THE BID... -

If you prepare an honest project plan, your contractors will be able to bid correctly, and neither side will be taken advantage of…and the project will go thru more intelligently, with less back and forth communication errors…

You might leave “extras” off your project, thinking it will be done later…. (I left off my driveway…ugh…. only later learning the bank will not close on the house, till I had the driveway ….all cash…$20K). After 15 months of construction, I was nearly tapped.

Any addition later, is a change order….and you have no leverage on a Change Order… you are at the mercy of your contractors whim.. $$$

When you are getting bids, this is the ONE time, when the contractor will be trying to get the job, at the lowest price, so he CAN get the job….

As you survey your choices of contractors or Architects, you will have a spectrum of experience and price.

The best will not only have great advice, and an in-house team of workers working together…

More likely, no one has enough money, to get the great dream house they hope for…So, you must compromise.

You have to be more involved, learn their trades, learn the unknown, unknowns on your own…predict problems. You will have to know how banks work, how appraiser work…(a bad appraisal means you will NOT be able to borrow as much as you need…)

Know too, each of these people are 1000 times more experienced than you…so you must over-compensate this with educating yourself…this website tries to bring up as many of these ideas as I can….not a HOW TO…but just brings to you some awareness of ideas to think about, before you proceed.

SOME THINGS CAN WAIT…OR NOT!

(but you CAN leave off things you can do a few years from now…but keep in mind, you will have to pay real cash for future work, or a HELOC, …so anything you can do during this construction, will be leveraged money, paid off over 30 years…not real money… so $10,000 job now, will cost you an extra $35/month… or $420per year. It takes a long time to save up $10,000 cash… so consider borrowing as much as you can, at the 4% loan rate for 30 years..

Also, once you are done with this renovation, or new house build…you will NOT want to face, plan, schedule, bid, observe, check on, and pay another contractor or worker. You will want to be left in peace for a few years, and get your serenity back.

You are not out to cheat, or win with a contractor… but focus what is important to you, so he bids correctly…and you can both live with the result….they will still try to bid low enough to get your job, but, not make up the low bid, with “fair” change orders…that stack up fast…these are cash deals…not in your bank funny money…

Leaving something Off the bid, does not lower the cost…. When it is time to DO the driveway….it is not bundled in… it bids out alone.

Contractors, workers, laborers, work really hard… they do not want to redo a job, no matter how much money..we all want to get on with our lives in a meaningful way, and be proud of our work.

If you glibly change your mind on a door, a room, the electricity…it is demoralizing to the workers, and this will show up in the level of their detail in later parts of your job….they will frankly disrespect you, and your disrespect of time and money…this is fair.

For the year of two of a project…all these people will be IN your life….you are NOT their bosss, or savior or the one giving them money or work… frankly, there is MORE work than workers….so you are at their mercy…not kidding… and good workers can go somewhere else…or do your job, only after all other jobs are done,

So, if you do all your prep work well, the project will go smoother.. and cheaper.

In the heat of a day, with noise and chaos of compressors and multiple languages… you are in NO position to debate errors…you can only quietly point to the bid, or to the blueprints… anything else is a battle, that you win by paying 2x more, for what you thought was normal, or expected…think soundproofing levels, think insulation, think drywall type… there is cheap stuff, or thick stuff, or soundproof stuff….these are all invisible things..but they count..

When you say you will buy the tile…but forget to specify who buys the cement, grout, and SS metal trim… well, that’s a 1000 swing for you, or the tile guy… you PRESUME his bid was for these menial things, the tools of his trade…But… unless you get this in writing… it can easily be an extra $1000 profit for him… a 10 foot section of trim is $20.. we used 20 of these at least.. so trim alone was $400.

Reading Bids

There are many subs on a bid..

ELECTRIC
PLUMBING
FRAMING
HARDWOODS FLOORS
HVAC
DRYWALL-PAINTING
WINDOWS AND DOORS
FOUNDATION
ROOFING
SIDIG
INSULATION

Each contractor has differnet styles of writing out a bid.

Each bid, is a lot of work by each contractor, …80% they do not get, if each homeower picks one out of 5

Instead of a detailed bid, a contractor will visit the house, and see if there is chemistry….see if it is worth the effort to do a bid.

IF IT IS NOT ON THE BID
YOU DO NOT GET IT

IF IT IS NOT ON THE BLUEPRINRTS
YOU DO NOT GET IT

You have to repeat this chant, over and over and let it sink in….no one is giving time, labor or materials away for good will. Ultimately, someone has to pay for it.

To keep your bid “clean” list the appliances, tile, grout, interior paint, in your own list.

This list will have a dollar amount, that should be included in the amount requested from the bank.

These items … like even paint… can be a cheap grade, or a fine grade…instead of debating who you will buy the paint from…you just buy it yourself. While you might be guaranteed a certain color…the painter can buy a cheap brand of paint instead of a fine grade of paint…

Include insulation Include soundproofing Drywall…(there are 6 types…different thickness, uses, etc. sound, fire, water etc. Do you worry if your framing gets wet in the rains? Mold… WTF? Do pros put your windows in, or the common laborers? How to square stuck doors? It is hard to bid out just by sf many rooms with doors vs open floor plans…. The rooms with doors, are deceivingly hard to do each detail.. Sure it averages out.. some jobs will be harder..but from the vision of the builder… it all depends on what motives him at his point in his carreer… a junky hoiuse with good profit…done that… now how about a great house, with less profit.? Maybe I can make it up in my change orders… My contractor made me pay for change oders BEFORE the work was assigned… this meant CASH before work…each time…