The Construction Process

Owner Responsibilities:

• describe in writing to contractor or architect all of your needs, requirements, wishes and desires.
• review the plans and specifications
• interview 2 architects (see if your general contractor can recommend a practical architect)
• get prices from 3 licensed General Contractors with experience in your area (check with the Better Business Bureau and check references). Also check that the GC owns a copy of the Residential Building Code. Walk through a house under construction, talk to home owners that the GC built houses for.
• when picking finishes, doors and windows get the Manufacturer’s literature or sample with the product information to be sure the correct finish is applied to the correct location

Plans and Specifications:

• review the plans to determine if all of your wishes and needs are meet.
• if you are planning to build a large house or you want a perfect house I suggest that you write up your own specifications. Such as deflection criteria of the floors, amount of acceptable cracking in the concrete garage floor, what does “hardwood floors” really mean to you, etc…
• the Residential Code book specifies a MINIMUM standard for housing. if you want a higher standard, tell your builder up front and write it down.
• your contract with the general contractor should reference the architectural and structural engineering plans and your specifications.

Permits:

• do not do work for a General Contractor who does not want to get a permit
• a permit gets you a quick review of your plans to make sure that meet at least the Residential Building Code requirements
• a permit also gets you an inspection, depending you which county you live in you may get an excellent and training. A third party independent inspection is very valuable, inspections are performed on the footings, foundation, framing, electrical, mechanical and the plumbing.

Architect:

• discuss the outside elevations, make sure that all sides are drawn to see how the house will look.
• discuss layout and flow of house. Kitchen should be near the garage so groceries do not have to be carried along way. Do not locate upstairs bathrooms over bedrooms (too noisy). Be careful of downstairs bath room locations.
• discuss windows, doors, cabinets, wall coverings and floor coverings.
  • the more complete the plans are, the faster the job will go
  • some products have 2 to 6 week delivery times.

Structural Engineer:

• make sure engineer has your specifications
• get General Contractor to talk to Structural Engineer before engineer starts. Engineer should know capabilities of General Contractor.
• General Contractor should not be responsible for payment of questions by Building Code Officials
• some products (brick, granite, slate, marble, hardwood floors) require extra support above the typical finishes.

Payment Schedule:

• reputable General Contractors can started without a down payment using their credit lines at their suppliers
• an initial payment should be made immediately after the materials are delivered to the site.
• payments should be scheduled directly to the inspections
  • second payment after framing inspection (dry in)
  • third payment after HVAC, electrical and plumbing inspections are passed
  • fourth payment when Certificate of Occupancy is obtained.
  • retainage should be paid immediately after your written punchlist is completed.

(I met a person who went to sell their house. There was an outstanding building permit that was 5 years old. The General Contractor did not frame the two story, two car garage to the building code, and it failed the framing inspection, but he finished the job, got paid and did not get a Certificate of Occupancy. The owner could not sell the house until he fixed all of the problems)