Has anyone ever done a remo under or at budget?
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Has anyone ever done a remo under or at budget?
never expected to be under budget. but we had about a 20% contingency and looks like that is getting wasted and then some.
The major drivers of price are changes to the scope of work, either from concealed conditions or customer driven change orders, or changes to to the finish schedule.
My remodels come in at budget all the time. If your GC says, "I had to do X, Y, and Z because you chose A, B, & C" with out going over that prior, your guy sucks.
If the job is T&M and the guy sucks at estimating, that is a discussion. Honestly, most companies pre-construction documents suck for remodels because they have to develop them themselves. You really need to ask yourself what the reasons for the cost overruns are. Are they legitimate increased expenses or sketchy labor upcharges. You also need to consider is it was a competetive bid job.
It's going to be the nicest trailer in the hood though.
It is a T&M job. And lots of the cost overruns are concealed conditions (electrical being the big one, and one we weren't surprised about). And a lot of the issues are scheduling things, that choices we made are pushing back the schedule by a week or two because of domino effects, but those are domino effects that the GC seems to think we should have known about, when we had no clue. But some of those scheduling things also implicate costs, as in the delays and changes to the schedule make some parts of the job cost more.
Here's an example, I may not have all the details correct but close (hope he doesn't read TGR!): he told me about a leaky window (that we hadn't asked to be replaced as part of the scope of work), and said it could be fixed or replaced. As that was the sole window in the house that hadn't been replaced recently, I said that we would go ahead and replace it, and I would go to Home Depot and get one (we had previously got another window there for the project, all other windows are newish). He said "they should have it in stock". Well, I went to HD, told the guy what I wanted, and he said "that will be two weeks". Considering that our job had just started and was slated to go for many many weeks more, I ordered it. Seeing as how all the other windows had been replaced 3 years ago without disruption to anything, I had no reason to think this would be a problem.
Well, I then find out that by making him wait for the window, he then has to wait to finish all his drywall work, which means he has to do the painting after the floors are done, which means he needs to spend more time protecting the floors. Or something like that.
Now, I know that the cost of the window and the cost of installing it are my choice, and it's a T&M job so I'm paying for everything regardless, but according to him I should have interpreted "they should have it in stock" to mean "they should have it in stock and if they don't, you better check with me because not having it in my hands immediately will cause delays and cost overruns", and it's my fault for not knowing that. That's what I mean by asking questions about everything. Again, it's a T&M job and we're paying regardless, but I would like to have known so I could make that choice.
From this guys bar stool, it sounds like ya'll don't communicate so well. You didn't call him before you special ordered a window that was probably in stock at some other HD in the metro, and you could have figured that out online? That said, the rest of that sounds like BS. He should be rolling out his final coat after caulking in all the trim etc. and you are going to need to put down floor protection one way or the other. And...it a drywall wrap window, any drywaller worth a shit can knock that out with a couple of batches of hot mud and a spray can of texture. Point being, that shouldn't be an expensive change for someone that knows what they are doing, can think creatively and isn't trying to roll the customer. Now...if you are trying to roll the customer, any change order smells like $$$. I'd probably be able to take more vacations if I was better at this.
sure most all the time, had a customer five years ago at the signing of the contract take a big black marker on the last page and write NO CHANGE ORDERS, it was pretty funny, they left town and I didn't see them for six months, they showed back up and the whole house was shredded gutted and put back together on budget on timeQuote:
Originally Posted by MakersTeleMark
had other customers completely double the cost of the project, we're not talking hundreds of dollars, more like tens of thousands of dollars, twenty or more change orders
it's all the customer, it aint the doobie I smoke going from job to job
Danno
as I mentioned before enjoy hearing things from your POV
here is some thoughts
never buy special order or anything for that matter from the big box stores, ie windows.......... but thats just me, plumbing fixtures are full of plastic and are garbage
the contractor is milking it, I do it all the time, ooops the job slowed down cause we had a miscommunication and mis order because YOU ordered or changed that, the job shouldn't slow down because your waiting on the window, foggy set it straight, any drywaller can come in after the fact and take two days and have drywall patched and ready for paint after the window comes in three weeks after drywall
you as the customer should have just sucked it up if your short on money and not done the window project, I know it blows, but deal with it in a year or two, put the money into a nice backsplash and have a bad ass kitchen
T&M is awesome for the contractor but sucky for you. I rarely do T&M work, because it causes problems in the end, like people running out of money, there is no motivation for a contractor when getting paid by the hour cause you are paying it no matter what. There should be a base contract with allowances that will be billed T&M ie electric and plumbing, change orders can be billed hourly or at a set rate, with hidden defects spelled out ie rot behind the kitchen sink
I got a buddy who does everything T&M and he's always got a list of people who owe him thousands of dollars and pay up months later, because he told em 10k for a project and invoiced them for 15k and they needed time to cash in ira's savings etc to come up with the extra 5k they got slapped with.
