Tips to DIY Your Own Home Build: Construction Management, Hiring Contractors, Why Builders are Wary

and okay so that's my intro this is Matt Risinger you know who he is if you do not know who he is go right now to build show I just want to say thank you up front every time Matt puts somebody in one of his videos it basically changes our careers because you just have so many viewers so thank you okay so what I want to talk about today is since we've got an A builder and I'm not one I'm always talking about uh like how to get what you need out of the home that you're building with normal people a lot of my clients happen to be like in individuals who are GC their own home which I think is very exciting that is interesting because you care more than anybody in your area and so you should be the one who's kind of leading the charge but there are a couple things probably that you have to say about that you few pitfalls there okay so so lay it on us okay so if you're going to GC your house a couple things you need to know that I always tell people like look you know when you hire me as a builder you're hiring me plus a few other people to actually be on site and we caught a quiet afternoon where everyone's gone for the day right now but if this was an active job site at 10:00 a.m. there might be three or four Subs on the job that have questions and if you're not around to answer those questions let's say you're traveling for work or you have a conference call or whatever they very well might just move forward what they think needs done and then you're going to come to the end of the day and go oh no that's not what I was expecting at all right so GC in your own house you really need to know that hey this you need to take this seriously as your full-time job I would I would highly recommend you set up a job desk and if you have to take a zoom call do it at the job so that someone can go oh can I interupt you for a second I got a question over here yeah I'll be back to the meeting yes Mr duck man Mr electrician what let's get this right you have to be on the job it's vital to be on the job the other thing is when I have Subs to go to my jobs I've been building now for almost 20 years I have some subs that have been on the job like this duck guy who's here has done the duct work in every single house I've ever built so I don't have to be here anymore when Jeff and the crew is here because I know what they're going to do Jeff knows exactly what I'm expecting and if I do something different in general they're G to be like yeah no problem boss because I know I'm getting the next job from you if you're a solo person who's never done it before you're finding Subs you don't know they're not loyal to you they may or may not care frankly whether you're happy with their work they just want to get paid and so there's less of this I know what to expect and I'm going to make it happen on your job site so there's there's a couple of downsides that you just need to know uh that that aren't going to happen when you GC your own house and also when you hire me as a builder it's not just me it's my people it's my subcontractors it's the guy like Jeff who's worked for me for 20 years that you're hiring and yes I charge a higher percentage well part of that is because I've got a whole team of people that are on my job sites all the time that are just as trained and just as professional as I am and we found that when we were building our house which took us two years and I want to talk about experience too in a second but uh I had to go and learn how to get each piece like the supplier too you have suppliers that like you know how to order the things now I have to go and find every single little thing and like where do I get replacement screws that are this long yeah you on the day of so the the other thing is that when you watch our Channel you watch Grace and I build our house in two years which is a long time for some people they're like why did it take you so long but and I don't know how long does it take you to build a house usually two years okay all right so let's be honest takes two years most of the time Grace and I had like 12 years of building science of inspecting new buildings behind us and so we stepped into it with a fair amount of experience if you're getting your master's degree in building science on YouTube good job like I I we're all for it fantastic but just know that it's going to take you a little longer cost you a little bit more you're going to be I'm terrible at budgeting and scheduling and that's like a big part of your job yeah and the last thing that I'd mention on that specific point is uh if you don't have some building experience you you've been in another career and you're going to GC your own house I'm not saying don't but remember that you're not going to see some things that a season Builder might see whether it's building science related or whether it's just plain old structure or fire stopping or whatever uh and so for instance we're at a job site can I point something out here oh please please uh this is a job of ours under construction we're on a screen porch area this is an unconditioned porch this will get a screen in this wall and when I walked into this job under construction I realized oh shoot we framed this wall but we really should have Cinder blocked this wall because if water gets in here uh cuz it's a screen there's not a window that's blocking the water from coming in if water gets in here and water drips in right here let's say this this is going to change this is not complete but let's use this as an example water gets in here even though this is an open cavity with no insulation there's no drying potential here and so water that gets in here every time it rains will lead to rot on here and you know how I know this cuz I messed this up once before 15 years ago on a job where I framed a screen porch with really nice uh LVL uh pardon me LSL studs like OSB type studs I wanted nice and tall and straight and the waterproofing details I used on the screens was not good water leaked in there it had nowhere to dry it had stucko on the outside and stucko on the inside and I came back three or four years later and had to rip out the whole porch on my dime and fix it yeah so there's something to be said about having that wisdom of experience on the job so if you're GC in your own house couple