Everything You Need to Know About Building the Custom Home: How to Be Your Own General Contractor

by John Folds

Book Overview

More and more people are foregoing and aggravations of hiring a general contractor and opting to oversee their own homebuilding projects.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0878336532
• ISBN13: 9780878336531
• Release Date: April 1990
• Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 7.0" x 9.9"

Customer Reviews

Good book.

Bought the book, but found a dream home before we had the chance to start building. I would recommend it highly if you are thinking about being your own contractor.

Highly recommended even if you don't want to be your own GC

This book covers both house buying and working with contractors. Do not be put off by its title; I would recommend it even if you are buying a standard house or building an addition to your existing house. Although it seems to be very specific to building a new custom house, in fact it gives excellent advice on all phases of buying a house or lot (including evaluating it, bargaining, financing, etc.) as well as finding contractors, negotiating with them, etc. It assumes you are going to be your own general contractor, but even if you are not, its advice is pertinent and useful. Some of the discussions of contracts and payment schedules may seem a bit nit-picky, but you ought to read "The Home Remodeler's Combat Manual" to show why it can be necessary. I find it much better than Bob Vila's book on house buying, and also better than House Buying Step-by-Step (which was the best among the other books I found at the bookstore). It's unfortunate that its title makes its scope seem so narrow. (I wrote the above in 1995, and don't know if anything even better has come along since then.)