[below is a excerpt from a book by this author:]
Introduction:
“Unless the LORD build the house, they labor in vain who build.”
–
Psalm127 i
Late one
evening after having been on the job site for about two hours, this
builder was leveling windows, because the framer did not show, and
the bricklayer was scheduled to arrive the following day. A stranger
dropped by to observe and asked, “Are you the framer,” probably
confused by the non work-like attire. After replying, “No, I’m
the builder,” The stranger followed quickly with, “Oh, so you are
working for subs?” I paused momentarily before realizing what he
had meant and replied, “I guess you are right.”
We both
chuckled with the understanding that most homebuilders are at the
mercy of subcontractors (subs) rather than the reverse that would be
expected of your hires in most industries. The quality of you subs
determines the outcome of your construction project. The passerby’s
comment has stuck with me ever since, and has become the title of
this book. If a self-homebuilder can learn how to manage his
subcontractors, he has conquered one of the most vexing problems
facing this specialty endeavor of contracting.
When an
individual undertakes the chore of constructing his own shelter, many
times he is the only one who will be available to repair the work
that his subcontractors have botched or inadvertently omitted from
their scope of work. The reader may well wonder why the main
contractor has to stoop to the level of completing work which he has
paid someone else to perform? If you want to finish your job on time
and under budget, your level of commitment will be tested many times
before securing the final inspection. Often you may pray that “the
Lord would build the house.”
You will
overlook ordering certain materials, like flashing for the roofer or
extra studs for the framer. The trim carpenter will be due on the
job, and you may have overlooked having the slab swept out the day
before. The inspector will be arriving within an hour, and the framer
did not anchor the plates at every location. If you want your job to
proceed expeditiously to the next phase, whom else will you get to do
these minor tasks properly at the last minute but yourself?
Otherwise, your next arriving subcontractor may find the job not
ready, and move on to his backup contract for the next two weeks,
putting your job off for that amount of time.
This book will
guide the self-homebuilder with each step (Appx. B) to be taken in
the order required, and possible pitfalls he /she may encounter along
the path to self-building or hiring a contractor to build his /her
own home. The real truth about building your home will be revealed,
which you won’t read in other books of this type, so that you can
make a rational decision before adopting a plan to begin
construction. Many suggestions and construction techniques adopted in
this book may appear unconventional to the straight-laced new
builder. Once you enter the world of errant subcontractors and
unexpected obstacles that homebuilding is, the realization that your
attempts to control every detail in a professional orderly manner
could lead to overwhelming frustration. You must be flexible and bend
to accept many deviations.
Your first
impression of this writing may be that it appears like a lot of
reading. I suggest this reading is minor compared to the detail and
education you will encounter in homebuilding. Using this book as a
guide to understanding, and hiring a general contractor may be your
best course if the reading seems intimidating.
The New Home Owner's Required Experience:
The following
pages will introduce you to the reality of attempting to build a
home. Can anyone build a house? The fast answer for most people is,
not without advice and help. Not everyone possesses the organization
or diligence to accomplish the task. The readers of this book will,
however, be given the facts upon which to base their self-assessment
as to whether they should attempt their own construction. The
anecdotes and experiences of the author will give you insight into to
your own attitude, personality, and temperament in regard to
undertaking such a project. What you would never attempt yourself can
be accomplished by a multitude of professionals offering services,
including procurement, legal advice, design, land acquisition,
logistics, accounting, bookkeeping, skilled labor, etc.
If you want to
save thousands of dollars on your next home, have a rewarding,
self-fulfilling experience, live in a comfortable and secure home
that you built, and gain knowledge which will help you the rest of
your life, then you are a candidate for building your own home. The
overall project may seem daunting at first thought, but when
performed a step at a time each phase is basically simple and can
easily be accomplished by a persistent individual. This method is
illustrated sequentially in Wo
rking for Subs,
available by ebook (Kindle format) or in print at Amazon.com.
This book
attempts to educate the reader with its orderly method of explanation
of the construction for your home. Most do-it-yourself, build your
own home books give overall information on each aspect of the
building process, but
Working
for Subs will take you
through each task in the construction effort in logical order. Other
building books will not give you an organized simplified method of
the order of tasks to completion, but this book does. You will learn
where to find subcontractors and how to negotiate with them.
