Building a house is a pretty big project, and you may not want to take on the risk and responsibility of getting it right. However, General Contractors do it all the time, and some of them learned relatively early in life. How do they do it? By following the basic steps for managing any project, and learning through study and practice. First, it’s important to understand the process by identifying categories. There are many ways to approach this, but we’ll start with a simple outline.
Identifying Project Stages
A construction project can be broken down into a series of tasks. Some can be done concurrently, and some follow a sequence. We know that a project like this has a statement of scope (WHAT you are going to do), a BUDGET (how much it will cost), and a SCHEDULE (how long it will take). There are also some tools available such as logic, research, templates from other projects, etc. You have to start somewhere, so let’s sketch out a statement of intent.
What is the Project?
For this exercise we will use the example of building a one-story single-family home on a finished residential lot in a medium-sized town. The house will be 2,000 sq. ft. and will be traditional wood-frame construction. We have plans for the lot that were prepared by an architect, and the lot is approved for a new home by the zoning regulations. Getting to this point is a project in itself, but we will assume these things are already completed.
There are still a lot of questions, but we have already eliminated many concerns. We know that water, sewer, and power are available to this jobsite. We don’t have to clear timber or get permission from the environmental agency to build next to a stream. We don’t need to go through a long public-approval process to get permission to build in this location. We know that materials are available from local lumber stores, and there are tradespeople available to do the work. These are assumptions for our case study—your project may need extra steps to get to this point.
What is the Budget?
We have already limited the scope to a 2,000 sq. ft. one-story home, and the plans specify the building materials—a mid-range home with standard amenities. Your architect may have given you a rough estimate for the cost of construction for a project like this, usually a “price per square foot.”
There are a number of way to estimate this factor, but your architect has suggested a budget of $200/sq. ft. so we’ll start there: $200 x 2,000 = $400,000 to build the structure on the lot you already own. This is the number you will use to determine the amount of money you can borrow to finance your project, unless you have that much cash already available. It’s also the number we will use to determine whether the project winds up over or under budget when it is completed.
What is the Schedule?
If your plans are approved and a permit has been issued the schedule is now in your hands. What is the least amount of time this project might take? What is a more realistic guess? It depends on many factors, such as availability of workers and materials, weather, risks, changes, inspector availability, accidents, and financial constraints. No project of this type is free of variables, but let’s allow six months from the time the permit is issued (your legal permission to start building the project) and the COE (Certificate of Occupancy, or permission from your jurisdiction to actually move in).
Building a house in the winter has its own challenges (bad working conditions due to rain, snow, and freezing temperatures as well as fewer daylight hours) so we will assume that the project will start in April and finish before the end of October. That’s the goal, and it’s possible to finish ahead of this educated guess. However, it’s time to look at some other factors, starting with the Critical Path.
Identify the Tasks in your Critical Path
We haven’t created a detailed list of tasks yet, but we can look at categories and begin to organize our plan. It’s helpful to use a visual tool. We will use a spreadsheet such as Excel to plan our project, but since you are new to this kind of project we’ll start with note cards or sticky notes, and organize them into categories like “pre-construction,” “foundation,” “framing,” “roofing,” “everything before drywall,” and “finishes.”
Your “pre-construction” category is complete. The lot has been purchased, the plans were submitted to the building department and approved, the loan was finalized, and the permit was issued. All of these items are in the critical path of building your house—they MUST be done before you begin construction. There are almost no exceptions to this (unless you have plenty of cash and don’t need a loan)!
The Foundation
The critical path for the foundation is obvious, as you have to finish grading, trenching, and building the forms before you can pour the concrete. You also need to pass the inspection by the building inspector after the forms but before the concrete is placed. If you are the concrete contractor you will have to go into greater detail about how these tasks are accomplished, but for now we will move on to the next steps. When the foundation is done you have completed a milestone—you can probably get your first construction loan draw (depending on the bank’s policies) and start framing.
The Frame
In order to create the basic structure for the home you will need to build the frame. The lumber needs to be on site and then the framers build the walls. That is in the critical path to get to the roof installation, which is a real milestone in the project. When the walls are framed and the roof is complete you can install windows and doors so you can lock up the project. Now you can begin all the other tasks that need to be protected from rain (and unauthorized visitors).