electric is now the biggest can of worms out there, I try to explain to customers all the time about the basics of electricity in a home and many people call bullshit on me, I don't argue, seeing as how I took lots of electrical classes in highschool I'm authroized to talk intelligently about electric work, it was mostly so I could be in a classroom that was easy to score dope in, but......
Finishing a bid for a kitchen remodel and I put in an $8,000.00 line item for electric work, not including fixtures, why? Do you know how shitty the wiring is in a kitchen pre 1995? not even close to what it needs to be, count how many appliances are plugged in, in any kitchen, blender, toaster, coffee maker, stove, fridge, microwave, on and on, then everyone plugs their computer, phone, tablet, etc in somewhere in the kitchen, the kitchen is the new living room. on half the jobs I look at I spec out panel replacements because alot of the electric panels are shit, too small, not enough breaker space, obsolete, if you have a 1/2 breaker panel from GE dump it, it's garbage
T and M is illegal in CA for anything over $500. Forgive me if I posted this before, but despite that a contractor who submitted a bid down to the penny tried to stick us up for a lot more than the bid, despite no change orders. (The only change was that the temp support steel beam he ordered to hold up the deck while he excavated under it for a garage was too short, so the garage and one door came out 2 feet narrower.) We wound up paying extra for the excavation (there was a contingency for blasting but no blasting done, just a lot of jack hammering) to keep the contractor from pulling off the job with a 12 foot deep hole in the ground. At the end both the GC and the excavator tried to hold us up for more. We refused and they took us to collections. A letter from a lawyer friend took care of that. The contractors' board did nothing when we complained. Said we had to sue and win before they would take any action, despite this guy breaking the law. The guy is out of business.
The next contractor we had, Ron Adams, was great. Win some, lose some.
It's funny that hardly anyone knows this and it's next to impossible to get a contractor not to charge T&M on some projects rather than a bid
I've done t and m with smaller jobs with a contractor I trusted. A t and m contract isn't enforceable although that doesn't do you much good if the contractor threatens to walk in the middle of the job. A bid contract actually protects both parties--in the case of my bad experience I suspect the GC wound up paying the excavator the extra he demanded and probably lost money on our job--may be why he's out of business. Even if a contractor does an honest job on a T and M project he has no legal recourse if the homeowner wants to stiff him on the final payment. I know an excavator who got stiffed on a very expensive job in our neighborhood--t and m so no recourse.Quote:
Originally Posted by mcski
I asked my brother in-law how he did on a upper end spec house he had just finished, there was no emotion in this house so he just cranked it out on time and under budget
same guy builds his own house to live in rivaling something out of architectural digest and it comes in late and way over budget, all kinds of change order even tho he obviously knew better
emotion is so emotional
Success in construction projects is all about making decisions before bringing a GC to the job. (While remodel doesn't allow complete understanding up front, the level of decision making made will set the bar for success.) DIYers tend to underestimate the level of decision making; and pros can often fool themselves into thinking they've done it before. And residential projects are rarely repeat affairs.
Yeah, it's not been easy to make all those decisions. I mean, sure, if we had the money to pay a designer to map it all out for us, but there are tons of decisions and we've never done this before, so every decision feels like a scramble on something that is entirely new to us. After the obvious ones we could think of like cabinets, counters, appliances, picking a contractor and in some cases subs, there is what kind of sink do you want, what kind of lighting, where do you want all the lights, on what switches, what kind of switches/outlets/wall plates, paint color for wall/ceiling/trim, color of floor stain, window sills or not (and if so what), grout color, and there are many many more. It's overwhelming.Quote:
Originally Posted by acinpdx
I don't think homeowners who have never done this have any idea, and I'm not sure if contractors always appreciate how hard all this is for the homeowner (who has a full time job, kids, etc). I mean, you're paying so much damn money to do the whole thing that you don't want to answer too hastily for any question, because it will suck if you pay $50k and then are really annoyed because you don't like stuff and didn't think enough when you made decisions.
