Contractor Needed

[Stewscue]

Contractor Needed

Hello All
I finally get to build my pool room onto my house

I am looking for a contractor in Tucson AZ to build an 800 Sq Ft room
I am trying to keep it very simple and upgrade in stages.
Stage one is cement floor, Walls , Roof
And of course a 4.5 x 9 Diamond

If anyone knows of a good builder please PM me

Thanks
Carl

 

[Hal]

Call your local lumber yard. Ask them to recommend a builder. Also try the yellow pages under "contractor".

Don't forget about the windows. Sounds like you'll also need to upgrade your air conditioning. That's a big addition.

 

[1pocket]

As a second generation contractor and having worked with many other contractors through our own kitchen cabinet business, I have some advice

The best way to choose a contractor is to
1/ check their references!
2/ look at their work!

All contractors have their own style, both in their esthetic & quality style, and in their style of doing business. If you are seeing work that you like, and hearing the kind of approach to the work that you want for your own project, then that contractor is a good choice for you. If you are not -- either aspect -- then look for somebody else! You are very unlikely to successfully make a contractor work outside their comfort zone.

Notice I didn't even mention "price" Of course that might be a consideration, too, but still, no matter what price point you are in, you can still do this -- you are just doing it with a different group of contractors, that's all...

 

[jay helfert]

As a second generation contractor and having worked with many other contractors through our own kitchen cabinet business, I have some advice

The best way to choose a contractor is to
1/ check their references!
2/ look at their work!

All contractors have their own style, both in their esthetic & quality style, and in their style of doing business. If you are seeing work that you like, and hearing the kind of approach to the work that you want for your own project, then that contractor is a good choice for you. If you are not -- either aspect -- then look for somebody else! You are very unlikely to successfully make a contractor work outside their comfort zone.

Notice I didn't even mention "price" Of course that might be a consideration, too, but still, no matter what price point you are in, you can still do this -- you are just doing it with a different group of contractors, that's all...

And I might add, don't pay too much up front. Keep it pay as you go is the best policy.

 

[Johnnyt]

Pay as you go is very good advice. This way you get to see each stage before the rest is built. If floor the is is good pay and go to walls or whatever the next step is. Set up a completion payment for the finished job. This takes care of the little things that aren't right or what you agreed on. Johnnyt

 

[Russ Chewning]

If you have a certain timeline for this project, that should be written into the contract, with total pay for the project being reduced a certain amount per day if not completed.

I had a garage conversion done. No problem, right? WRONG. It's taken the contractor over four months. Why? Because he used a different drywall team than he was accustomed to. They delayed other parts of the job, and some of their work had to be redone. It wouldn't have been so bad, if the GC had CHECKED ON the new team. But he let them work for 3 days on what should have been a day and a half job.

He's done a fairly good job, but to tell you the truth, the amount of time this has taken has been unacceptable. From a homeowner's perspective, we don't really want to hear about the GC's problems. Furthermore, when MY job gets held up for weeks because the GC is working ANOTHER job, then we have a problem.

We've had our septic tank emptied, collasped, and conencted to city water. Absolutely no problems. Contractors were there when they were supposed to be there. We had a fence put up. No problems, contractors wer there when they were supposed to be there.

As for this contractor? I'll probably refer other people to him, with the warning to include a timeline in the contract, with consequences if the job is not COMPLETELY finished by that time.

Four months to complete a job that could have been completed in 6 weeks comfortably is INSANE.

Russ

 

[jay helfert]

If you have a certain timeline for this project, that should be written into the contract, with total pay for the project being reduced a certain amount per day if not completed.

I had a garage conversion done. No problem, right? WRONG. It's taken the contractor over four months. Why? Because he used a different drywall team than he was accustomed to. They delayed other parts of the job, and some of their work had to be redone. It wouldn't have been so bad, if the GC had CHECKED ON the new team. But he let them work for 3 days on what should have been a day and a half job.

He's done a fairly good job, but to tell you the truth, the amount of time this has taken has been unacceptable. From a homeowner's perspective, we don't really want to hear about the GC's problems. Furthermore, when MY job gets held up for weeks because the GC is working ANOTHER job, then we have a problem.

We've had our septic tank emptied, collasped, and conencted to city water. Absolutely no problems. Contractors were there when they were supposed to be there. We had a fence put up. No problems, contractors wer there when they were supposed to be there.

As for this contractor? I'll probably refer other people to him, with the warning to include a timeline in the contract, with consequences if the job is not COMPLETELY finished by that time.

Four months to complete a job that could have been completed in 6 weeks comfortably is INSANE.

Russ

Unfortunately Russ. This is all too common. That is why I prefer a pay as you go policy. It motivates them to finsh the job.

 

[Russ Chewning]

Unfortunately Russ. This is all too common. That is why I prefer a pay as you go policy. It motivates them to finsh the job.

It WAS pay as you go. We are still sitting on about $1700.00. I guess my GC just hates money.

