Orchestrating a building symphony

Being your own GC is like being a conductor. You have to direct the performance of a group of individuals to produce a desired end result. If you are like us and you have zero building experience it's a steep learning curve to understand the sequence of work, material lead times and people required to build a home.

Fast forward past the coordination of material delivery and labor to excavate, pour a foundation, foundation slabs, frame the house (including all interior walls and strapping on the ceiling), roof, install all of exterior windows and doors, siding, and porches (in that order). The real composition occurs when you have all of your subcontractors inside your home. It's almost like doing the hokey pokey. You get the plumber in, the plumber goes out, you get the electrician in, the electrician is out.

Keeping everyone inside and working requires planning and organization by the GC. If it's a busy building season then a good subcontractor has work lined up. If rough plumbing parts like (valves, bath fans) have a shipping delay and the plumber needs those parts to finish their work, they will leave, start another job and come back to finish yours when your materials are delivered. If that happens it can be tough to get a subcontractor to come back in. This happened with our plumber it took almost a month for him to get an inspection on rough plumbing.

Or your electrician can't complete wiring for the lighting and outlets in your kitchen until the kitchen designer chalk outlines where all of your cabinets, appliances and kitchen island will go. But the kitchen designer can't mark out your cabinets until you finalize the appliances you are purchasing. All of your HVAC duct work has to be in before you can start insulation.

Once all of your rough electrical, gas lines, plumbing and HVAC roughs have passed inspection, then you get the green light to insulate your home. After insulation has passed inspection you can have drywall installed. After drywall you can start installing interior trim, doors and hardwood flooring. Hardwood flooring has to be installed before your kitchen cabinets can be delivered and installed.

Below is a timeline I developed and have been tracking against for the completion of our build. As of today if everyone shows up, does their jobs, there are no material delays or errors we are looking at an 8/31 complete date.

As you know anything can happen from day to day with a building project. On top of orchestrating the materials and people to keep them in tune, the GC also has to weave the bank disbursements in between to ensure you have the capital to keep playing the music! Wish us luck T-90 days!!!