That's why you hire a designer. It's possible you would have easily saved the cost of the designer, had someone in your corner as a decision making guide and reduced uncertainty and aggravation while ending up with a better end product.Quote:
Originally Posted by Danno
QFTQuote:
Originally Posted by Alpinord
Danno, I know it doesn't do any good now, but for future reference, re-read the above. TWICE.
I am finishing a master bedroom re-model that has taken 5 months. It is spectacular. Travertine floors, Quartzite tops, 18x36 porcelain in shower, fancy fixtures, all new electric, re-piping, HVAC, the works.... I am a licensed GC but only do my own stuff.
The first thing I did when we decided to do this bathroom was hire a designer. I KNEW all the decisions that had to be made and I knew that the wife needed someone to help her decide. She charges $2500. if you want to DIY or GC it yourself or NOTHING if you want her to coordinate everything. I did the 'GC it yourself' route and she saved me $8,000 on custom cabinets alone because I used her guy. She gets discount pricing on fixtures too.
And (most importantly), she can re-aasure your wife that things really are on track even though it seems like nothing is happening. (Ask me how I know this! )
Anyway, good luck. It WILL all work out. :)
Agree on the above point of re professional assistance. I'll repeat what someone said above...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nobody Famous
Mostly agree. With the clarification a good architect can do more in the overall scheme than any interior designer can, IMO.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sluff
A recent story that proves the points: A neighbor walked me through their remodeled home last month. They had a lot of nice work done, but it was no where near consistent throughout, from kitchen to bathroom to hallway to living room to dining room. From the small things like door and windoe hardware to the big picture things like paint colors and testures (kitchen soffits painted black) to window coverings, total inconsistency. The wife kept mentioning, "I had this woman help me...", it was a clear signal the wife used a not so good designer.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpinord
We've done 3 remodel projects--added a second story doing most of the work ourselves, and adding a garage and a bathroom/dressing room/storage room, both with GC's, I wound up doing a lot of finish work on the garage after the contractor crapped out and on the bathroom by choice. None of those involved a lot of decision making on the details. I could not conceive of doing a house from scratch--just too many decisions, too much stress, too long of a process. I guess I'm not that particular about my living space. As long as there's enough storage space (there isn't).
It's mostly time and materials here in Seattle due to the extreme demand on skilled labor. Otherwise, if it's bid, it's still high. ..six or a half dozen i guess. We added a large dormer master bedroom on our second floor last year. Wish it wasn't a sellers market as we paid kindly, but absolutely trusted our gc and framers which at least kept stress levels low.
Sad stuff.
I didn't want to start a separate thread since there's already one in Ski/Snowboard, but thought I'd bump this one since BZ was one of the really helpful cats in this thread. Rest in peace mang, hope you're slaying pow up there. :(
I still owe you a beer, but the beer up there is probably flowing like wine.
Gonna miss BZ big time in all things building-related in the Padded Room.
I'm 2.5 weeks into my remodel and tonight was the wife and I's first fight. So things are right on schedule.
The root of the issue was my inability to not work on the house while I'm home, and my little one acting out. No doubt due to my lack of attention. It's not a huge project (new kitchen, flooring, paint and 2 moved walls), but it's still a lot of work for the next few months. For those who have done these jobs without a gc, how do you not let it take over your whole life? My thought is to go 100 mph until it's done and I'm currently ahead of my schedule, but I'm starting to think it's not sustainable.
Currently in the process of building a house with my girlfriend and have had a couple blow ups over the fact that she wants to go 100 mph and I want to ski at least a day every two weeks. While it's not a very sustainable solution liquor seems to be solving our problems. 2 months more to go for us. Hopefully.
Good luck balancing things out, I wish I had better advice on balance.
meth is the answer to both your queries
Ideally, especially for kitchens, moving out takes the pressure off the subjective time frame and daily impacts. If you don't pace yourself and get breaks, you could burn out and grow careless. It could become more about getting it done and not about getting it done right. Keep the focus and mojo moving forward, but walk away frequently. Even for short periods. It always takes longer than you expect or want.Quote:
Originally Posted by alias_rice
How to question, I want to mount a shelf to a concrete block (a.k.a. cinder block) basement wall. Picture attached.
