What Your Contractor Can't Tell You: The Essential Guide to Building and Renovating
This book equips owners with the information and strategies needed to turn their vision into a home or renovation project that can be executed on time and within budget. Chapters give detailed coverage of critical topics: design options, selecting and supervising the architect and contractor, cost estimates, budgets, plan specifications, contracts, dealing with town officials and keeping track of everything along the way. For each stage of the project there is detailed information on common...
Search in google:
What Your Contractor Can't Tell You is a comprehensive guide to getting the best results while building or renovating a home. Most homeowners spend about 20% of their time on the plan and 80% of their time on a messy, traumatic, expensive construction phase. Pros spend 80% of their time on the plan and 20% on a smooth construction phase. But the homeowners can't know what goes into a solid plan unless someone tells them. This book is based on a simple premise...if homeowners knew even 10% of what the professionals in the construction field know, they could avoid 90% of the problems. Creating a dream home shouldn't be a nightmare. Hiring a contractor is an enormous investment and a high-risk endeavor involving decisions that will last forever. This book equips homeowners with the information and strategies needed to turn their vision into a home or a renovation that can be built on time and within budget. Chapters give detailed coverage of critical topics: design; selecting and supervising the architect and contractor; cost estimates; budget; plan specifications; contracts; dealing with town officials; and keeping track of everything along the way. For each stage of the project, there is detailed information on common pitfalls and how to avoid them, as well as insiders' tips which reveal what most contractors can't tell you. This book was previously published by Warner Books (2004) and titled What the "Experts" May Not Tell You About Building or Renovating Your Home.
Introduction: Building from Smart to Finish xiiiReady, Set, Think: How the Savvy Owner Starts a Project 1The Mind-Set: How to Approach a Project 1The Players List: The People Who Will Be on Your Team 4A Gleam in Your Eye: Can You Build? 8Don't Bank On It: Is Your Loan Officer Your Ally? 9The Scary Money: Down Payments 13The Plan Is the Thing: Making a Successful Project 14Task-Oriented: Your To-Do List 14Getting What You Need: How to Approach Your Design 15Sneaking Up On Your Design: Do's and Don'ts to Get You Started 18What's It Worth to You? Money and Design 20Beyond Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Mo: A Formula for Balanced Choices 21A House United: Working Together as a Couple 22Design as a Noun: Refining and Conveying Your Vision 24Decisions, Decisions: Your Design 24Conveying Your Decisions: Construction Documents 24Building In Flexibility: Allowances, Unit Pricing and Alternate Pricing 28Help with Your Vision: When and How to Employ an Architect 30Do You Need a Professional? Considering an Architect 30The Yin to Your Yang: The Right Architect forYou 36Everyone Pick Up Your #2 Pencils: Working with an Architect 42Bang for the Buck and the Sixteen Divisions: What Can You Have and What Should You Worry About? 45Divide and Conquer: The Sweet Sixteen Divisions 45The Devil's in the Details: Where to Focus Your Attention and Money 46And Another Thing: Considerations When Determining Materials and Scope of Work 68And the Grand Total Is...: Cost Estimating and the Budget 72Follow the Money: How It Works on a Construction Project 72Where'd You Get That Number? Four Methods of Cost Estimating 73Crunching Their Numbers: Assessing a Cost Estimate 76It's Alive! Your Budget as a Living Document 78Setting Up Your Deal: Contract Structures 83Who Knew You Had a Choice? Options for Contract Structures 83The Second Oldest Profession: Selecting and Working with a Contractor 90He Was Such a Nice Guy: Choosing More Wisely 90Welcome to His World: Working with a Contractor 96To Protect and Serve: Protecting Your Project and Serving Your Contractor 98How Low Can They Go? Bidding the Project 104You Talkin' to Me? Should You Bid Your Project? 104Package Deal: Getting Your Bid Package Together-the Four Elements 105Going Out: What You and They Need to Do-the Four Stages 108Cover Your Assets: Contracts, Insurance, Liens, and Other Commitments 116If You Only Knew: Where Laypeople Go Wrong 116Whose to Use? Construction Contracts 117Don't Build Home Without It: Must-Haves 120It Couldn't Hurt: Optional Additional Protection 129Believe It! Time Really Is Money: Schedules 132Tick Tock: How Time = Money on a Construction Project 132More Than One Way to Tell Time: Types of Schedules 134What Was That Other Thing? Additional Things to Track 138Mother, May I? Getting Through the Permit Process 139Nothing to Fear: Knowing the Process and Its Players 139People Pleasing: The Steps for Permit Approval 142Good to Go: Once You've Got the Permit 147Step Lightly: Making Changes to the Neighborhood 148Ready to Build?...Not So Fast: Pulling It All Together 150Just Like Santa: Make a List and Check It Twice 150Long Time No See: The Preconstruction Meeting 151Ensurance: Make Sure These Things Are Done 153When Are They Leaving?! Renovation Tips 154Let the Games Begin: Managing the Construction-Phase 158Who's on First: Establishing the Roles and Rules for All 158Watching the Store: Monitoring the Project 164For Richer or Poorer: Budget Management 170The Homestretch: Project Closeout 181Conclusion 185Talk the Talk: A Glossary of Terms 187Inspirations: Other Resources 197Index 200
