Home building 101

Moving into your newly built home can be a dream come true. Getting to that point, however, can be fraught with frustration, fear and stress. To make the process as worry-free as possible, Baton Rouge-area contractors Guy Oliver of GW Oliver Construction and Daryl May of Daryl May Construction offer their advice.

Five questions you should ask your builder:

1. How many years of experience do you have, how many homes do you build in a year and what is your workload right now? Oliver recommends asking for at least five names and contact information for clients for whom the builder completed homes in the past year. “If they can’t find five or six in the last year, that’s a red flag,” he says.

2. What is the communication process? “You want to know who you are going to communicate with and how often they’ll be available,” Oliver says. And, May adds, it’s important to know how often the builder will be on the job site and whether the builder will be supervising the project.

3. Will I have a schedule for project completion? Knowing the project timeline can prepare you for important decision points, such as when you need to have your light fixtures selected. “We use software that keeps the client up to date on when the house will be completed and lets them know what stages are coming up,” Oliver says.

4. What type of contracts do you offer? “For example, do they offer cost plus or fixed fee,” May says. “How will you know if the subcontractors and vendors have been paid?”

5. How will I be informed of any change orders? May advises asking for any cost changes to be in writing, while Oliver recommends asking how change orders—such as moving a wall to make a closet bigger—will be implemented.

 

First five steps you should take before breaking ground:

1. Secure the lot. After all, as Oliver notes, you can’t build your dream home without the land underneath it.

2. Get your financing in order. Make sure you have clearly delineated your budget, Oliver says. Knowing when, where and how you pay is just as critical as who is drawing up the plans and who is building the house.

3. Hire an architect. Select an architect you feel comfortable with and who listens to your needs and understands how you and your family live, May says.

4. Choose a builder. May recommends choosing three reputable builders to bid. “Provide them with allowances values for plumbing fixtures, flooring, granite, appliances, hardware and landscaping,” he says. “If you don’t provide these values, the builders will establish their own, which can be dramatically different and make it more difficult to interpret the bids. If you need assistance with these allowances values, consult with your architect or designer for input.”

5. Get everything in writing. “With hundreds of details on a custom home, it’s impossible to remember what you and the builder talked about three months ago,” May says. “To protect yourself and the builder and to avoid any misunderstandings throughout the project, it’s smart to have as much as possible documented.”

—MEREDITH WHITTEN