Even if you do
decided to undertake your own building, you may want to hire a
general contractor as a consultant on an hourly basis. Someone, who
has many years of experience with local conditions and requirements
and has managed subs, could prove to be invaluable to a neophyte in
the trade. A mentor (general contractor) of this sort might be found
from the local homebuilders’ association, or by asking other
builders and subcontractors. He could be a retired contractor or even
a small builder who only builds two to four houses per year and has
the time to offer you advice. An experienced builder can save you a
lot of wasted cost and misplaced effort.
Inside this
writing is given to you a working knowledge of the business,
directing you to ask the right questions at the appropriate time of
or whom you hire. You will still have to perform the large majority
of planning, estimating, ordering, scheduling, hiring, etc.,
regardless of whom you consult for advice. Our errors are discussed,
so you can avoid similar mistakes without having to experience them.
Building your
own domicile is not an easy undertaking, but if you are organized and
persevere, by attempting one appropriate task before another, it can
be accomplished. The whole experience will appear as nothing more
than a walk along a challenging but very rewarding path to a
Shangri-la of your own making.
The Step-By-Step Journey
You will begin
to understand that even though building your home is a complex
multidisciplined undertaking each aspect is still basically simple.
This is, because when broken down a task at a time, one before the
other, in the order that each activity must be performed, the
building of your home becomes an easily understandable excursion.
Just as stated by Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu,
ii
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” the
homebuilding journey begins with a single step and continues in a
task-by-task order. Each of these steps can be easily understood and
accomplished when viewed individually instead of overwhelmingly as a
whole.
The chapter
titles in this book are named to delineate the major milestones of
constructing your home, but each chapter also contains multiple
sub-milestones that are important. Chapter 2 for example is entitled
Finding and Purchasing The Lot, however structuring a form of
doing business (e.g. LLC), discussed later in chapter 2, can be
critical as well. Each chapter’s title refers to the primary task
discussed therein but many other tasks are also contained. See the
Detailed Schedules of tasks in Appendix B and in most
chapters, rather than the title, for a more thorough list of the
content of that chapter.
Other books on
the market may offer to lead you on a step-by-step road to construct
your house, but you may discover their information disorganized, too
brief, or misleading. Many of the elaborate details, concocted to
explain the process are just not necessary for the self-contractor
and confuse the path toward final completion. This writing attempts
to give something unique, which other build-it-yourself books do not.
Others give a rough look at each part of the building process, but
none give a day-by-day, one-by-one, step-by-step flow of the
construction effort with typical problems encountered along the path,
like this book.
Working for
Subs does not attempt to be a technical manual, micro-managing
every structural and aesthetic aspect of construction, nor does it
contain elaborate diagrams of components, code references, or tables
of materials and their qualities even though there are many useful
tables, lists, and schedules included. Other sources and references
are available that provide detailed drawings and building code
explanations. It is not necessary to know how to perform every
activity intricately in order to contract your home. Professionals
you hire will handle the varied chores. This book instead will give
the reader a step-by-step orderly approach to contract their own
medium-sized home putting one task before another in a logical
fashion – a contracting cookbook of sorts.
This method of
explanation lends itself well to building a residence, since it is
truly a process where particular tasks must be performed in
progressive order. You could not put on the roof before building the
walls or the walls prior to the foundation. Even though there are
certain tasks, which may be accomplished simultaneously, the over all
majority of duties will be like Lao Tzu’s journey, a critical path
of individual steps one before other.
Though this
book is devoted to the self-homebuilder, it is also constructive to
inform those who want a guide for understanding the various building
procedures. You may want to use the book in order to understand the
building process of your general contractor, and to communicate on a
more informed basis. This writing has employed a colloquial manner
of expression in order to incorporate the familiar language of the
building industry, and to prepare the reader/builder for
understanding the various job-related terms and jargon he will
encounter. Even though this book is devoted to the self-homebuilder,
it is constructive to inform those who also wish to use it as a guide
for observing a general contractor they might hire. You may want to
use the book in order to understand the building process your general
is following and to communicate in the job-site lingo.
(continued in book)
i
The New American Bible - http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/
ii
Lao-tzu, The Way of Lao-tzu, Chinese philosopher (604 BC -
531 BC) http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/24004.html#note
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