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Managing
Subcontractors; You thought deciding who to hire as your subcontractor was difficult, try managing them! This is where most of stress and “sweat equity” occurs. I have been a construction project manager for 15+ years and honestly, every time I am assigned a new project fear of unknown working relationships with each of subs is a major concern. I feel your pain! To help you in your management, have a schedule ready during bidding war between contractors. Have this presented at time you present construction drawings. In fact, have three schedules! What this will generate is three different prices from each contractor. Use this as part of your evaluation as mentioned in previous paragraph. Your long schedule, medium schedule and short schedule will generate different responses. You want this information up front so that when it comes time to sign a contact with subs, you can put in clauses that if they do not hold schedule there are financial burdens placed on them. This will protect you from mismanagement on their part. Typical content found in a residential building contract can be found at following link http://www.b4ubuild.com/resources/contract/index.shtml
After all schedules and contracts are agreed upon, you become more than customer, now you are boss. Everyday you need to communicate with subs and get an updated detailed report on what, where, when, how and why they are on or off schedule. Manage project by schedule. Keep in mind that schedule will change if you decide to change your scope of work by issuing change orders (example: changing cupboard or cabinet size, flooring, or appliance). Keep in mind that during this time, this is a small business and your profit is represented by how close you come to your original agreed upon costs associated with schedule after contract signing. We could talk about management all day long. In fact there are training courses on this subject that cost thousands of dollars. Hopefully this bit of information will get you on right track and help make a smooth transition from concept to actually building your dream home. Remember this rule of thumb, more you prepare better you will be when handling bumps in road. Gathering information prior to needing it will actually save you more money, time and stress than you can probably calculate.
If you find this information useful you should visit site http://www.homedesignfloorplans.com where you will find lots of interesting articles related to this topic provided by Robert Kempe.
I have 15+ years in industrial construction and industrial engineered manufacturing as a project manager and a part time home inspector. Through my experience in construction and management and my unique prospective in the home industry, I have been able to simplify and make sense of home building and designing in what looks to be a complete chaotic project and decision making process. www.homedesingfloorplans.com for more articles
