Contractor to do a tear down and rebuild
 

Hi Folks,

Can anyone recommend a builder to do a lakefront house (soup to nuts) in Meredith?

Any comments good or bad regarding Old Mill Construction?

Thanks

Scott Compton Builder - excellent, did my camp in Alton - great job. Tell him Uncle Steve sent you

contractors
 

Just make sure you hire somebody who understand all the NHDES rules and regulations regarding tree cutting, etc., especially with water front property. You need to hire somebody who can walk you through the permitting process with the Town, and if troubles arise, will attend the ZBA/Planning Board meetings to defend your position.

If you are not going with an architect, I recommend: Blue Water Construction, Twin Oaks Construction, RN Peaslee Construction, All Quality Construction. All of them do outstanding work, award winning work. They know how to bid, what a deadline means and are honest people.

PS I work for an architect and have first hand knowlege of all of the above.

I can vouch for Twin Oaks. Great guy, great builder, great quality, stands behind his work.

Architects and Builders
 

How do you transition from the architects work over to the builder? Is it a clean break, does the architect stay on call, or do you stand back and let them both work it out together? On-call seems to be the best option. Anyone have experience with that?

Peaslee from sandwich, moultonboro. Great people. Great builders.

Get an architect
 

Get an architect. Not only can he help you with the design but he can help you with the contactor bid selection and for a few extra bucks can stay with you through the entire project to be the go between with you and the builder. Also, when modifications are made during the project, which there will be, an architect is good to have on hand to keep control of cost overruns. The extra cost of an architect will pay off in the long run.

I'm wondering why you even need an architect unless you are having him design a house for you.Any builder can modify a standard plan to your liking and each plan has the square footage,so that you can bid it out by the foot to keep people honest.
How much do they charge?.....by the job,by the hour,by the foot?
I've built several buildings over the years (mostly commercial) and always figured that an architect is just another hand in your pocket so I never used one.

sub it out
 

another way to go would be to sub out parts of the project from the start. Get bids on roofing, siding, framing, etc.. as well as interior work rather than staying with one company from start to finish, I guarantee it costs much less.

Most custom builders sub out all the roofing, siding, floors, trim, etc.. which they sub to local guys while they just mark up the costs on.

You will save thousands if you sub it out.

Get bids from local guys like Blue Moon Builders for the roofing and siding or Ledoux remodeling, they both sub from a lot of local builders and they have great pricing.
Have new Floors by Design bid on all flooring
Mark Roberts concrete. I can give you numbers if you need them.
They all offer free estimates so you have nothing to lose.

Ive done a few projects this way and i have save tens of thousands.

Not always the case. Alot of subs will fill in a fudge factor with having to deal with a homeowner GC because of unforseen cost due to home owners inexperience. I would proceed with caution in trying to GC the job yourself.

Try Ed Cote, 93 Home Show Case - 603-968-7060

try Fenton Varney in Melvin Village. He does high quality work.

If you are not going to be around ALL the time then use a contractor. The self contracting is great if you have LOTS of time to burn and can deal with no shows and what not. Contractors usually have relationships with their subs so they can actually get them to show up. Lots of times they will hammer out deals with them so the end price is close to if not the same as you may otherwise pay. Lots of subs do not like working for the home owner as they have to deal with a lot of change orders and so on. Owner contracting is not for everyone.

This is very much the case.... Having just watched several friends build homes..... I suggest a good contactor..... One friend had an oops and the project fell behind.... and do to scheduling issue some of the subs he had been working with couldn't work to the new schedule..... so one small delay turned into many headaches, not that this can't happen with a contractor... but a good contractor will be able to work through the oops with a little more ease......

Not to mention you are much seemingly more at risk to the subs that will take the money and run. I had a guy do this to me on the place that I am building. He took a substantial deposit and never did anything for me.

Overseer
 

We're still looking for a general contractor, but heard a suggestion that we find a retired contractor who could be hired at a reasonable fee to watch over the process. Has anyone tried that? Do contractors ever retire and then take on that kind of light work?

Interesting thought. Couple things to consider. Do they have the pull with the subs still. Do they have insurance. Since they retired do they really want to still put themselves through the mayhem of a home build.... Ya know what they say, building a home is the most stressfull thing you can do to your marriage. I was lucky with my wife in that I got her to agree to just let me build the house and she has very little if any input into the process. She knows that I have better vision on this type of thing so she said ok. When things are done she can pick out the colors and tile but the big stuff is on me.

My Father in Law does exactly that..
 

After a 30 year career as a GC, he now does site supervison work as you describe. Unfortunately for you, he does this on Cape Cod.. but there has to be somebody locally who does this. Many retired GCs pick up extra money at home improvement centers - you could post an ad or inquire at the one nearest you. For reference, my FIL charges $320/day...

Meredith Historical Society's Contractor
 

I saw the article in the paper about the Meredith Historical Society getting a facelift, and as a Meredith resident, I'd say it's coming along very well! If their contractor is reasonable and recommended enough for an important and budget-sensitive job as THAT, maybe he could be reached to inquire about your project?

I saw the article in the paper about the project last week and again on Sunday...I think they were named "Blueprint Blue"? I can't find the article online, though... maybe call the Society or stop by?

Give Blue Moon Builders a call (603) 293-7901----extremely reasonable