Russ

 

[BRKNRUN]

Contractor Needed

Hello All
I finally get to build my pool room onto my house

I am looking for a contractor in Tucson AZ to build an 800 Sq Ft room
I am trying to keep it very simple and upgrade in stages.
Stage one is cement floor, Walls , Roof
And of course a 4.5 x 9 Diamond

If anyone knows of a good builder please PM me

Thanks
Carl

From the post it reads like you are adding on a room...If this is the case, make sure you check your boundries for encroachment.

I added on a room and had a contractor that used a draw system. He estimated the cost and I put that money in an escrow account. I had to authorize payments be sent to him as he needed money.

I live in an association and needed approval for a room addition. (It had to match the rest of the house to make it look like the house was origonally built that way) I had to get plans drawn up (the contractor sent someone) and submit them to the association to keep on record.

Once the paperwork was signed the work went very quickly...All of the jobs that needed to be done were by subcontracted crews that were doing after hours side jobs...

The foundation was probably the biggest job in that they dug a 6 foot deep ditch around the outside of the foundation and put in re-bar before the poor (too keep it from moving). Once that was poored it was about a month before anyone showed up to do anymore work.

I had to wait for a city guy to come out and sign of on the permit for encroachment on the property line....The measuring is not like I imagined...Origonally I thought ok you can be x number of feet from the back fence, so I measured from the back of the house...In actuality the measurement is taken from somewhere out in the street to a point in the back yard. It may not even be the middle of the street...There are survey disks in the intersection at the end of the street. You have to go in a straight line from one end of the street to the other and that line is where you measure from...In some cases if your street curves. you may lose or gain some distance...I had told the contractor that I needed a minmum of 16 feet wide on the room...All I will tell you is that my room is 16 feet wide and I have the sign off permit on record..(and a copy)

The roof was premanufactured trusses that were delivered (they have to be inspected and signed off also)

Once the framing started things went rather quickly with no problems at all.

A couple hindsight things to thnk about.

• Get the best insulation you can get if you are going to have three sides exposed
• Get all your wiring, cable etc installed before hand if you are going with vaulted ceilings
• Add a return air duct for the A/C

I burned up the origonal A/C by not adding a return air duct. The unit was just working too hard for the extra square feet.

When I had a new (bigger) A/C installed I had them add a return air duct that helped the room addition a lot. They almost could not add the return duct because vaulted cieling leave very litte room for attic acess. They found a real little guy that was able to crawl back there and get the ductwork in place in the attic. (He was a mess when he came out)

Same with the cable and any stereo wires.

This was done back in Phoenix in about the year 2000, but he may not be retired yet. If you want his number, PM me and I will look it up.

 

[Jack Madden]

From the post it reads like you are adding on a room...If this is the case, make sure you check your boundries for encroachment.

I added on a room and had a contractor that used a draw system. He estimated the cost and I put that money in an escrow account. I had to authorize payments be sent to him as he needed money.

I live in an association and needed approval for a room addition. (It had to match the rest of the house to make it look like the house was origonally built that way) I had to get plans drawn up (the contractor sent someone) and submit them to the association to keep on record.

Once the paperwork was signed the work went very quickly...All of the jobs that needed to be done were by subcontracted crews that were doing after hours side jobs...

The foundation was probably the biggest job in that they dug a 6 foot deep ditch around the outside of the foundation and put in re-bar before the poor (too keep it from moving). Once that was poored it was about a month before anyone showed up to do anymore work.

I had to wait for a city guy to come out and sign of on the permit for encroachment on the property line....The measuring is not like I imagined...Origonally I thought ok you can be x number of feet from the back fence, so I measured from the back of the house...In actuality the measurement is taken from somewhere out in the street to a point in the back yard. It may not even be the middle of the street...There are survey disks in the intersection at the end of the street. You have to go in a straight line from one end of the street to the other and that line is where you measure from...In some cases if your street curves. you may lose or gain some distance...I had told the contractor that I needed a minmum of 16 feet wide on the room...All I will tell you is that my room is 16 feet wide and I have the sign off permit on record..(and a copy)

The roof was premanufactured trusses that were delivered (they have to be inspected and signed off also)

Once the framing started things went rather quickly with no problems at all.

A couple hindsight things to thnk about.

• Get the best insulation you can get if you are going to have three sides exposed
• Get all your wiring, cable etc installed before hand if you are going with vaulted ceilings
• Add a return air duct for the A/C

I burned up the origonal A/C by not adding a return air duct. The unit was just working too hard for the extra square feet.

When I had a new (bigger) A/C installed I had them add a return air duct that helped the room addition a lot. They almost could not add the return duct because vaulted cieling leave very litte room for attic acess. They found a real little guy that was able to crawl back there and get the ductwork in place in the attic. (He was a mess when he came out)

Same with the cable and any stereo wires.

This was done back in Phoenix in about the year 2000, but he may not be retired yet. If you want his number, PM me and I will look it up.

Some of the best advice for Arizona is in this post. Make sure you have a permit --- if not you may have to pull the whole thing down and at the very least it will cost you a lot more $$ if you don't have a permit. Have a friend in Phoenix in a bad spot with a structure that had no permit (he didn't build it - just bought it and ended up with a mess on his hands and not a lot of choices -- all very expensive.)