things I'd recommend number one get some get some smart people to help right whether that's Corbett whether that's somebody else have them design your HVAC system uh and then find some folks that will come in and look at it with a fresh set of eyes a couple times during construction for you as well and know it can be a great experience I know lots of people that have built their own house and done an amazing job but you have to make the time to do it right and you have to have the time to do it right so if you're if you're a 50 hour a week career person person now's not the time in your life stage to do it if you're semi-retired if you just sold your business if you are retired great maybe that's a perfect time for you to do it but you might hire some really smart people to come in and check that out absolutely yeah and I had multiple Builders like I asked Matt I cornered him at a conference it was like hey here's what I'm planning with my roof what do you think and that's like a very important thing to do with anybody just grab everybody you can remember that if you are going to be doing this for the first time the first home is your most difficult one so if you're if you're a new bu and you're trying to build the way that Matt's building uh the first one is going to be like it's going to be a nightmare and then the second one's a lot easier so don't do it the way we did it where you're just going to build one and then you're never going to build again it's a great point it's a little inefficient so let's talk about contractors for a second because if you are going to GC your own project then you're going to need to get subcontractors to work for you I didn't want to do all the drywall and the tile and all this like this is craftsmanship in some I mean hopefully right so how do you find a Craftsman who is also going to do high performance what are the questions oh man that's a hard one I mean ultimately the way that I did I found those folks when I started my company was asking around uh other builders and really getting involved with my local Builders Association the Home Builders Association so if you're if you're a young Builder watching this I think a a local HBA is a great way to get involved because you can meet uh older Builders who are willing to tell you both wisdom and subcontractors potentially but another way to do it frankly is to drive around town and see what Subs are working on which jobs and if you find a uh a really good Builder look to see who's working on their jobs you're not stealing them that's common knowledge to see that that person's van with their logo is parked in front of that Builder's job site so you're not stealing them um but that's a good place to start is to have a conversation with Subs that are working for good Builders let me ping this off you so we've got this HVAC list if you don't know the HVAC list for of uh scientific hbac installers I'm looking on the screen right now cool the questions it's an honor System it's free to to list yourself it's free to look at it um it's just an Excel spreadsheet and what I ask the HVAC installers is do you believe in math do you believe in science and do you know that high performance homes are going to have a much lower you know HVAC system size and if they say yes to those things I'm like great you're on the list because I think open-mindedness is one of the most important things do you have you found the same thing with Builders and with Subs uh yes and no you know I tend to work I'm in this really sweet spot where I've always got or six projects going and I've done that for two decades now so I tend to work with the same folks over and over U but I would say anecdotally I've seen over the years especially in this market we've got more and more good folks that are getting trained and are moving out they're watching your videos they're watching my videos uh I talked to one of my guys who actually had you train them for their was it their BPI certification oh nice um a really smart guy that we know who's really handsome long beard long beard huge beard so I mean I think every day our pool of folks that are getting educated is better and better but you have to be a little cautious right like just cuz they have the moniker of Mitsubishi Diamond dealer let's say uh or some other good moniker there's nothing I'm not disparaging that that doesn't necessarily mean that you know what you're doing and that you're trained so for instance I always say let's get an outside thirdparty person whether it's Corbett or somebody else to do an HVAC design and a load C and then I give that information to my guy cuz I've got a guy for instance like if you just look around this house Corb fantastic duct install amazing I mean look at this sheet metal trunk Line running straight through the center of the house it's sheet metal that's been outside insulated I mean it's like as good as it gets but the guy who did this and his team if he's watching I love you Jeff uh is not the guy that I'm having to do the manual J and he's not the guy that I'm saying let's figure out the equipment together right now I might do that if I have AEM Manuel J or if I have some good ideas uh it's just I'm paying someone else to do all the Cals and all the math because the skill of sitting in front of a computer for like 8 to 10 hours building that is not the same skill as putting the system in exactly and also remember too that the guy who's bidding it for you uh you don't want to do the in in to do the design because if you're just willy-nilly getting three bids in the job and you're not providing those specs there's no way you can get a really good Apples to Apples install the average especially owner Builder has no idea what kind of duct work they're getting what kind of filtration they're getting it may spec some particular furnace model number uh or you're getting a two-stage air handler but other than that you really don't know what you're getting uh and if you have two or three bids you have no idea whether these are even you know one guy's specking a five ton one guy's doing a three ton so it's just it's hard to know what you're getting whereas if I give them your specs or positive energy specs or somebody else out there who's doing those then I can really get a much more concise much more correct uh price from an HB contractor on the job so if you are going to be hiring