will pay for a fire caused by faulty wiring. Plain and simple, fire is fire. You are only out your deductible. If determined to be the fault of some cheap idjit who wired it incorrectly, they can go after him. Thinking here the electrician RR uses has nothing to get anyways. Those don't be the type of guys we willing to use on our stuff.

The personal horror stories I can tell with people who did this provides a list no one wants to be on.

You must be lost or can't read, I don't have an electrician, Only company I have had look at my wiring was the ones who did the initial install and was listed on the breaker box, At the time my house was built in 2007 it came with a 10 year structural warranty, and 2 years warranty for electrical, plumbing and HVAC required by the state of Texas under the Texas Residential Construction Commission. They changed some type light switch which was under the 2 year warranty.

I live in Frisco and they have some of the strictest and toughest codes in the area, which is good for the home buyers, so I don't have to worry about stuff like that.

Yeah, I got lost here.

I am building a new house in Philipines it should be completed by July, construction started a few months ago. Putting roof on this week.

Agree with this.

Looks like a big place RR

What cost per foot in the Phillipines?

Reminds me of Belize. Just wish we could afford to build with those hyper-intensive labor methods. With me seeing conventional 2x6 construction costs now at and over $300 per square for upper end homes, yours would likely exceed that another $100 if built here.

Land was 70K USD which is 1 hectare which is 2.5 acres, Concrete wall and gate was 40K USD, I suspect to put a total of 300K to 350K into the total price.

House will be 6,000 sq ft covered when completed, Stil undecided on a pool.

There are about 7 full times guys working, they built this bunkhouse to live in :

Bet you get a full day's work from each.

sorry op but this is good entertainment! lol.

lol

Epstein island 2.0 is looking good. Gate looks outstanding

Ok Bill.




Side note: if you need walls like that, I would not want to live there.

Good luck!

Save money on the pool so you can a bigger TV for your bedroom.

I sure don't know what construction cost in the Phillipines is. However, at 110k for land, wall and gate, and 300 to 350k total? The math just doesn't sound logical with 1/3 of the budget on the land, wall and gate vs. a 6,000 sq.ft. home.

Red, that just doesn't add up. Good luck with that.

x2

FWIW, I've had 3 homes built, and they never had a skid steer for any of them. Forklift unloads the pallets of stone, brick, sheetrock, lumber, etc. and drops it off in the yard or driveway.

Agreed, place looks great. Can't wait to see some finished pics.

Good luck Pop-Pop and very nice cabin Glens




Outstanding looking house you are building RR
Put the pool in now and enjoy versus waiting and paying more for it, you can thank me later

Funny not funny

Didn't bother you to watch the tan fellers tote it all by hand.

Lol. I just had a pipe fence built and was watching the guys break out old cemented posts and dig post holes by hand. I told them they could use my tractor and I'd go get an auger. The main guy laughed and said "no, we use mexican augers" said if they speed things up then him and his helpers don't make any money. Apparently el jefe was good with this.

Just call Trex or Gutit and be done with it.

"Epstein island 2.0 is looking good. Gate looks outstanding"

I’m my previous life I built or GC’d homes. Time is money so having those trades lined out is super important and much harder and more expensive these days. A good gc could have you in months ahead of time. All trades brought in their own tractor or dollys to unload. There is no reason to have one on scene unless you already have one.
Good luck with the build

What an asinine statement. Shoe fits though.

All my building material was bought out of broken bow Oklahoma from a lumber yard. They have these new inventions that are sweeping the world. Called fork lifts and these fork lifts as they are called ride on the back of these 18 wheelers and the driver of the 18 wheeler also drives the fork lift and you wouldn’t believe it but they unloaded their material themselves.


It’s all the rage man

You suck at reading comprehension. Go back a few pages. I said many tractor trailers did not have a way to unload themselves. Read it slow this time you dip$hit.

30,000 of steel frame, no way unload it.

Sheets from Mueller, unloaded himself

Lumber from McKinney Lumber, unloaded himself

53' flatbed of Oklahoma builders, no way to unload it.

Cabinets, appliances, Generac no way to unload themselves.

But that's cool, keep handing out bad information. And one day a truck driver, and a builder will be staring at each other wondering how they are going to get all this weight off the truck.

Good friend of mine makes a lot of money hauling his skid steer around doing simple tasks in Tarrant County. He's $150 an hour, with a 4 hour minimum. Some of his jobs have taken 10 minutes, and they pay him $600. That's a days rental, or a month payment for someone that financed a used one.

But math is difficult for some people. I am sorry you are so slow.

This guy ain’t erecting his own steel building.


Again I built a house without a skid steer sitting so it’s not bad info. Clearly you’re the one passing this out.

So you didn't experience the same thing, so it can't happen?

I am telling true tales of what happened to me. Maybe it was worst case scenario, but I was prepared for it.

Still suck at reading comprehension. "Stone, cabinets, appliances, Generac" Plenty of people put all that in a conventional construction house. They all had to be unloaded from a tractor trailer.

I want a skid steer.

Me too, got several pallets of Indian Corn on the way to the lease and no brown fella's.

I just finished building one house myself and we are about to start the second. IMHO it takes a lot of time to be the gc to make sure everything is going to line up and the right people show up at the right time and can actually get some work done. Getting three bids on each item and then picking which bid to go with and making sure they fit your timeline is no small task. Then on top of that making sure the work was completed to spec and done with quality. Not only did I GC myself but we also did most of the trades work as well. I hired a someone to do the concrete and put up the metal building, spray foam, plumber, and hvac, also hired a sheetrock finisher but did most of it myself. it takes no shortage of a large amount of time and work. If you have a full time job IMHO you are better off letting someone else handle it. I built my 2400 sq ft house start to finish in three months at close to $90 sq ft.

BUT

Did you have a skid steer on-site at ALL times? That is the most important question.

Yes. With a bucket and pallet forks.

But. I own an equipment rental company. And the skid steer is still there. They are very handy.