Babysit your Subs

Even with a self-build project, there may be certain tasks you will want to subcontract to others. In our case, we signed on with a general contractor which helped make it possible to get a construction loan. The general contractor helped us in planning the site design and preparing bid estimates for the entire project. He also did the site preparation work: clearing trees from the septic field, excavating the hole for the foundation, trenches for utility lines and contouring the driveway. He also lined up subcontractors to install our septic system, dig and install our well, install our propane tank and line, and pour our foundation, footings, and slab. Most of these tasks went fairly smoothly. There was a gap in time between pouring the foundation and pouring the basement slab, while we worked out the plumbing that would go inside the basement slab. I'll talk more about plumbing in another entry. With some minor exceptions we won't go into here, we were generally pretty happy with the subcontractors selected by our general.

We did have one near miss though. As I mentioned, my husband installed the plumbing prior to having the slab poured. He arrived on site while the subcontractors were at work and found that they had almost buried the toilet flange. He pointed out that it was not yet glued in and only needed to be raised a couple inches to prevent it from being buried in the concrete. Had he not arrived when he did, it would have required HOURS of work to chop through the concrete to access the toilet flange. You really want to be on site as often as possible while your subs are working to make sure they clearly understand how you want the job done.

We hired various other contractors or carpentry assistants during the project, and sometimes made the mistake of either trusting them beyond their skill level or not explaining our expectations clearly enough. My husband let loose a hired assistant who claimed to have wiring experience in our basement, and later after my husband studied the electrical code more himself, ended up having to undo and redo much work that wasn't up to code.

I won't be going into much further detail on the major tasks we subcontracted, as that clearly is not where our expertise from experience arises. We have seen several other people use the Styrofoam stacking block systems to install the forms for their own foundation which has an advantage of providing Styrofoam insulation around your concrete wall. That's something we would have considered if we were to do this again. But for the record, I will put in writing, that while I LOVE this house, I don't plan to self-build again. Once in a lifetime is enough.