In September 2008, during Hurricane Hanna, we had to cover our leaking roof with a tarp. Faced with the prospect of putting a pricey new roof on a 70 year old house with bad plumbing, no closet space, tiny bathrooms, and needing new floors, my husband and I decided to knock the whole mess down and build a new house.
We didn't have any idea what we were getting into, and no idea how to go about getting into it. As it happened, a neighbor had recently constructed a modular home on our street. After a walk through his place, we decided to go the modular route, rather than build what I've since learned is called a "stick built".
The company that made my neighbor's house, and eventually ours, is called North American Housing Corp. They sent us a catalog, and a disc, with hundreds of floor plans, and the names of a couple of builders to talk to. As mind boggling as it was choosing a floor plan, it was probably even more important to choose the right builder for us. The builder we used is Bob Franz, who heads up Bob Franz Construction, of Sterling, VA. Bob Franz Construction is Bob Franz and 1 or 2 day workers.
This isn't really about the house, which is lovely, but about the choosing the builder, so I will try to stay on topic. We found nothing online about either of the builders whose names we were given, so we had nothing to go on. I will share some things I have learned by experience, in no particular order of importance.
1. If your builder isn't on time for your 1st appointment, and doesn't call until he's 40 minutes late to let you know why, take it as an omen for how he'll respect your time throughout the project. This is a big red flag.
2. Get a builder who listens to what you are saying. If he counters every desire you express with how he did it better somewhere else, watch to make sure he isn't going to go ahead and do it his way. Here are just a few examples, though I have a dozen more...the floor plan for our house showed a porch that extended only partway across the front of the house, from its center, ending before the dining room. I decided I wanted the porch to extend the full length of the dining room, as well. The builder thought it would be too dark. When the plans were drawn up, I noticed the porch ended before the dining room. I had to remind him I wanted a full porch, and the plans had to be modified. After the porch was built, the builder put the railings up at varying distances from each other. I told him I wanted them equidistant; that it looked peculiar with a random short section between railings. He insisted it couldn't be done, and he didn't do it. I told him the azaleas I wanted planted should be a riotous orgy of bold color, reds, purples, hot pinks, all mixed up. Instead, in front of my porch, he was preparing to plant 6 - white, peach, peach, peach, peach, white. And in front of the windows, side by side, 4 pink ones. Spring is here now, and in front of my porch with the odd railings, I do NOT have a riotous orgy of color. While some of the azaleas are blooming, there are several still green, just beginning to bud. It appears they won't even bloom together and I will be buying more and planting them myself.
One more example of needing your builder to listen - we have a generator for those far too frequent times the power goes out in our area. We wanted the office on the generator, for obvious reasons. The office was left off, and the electricians had to be called back out. FOOTNOTE TO THIS!!! Yesterday we had the generator serviced, oil changed, all that...and guess what? Turns out the generator was not even hooked up. This is a reflection on not only the builder, but the electricians, and the inspectors! Pretty amazing, and another example that in the end, you're on your own. If you have any doubts about your builder, watch him like a hawk.
3. During the construction phase, if your builder doesn't return your calls or emails in a short time period, worry. He is likely putting other jobs ahead of yours and doesn't want to have to explain that to you.
4. Make an agreement UP FRONT for your builder to give you a financial accounting of his expenditures. In writing. Don't take your builder's verbal word for it that "there's plenty of money left." At the end of our job, Bob Franz handed us a HUGE bill for expenses he didn't have permission to incur, beyond what we had agreed to pay him. If you have an exact accounting, you can exercise your right to bypass upgrades or extra features if you know there isn't money for them. This was a very expensive lesson we learned!
5. Put a completion clause in your contract. Your builder's delays are not costing HIM money. It's you who will be paying double rent, double bills, bank extensions, etc. Our initial move-in date was June 1. We actually finally got our occupancy permit on November 3.
6. Excuses - If your builder makes excuses rather than taking responsibility, you will find yourself paying him twice for the same work - once to do it, and again to correct it.
7. Be certain your builder knows the rules and codes of YOUR county or city. Otherwise, you'll be paying for him to be educated as he makes mistake after mistake. Our builder, Bob Franz, knew a lot about how they do it in HIS county...but, we're in OUR county, with a whole other set of codes.
8. Make sure you and your spouse agree on the builder. If not, the builder will learn quickly to play one against the other, and will go over the head of the opposed spouse to the compliant one. This can cause a lot of stress and cost a lot of money.
9. Find out 1st thing if your lender will go along with your builder's draw schedule and methods. If not, you can spend weeks and $ with loan approvals, assessments, and appraisals, only to get to the paper signing and have the bank say, no way. The builder told us TWO banks had let him do it his way, but both banks said, That's not our policy....
10. Watch how your builder treats his employees. Insist on talking to prior clients before hiring him, and ask them about this. If he doesn't have reliable help, or if they don't respect him, it's your work that suffers. Bob Franz had one man helping him for most of our job, and two men for part of it. Midway through, they were no longer there, and another person finished the job.
11. Find out in advance what happens to your job if your builder is incapacitated because of illness or injury. Our builder had a medical issue about the same time the 2 workers disappeared. For 3 weeks, nearly no work was done on our house. Find out who takes over, or does the work simply stop for 3 weeks? This will cost you, not him.
12. Ask for a work schedule, in writing. Once your house is actually being built, if he says something will be done by a certain time, or in a particular order, make him follow through. If he is spending endless days on the same tile job, or one room is taking 3 days to paint, call him on it.
13. Do overs. Keep a list of things done wrong, or sloppily. Make your builder correct these at HIS expense. You have already paid him to do it wrong! Make sure he isn't charging you time and materials again to correct it.
So, those are some of the most important points I can share about choosing a builder. If you want further information or details, feel free to email me, and I will be happy to elaborate.