Everything Before Drywall
At this point your critical path becomes more complicated. What comes next? Does it matter if the plumber puts in the rough plumbing before the electrician puts in the rough wiring? The term “rough-in” means that the work will be covered by drywall or other finishes, and it will need to pass inspection before you can cover it up.
There are guidelines for these decisions, but you have more leeway. It is possible to have more than one tradesperson working at the same time, especially if there is a particular deadline, but that may not be optimal. Having two trades on the same jobsite depends on their personalities and professionalism. Some tasks are focused and tedious; some are noisy and chaotic. Some tasks have to be physically completed before other tasks can be done. This is where your PERT Chart starts looking a little more complicated. There’s a lot going on, and the timing of these tasks can be variable.
When the HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning), plumbing, and electrical rough-in is completed you can call for the inspection that will allow you to insulate and then drywall the interior. The inspection that allows you to cover your work is a major milestone—partly because you can’t drywall without it, and partly because it will be much harder to correct mistakes once the work is covered up.
In the meantime, you can be doing some of the work that is unrelated to the interior, such as finish grading the exterior, installing the siding, and creating the flatwork such as driveways and walkways. Or—you can do those things after the house is completed. They are not in the critical path.
Finishes
The next step is the drywall, and everything else inside the house usually stops during this process. It’s dusty when the work starts and humid when the texture is drying near the end. When you are ready for finished you will have many choices to make about the sequence of the work.
Do you install the cabinets before or after the floor covering in the kitchen? It’s technically possible to do it either way. Do you paint the door casings at the same time you paint the walls, or paint the walls before you hang and trim the doors? How many tradespersons can be working inside at the same time? How many trips do they need to make in order to finish everything?
The Project Manager needs to anticipate potential conflicts and make scheduling decisions affecting multiple players. If your schedule is flexible you can accommodate different personality types and allow everyone the time they need.
If you are racing the clock you might need to deal with conflicts and errors. It’s always smart to distinguish what is “possible, but difficult” from what is simply not possible. If you are approaching a deadline that can’t be met it is better to strategize about how to disclose that fact and deal with it than stay in denial and create additional chaos. Stuff happens. How you deal with it is a matter of training, skill, and perspective.
The Budget, Part Two
You came up with an overall budget based on a “price per square foot” estimate. When you break down that number into specific line-items you need to determine how detailed your estimate should be. How can you do that? It depends on your role in building the house.
Subcontractors
If you are going to use subcontractors for each stage and you have good plans and specifications you can get estimates/bids from more than one for each trade and then make a selection. This will include excavation and foundation (concrete); framing, roofing, siding, windows, doors, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, insulation, drywall, painting, cabinets, and flooring.
Each bid may include materials—or just the labor. If the framer is only giving you a bid for labor they can provide a materials list so you can get a price from the lumber store for the materials. If the bid includes materials your plans and specifications should tell what the materials are so you get what you are expecting from the subcontractor. Sometimes it’s a little of both. For example, your electrician might provide all the wire, rough-in boxes, and receptacles but you will provide the light fixtures.
As you work your way through the process of estimating you will learn something from everyone you talk to. Sometimes sub-contractors will have different opinions, so it’s important to keep track of what each bid includes. As you add line-items to your estimate spreadsheet you can see how close you are getting to your total estimate.
An experienced builder might use in-house labor to save money (saving the profit that a subcontractor will include in their bid). If you are planning to do some of the work yourself (or hire employees to do it for you) you must remember that you are responsible for what they do and how they do it. They will need supervision, payroll, and other forms of support.
You are also responsible for providing the materials needed, which probably includes figuring out exactly what those items should be. Who picks up the materials that the estimator forgot to include on the list? What happens when your laborers don’t finish as quickly as you expected? Your costs increase and your schedule is extended.
A house can be built by a single Project Manager who coordinates subcontractors. There are always small things that need to be done, but the main trades will be done by professionals. If the total of your materials and subcontractor bids is within your original budget estimate you can save money if you are the Project Manager. Even if you decided to hire a General Contractor at the end of your budget, schedule, and planning process you will have gained a much better appreciation for what is involved.
Everyone starts somewhere. Every excellent Project Manager was once a toddler. Learn from the people you talk to, use good judgement, and collect reference materials such as schedule and budget templates in order to improve your skills. Start with smaller projects and work up to larger ones, learning as you go. Someday you may be able to plan and build your own house!