a builder I had a uh one of our friends went to Vermont and sat down with a builder and the Builder immediately asked two questions which I thought were like amazing questions I don't know what questions you asked one of them was what is your airtightness target which I was like oo very fancy and then the other one was who is your favorite building scientist oh inter and I thought those will tell you so much about a person because like if they don't know the answers to those so what did your client say Corbett Lunsford he said probably said M Rising I wasn't fishing for I mean there's only a few people but I think that the the style of how what you're looking for you know there's like so many of there's not that many of us but like we all have a slightly different extremism we're all extremists in a certain way yeah for sure so how do you vet your clients like what if I went into a builder's office and they didn't ask me those questions should I be worried no not necessarily I think to be honest my clients are looking for integrity first from Builders and it's sad that we're in an industry that people are like are you now are you you honest or not I mean there's so much party fodder of builders that have had a problem that left people on the Lurch that's took money it's such a low bar in our industry I hate that about our industry I'm trying to change that but I think honestly when people are are looking for a contractor they're looking for somebody who's honest first um on the contractor side and for me it's kind of the same like I'm looking for a client that's really a high integrity person too uh I'm looking for someone who's going to trust me when I tell them hey we need to do this on your house uh and honestly I'm looking for people that are going to pay their bills too uh and have integrity with me that I say here's your invoice can you please pay me in three or four days because I need to pay all these people who are in line for that check so this is kind of a side note and I don't tell many people this but I use my contract as a vetting Tool uh so I have a fairly Builder oriented contract that's that kind of feels one-sided so to speak and if they bleed all over the contract and have their attorney give 37 things they want to change I'm usually very early on like I don't know if this relationship is going to work guys uh you know this is our contract we've used it for a long time and you know if you had one thing or two things you want to change I'd be willing to talk about that but we're not going to go to your style contract we're not going to do this other type of contract we're not going to negotiate on these 25 points I need you to trust me as a builder and you know this contract is my contract and and the people that haven't gone with that I've heard back later they hired another Builder and there was trouble yeah a lot of you will watch even Matt's Channel and you'll see a brand new product and you'll be like I want that and no one in your area has ever used it before being a builder is really scary and so they don't want to do that and so if you force them to do that kind of thing like that you're going to get pushed back and I know I personally know people who have had like Builders fire them and just be like no nobody is actually doing the job in your Market because like just everybody's hands off like this looks too scary and that's a real thing so like don't you know you have to be a little cautious if we're talking to owner Builders here like if you're in a Marketplace that doesn't normally do really good details you need to figure out what your priorities are like this is a non-negotiable for me and this is really important and this is a nice to have and you have to kind of go through that list and especially when you're hiring a builder and go okay this is a non-negotiable like I really want a 1.5 A50 or better uh all of my duct work needs to be in the condition space on this house those are non-negotiable so can you do that for me Mr Builder and if they'll push back on those and oh I don't no I don't ever blower door test and you know I was planning on putting ducks in your attic or your unvented crawl space okay they may not be the right person for but then when it comes to some fantastically cool Erv that you've seen at my house maybe that's the cool to have but it's not an it's not a musthave or whatever whatever it is if we're talking specifically to owner Builders here if you're hiring your own uh subcontractors and you're going to be that owner operator take a page out of Scott TR book who we both admire because he will adapt there's almost no like noo for him he's like what what are you willing to do can you do this and they say no he's like okay all right how about this and he'll just have a whole bucket of thing like what do you what about this what about this so don't lose patience if you have your first idea and they say no come back with another idea use your creative that's smart yeah and then Scott also kind of self- performs a little bit too with his guy and himself even sometimes like if they won't do a rain screen okay well you do the framing then I'll do the rain screen or or I'll put the rain screen up then you put the siding on or I'll detail the Foundation to uh framing you know Sega tape or fum or you know whatever the the fluid applied is there so Scott will pick up all those little pieces and I think that's great and and I would recommend that even if you're maybe hiring a GC who's not a very performance oriented GC ask them if you can do a few of those details yourself right which again comes back to you're going to spend a lot of time at that site whether or not you're the Builder so thank you very much for all the work that you do for this industry and for us thank you guys for for watching make sure that you're subscribed to Matt's Channel where where can you find more about what you want to tell people uh the build show.com is the best place you can see it all there okay awesome comment below if you have anything else to add about this topic like And subscribe tune in next time [Music]

Channel: Home Performance

Views: 35,956

Keywords: home performance, building performance, high performance, hers rater, bpi, proof is possible, home diagnosis, building science, corbett, lunsford

Id: KPtuYWfOPGA

Length: 16min 20sec (980 seconds)

Published: Thu May 23 2024