Love Your Contractor

Figure out the basic kitchen design early in the design process. 
Don't leave it until construction is underway.

We've been involved in few recent building projects that went awry in fairly major ways. We were doing the kitchen part, and got a bird's eye view of how the major work evolved over time. This post is about how folks doing big renovations or new construction can set their project up well, find a builder, and end up months later with a home everyone can feel good about, on or near the original budget.

First, don't try to be your own General Contractor (GC) if your job is large or complex. Being your own GC is very popular now, somehow as a result of the seeming empowerment of the internet. People think, and perhaps are encouraged to believe, that by this means they can save money by avoiding the contractor's markup. This will almost never be the case. A good builder disciplines the design process, manages the schedule, guards your money, clarifies your choices, and perhaps most important, gets the right subs to the site at the right time and gets them doing what they should be doing. You cannot do any of these things. Each has to be done well for the project to succeed.

Here are some procedures for finding a good GC.

• Ask your friends. Get referrals from people you know, not from websites. You are looking for a smallish outfit, the right size for your project. An outfit small enough that the principle person will actually be wielding a hammer, working on site, supervising in person. Or at least, own a hammer.

• Go see their work. You are looking for someone whose taste is compatible with your. When you see their projects, you want to say, “This is really nice.”

• Ask customers what their experience was like. How was the estimating? Was the job completed anywhere near on time, and if not, was it the builder's fault or the customer's? You are going to be very close to your builder for a period of a weeks or months. Will it be pleasant to have them in your life?

• Do not try to pick your builder's electrician, plumber, tile person, or whatever. Builders develop close relationships with a small group of such people, who then know what the builder wants, and show up when they are needed. They trust, support, and depend on each other. Sometimes these relationships go back decades. This translates into efficiency, even when a particular sub seems a bit more expensive on paper. If you have somebody great in mind, suggest it, but let the builder decide.

• Similarly, don't get involved in obtaining materials, unless your builder thinks it will help. Don't try to manage your builder. Do not make design changes after a given phase is underway. Nothing is more costly and disruptive than waiting, tools in hand, for your customer to decide something. Except perhaps redoing something that has been done well, because of an ill-considered design change.

• In short, love your builder, make their life easier.

Loving your builder also means pay promptly. If you get the bill on Wednesday, give your builder a check Thursday. By this simple rule, you will guarantee that you get the builder's best work. It's not unusual for folks to get the bill, then, a week or two later, begin the process of transferring funds from one account to another, then a week or two after that, cut a check, which can't really clear til next Friday. This demoralizes the builder, causes financial problems for him or her, and diverts attention from the actual work. In short, have your checkbook ready and loaded.

The GC's work is difficult and risky. Their day starts at 5 or 6 AM, when they call the subs. It ends at 8 or 9 PM when they finish talking to you. They have to manage and coordinate many people, including you. By the time you re-take your home, they will have earned their markup, which mostly just goes to keeping their business afloat.

A final point from the kitchen person's perspective. Often folks, eager to get their project off the ground, leave the kitchen design to be done later. They or their designer, just rough in a kitchen layout, including window locations and appliance locations. Often this means that the kitchen person has to work around window locations, appliance positioning, or passage dimensions, which could have been much better with small adjustments and no added cost. Get the basic design right along when the layout is set.  There will be plenty of details that can then be sorted out at leisure.

For a successful project, keep it simple!  Bob Sparrow, Builder