The shelf itself will be a piece of lumber, 14" d x 15 ft in length. I'll use the shelf brackets in the attached picture. Will fasten the bracket to a piece of 2x4 fastened to the concrete blocks.
Do the fasteners holding the 2x4 piece go into a.) the mortar between the blocks, or b.) Into the block itself, or both c) Either the block or the mortar doesn't matter.
Extra credit question, does it matter if the fasteners go into an 'intersection' in the mortar?
Will use the usual Tapcon fasteners.
Attachment 209006
Better to drill center of the block. Basement wall cinder blocks SHOULD be grout filled and waterproofed on the back side. No sense in encouraging a crack in the grout line that could eventually grow to the waterproofing. Don't drill block edges. Those could break away from the mortar and come free.
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Let's talk Basin Wrenches, Faucet Sockets and ultra-tight clearances.
I have hot and cold control valves (a.k.a ceramic cartridges) mounted using 1-1/2 inch nuts placed directly under the counter top that are, so far, impossible to tighten. Two issues, ultra-tight clearance, and the nuts are completely flat, no flange and no slotted handles.
Basin wrenches do not have the clearance. I could use an open (supply lines live and attached) faucet socket if I could find one in 1-1/2 inch. Ridgid's orange faucet and sink install tool, while a very cool tool idea, is only good for 2" nuts, (as far as I can tell), the 'Basin Buddy' socket is not available in 1-1/2 inch.
The only tool I can think of is a vise grip with long, angled needle nose tips.
Am I missing something in this?
Do you have a single nut/fastner in the middle that mounts the fixture to the sink ? Sometimes you need to tighten the supply lines and controls to the fixture before mounting then tighten the fixture to the sink or counter. Maybe a picture would be helpful.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nobody Famous
Replace the nuts with proper basin nuts?
I wish I had seen this thread before I'm going to have to read through the whole thing. I'm close to being wrapped up on a major remodel of house that we just bought. We did not intend on doing a major remodel but as soon as we got started tearing out the carpet and tearing off the wood wall paneling in we found a lot of mold and mildew bad electrical wiring you name it I've pretty much had to tear the whole house out
Had a similar experience with ours. Turns out I needed this tool (had to ask a plumber friend to find this out). Comes with the faucet but I guess the original owners took it with them. Don’t know what brand you are going with, but perhaps they have something similar?Quote:
Originally Posted by Nobody Famous
https://www.moen.ca/products/Moen/Mo...on_tool/100110
you never know with old houses. took me half a day to hang a picture. Took old mirror off the wall, found large hole behind the mirror which had to be filled in, which involved adding framing and rerouting romex.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheSilverSurfer
Interesting to see this thread pop up. Just to create a little closure, I never did post pics or whatnot for our completed remodel. So below is a before and after vid of the main level. Apologize for the vertical video, it worked better while looking on my phone and I never really intended that it would be a youtube thing.
Thanks to all the people that provided advice. Special thanks to foggy, fastfred, acinpdx, BelowZero (RIP :(), BigDaddy, and anyone else I am forgetting.
Before (including cute child)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jsthbcrjDM
After (no cute child)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dLXEVndbzM
Biggest advice:
Don't bite off more than you can chew for any 6 months project time.
From the picture that tool is good for when the supply lines are disconnected, initial install, etc. I can but don't want to disconnect the supply lines, more tight tolerances. This is a 'tighten up the nut to setp the value stem from moving around on the cabinet' job.Quote:
Originally Posted by shafty85
The other suggestion to replace with replace with proper basin nuts is a good suggestion. However it means I still have to loosen the tight nuts, only one loose nut prompted this whole project, and disconnect and reconnect the supply lines. All with that tight clearance that is the root cause of all this.
A trip to Sears tomorrow and I may snag some helpful hand tools.
Dubble post
We bought a 1921 craftsman in Seattle this year and the deck needs replaced. Would like to keep the original aesthetic of the home and debating between composite and wood. Opinions?
1000X Better Danno. The wood work around the fridge is pretty!
Get some tigerwood. It's hard as steel and you oil it vs stain. I built a rather large one at my parents place and it looks good. Granted their home is newer but it's still nice looking wood and not plastiboard... just my .02Quote:
Originally Posted by skialpy