Renovation without a contractor?

and also doing it all with home depot. Anyone have done it before?

It will save you 2/3 of the total cost. HD is fine though expect most people here to cry:"middle class". But it's fine. It's been done and is being done all the time

Switel,

I think it will cost you much more doing a complete renovation without a contractor. This is by far the toughest business I have ever been in. I could not imagine a person with no experience taking on such a project.

As far as midtowner statement of 2/3rd savings, that will not happen. I have never maid a 66% profit on any project let alone a full gut. Maybe you save 20% but I am guessing you will lose a lot more

Thanks for your feedbacks, primer05 are you a contractor?

Did it once without a contractor and never again. The toll it took on my day job and my overall mental health was too great.

The contractor for my current renovation is not great, but he gets much better prices than I would be able to, and he can get the right people in the door far faster than I would be able to. There is simply no way I could maintain a full-time job and direct the circus that is a gut renovation.

Plus, with a co-op or even a condo, do you really want to get a certificate insurance for every single subcontractor? And, trust me, you really don't want to do anything on the sly. The 4:30 a.m. call from your neighbor that water is pouring through their ceiling will come, and you will pay dearly....

I have to agree with lad. A friend of mine who is in one of the trades decided to do it himself. Well, five years later, it's still not complete. It became his full time job, things went wrong because of what he didn't know, his basement was flooded twice, and in the end he was so sick of everything after all those years that he stopped working on it and still not complete. Like lad, his job suffered.

As your own GC, you have nothing to offer the sub-contractors, once you find them. There's no future business or relationship-building for them to think about, they know it's going to be a PITA job while you learn everything on the fly and will compensate themselves accordingly, and so on.

nyc10023 has successfully been her own GC, though, so she may chime in here.

I've been my own GC on a couple of small, non-gut bathroom renovations. You're not eliminating any work from the equation; you're just paying yourself what you would pay the GC... my guess is maybe 15-20% of the total job cost... so you need to be in a situation where you have the time and are willing to spend it.

Jeff/Primer is indeed a general contractor, an old-timer who is well-respected on these boards.

As far as Home Depot here--the prices are okay, but the salespeople are not great, in terms of either knowing the inventory or being able to walk you through the technical aspects of a job. I remember, during a bathroom renovation, asking three people at 23rd Street if they had a saddle before giving up and heading over to Bella Tile. And then there are things that Home Depot doesn't stock in Manhattan because of space constraints.

If you have a car, it's worth it to go out to a suburban Home Depot instead.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

Didn't start off wanting to GC by choice but I found the prices charged by GCs to be really, really, really high once you're dialing from a 212 number. I didn't GC a gut reno, but subbed out some of the finish work myself (millwork, floors, some tiling) for the sake of expedience. We moved in before some of the finish work and I was willing to deal with the hassle of scheduling to save some $. Not only that, I had a better experience in getting subs to come in on time and finishing the job compared to the GC. Sounds like Prime always finishes on time and has a great relationship with his subs, but I haven't been paying the kind of prices that Prime is quoting. Did a bathroom after the initial gut reno (but we hardly use that bathroom anyway so time wasn't of the essence).

I will be the first to admit that our paint job (still the original 5-year old job) isn't perfect and doesn't stand up to scrutiny when the place is bathing in bright light for a couple of hours/day but I'm rarely home at those times anyway. And I've been repainting some rooms myself and not minding the imperfections. Made my fair share of mistakes (kitchen countertop is a little thin for the look I was going for, wrong counter edge) but overall, it looks okay. I'm also game for doing maintenance things myself or supervising someone (regrouting, refinishing, resealing, stripping woodwork). Oh, and getting original woodwork finished to a very high level costs $$$$$. I wasn't willing to pay that, so again, certain corners don't bear scrutiny.

We have young children who bash the crap out of all the millwork, walls & floors so it didn't make to much sense to aim for a few seconds of perfection. Bottom line: I paid a GC to do all the hard lifting, and saved money by cheaping out on some of the finish work.

Switel,

I have been a contractor for 15 years. I have owned my own co for about 8 years now. www.primerenovationsnyc.com. All I can tell you as I said before it is a nightmare for a person with no experience to undertake such a project. If it was just a bathroo maybe but not a complete gut.

I know primer but my budget is limited

I appreciate that but it is possible that it will end up costing more if you gc it yourself if you don't know what you are doing. If you plan on actually doing the work yourself, if the building let's you that's a different story. If you decide to do it yourself feel free to contact me and I will try to help you in anyway I can.

just did another gut reno.. ONLY used licensed contractor for plumbing/electric so that if a flood/fire were to occur I have their license # for liability reasons..

go on craigslist and find a contractor willing to negotiate (there are TONS w exp looking for work, AVOID UNIONIZED who charge you DOUBLE must be repeated...

AVOID UNION WHO CHARGE YOU MINIMUM DOUBLE - SAVED ME TENS OF THOUSANDS MIN. -this has nothing to do w politics, after doing this numerous times they rarely EVER provide any better service, and many times worse)

.... confirm their license is still current with a 5 minute call to state AG, see if they're listed with servicemagic/google/yahoo/yelp/whitepages/etc-reviews.. if the reviews are all on the same date, AVOID as he's fake and most likely union at extra $$$$$$, for the SAME (most likely lesser) service.

..use NON-LICENSED for EVERYTHING ELSE.. came out beautifully, saved a BUNDLE (>$35,000 on a studio vs going licensed)..

repeat, AVOID UNION (no politics, just matter of fact after doing this several times)

ss400k,

I have never heard of a a person hiring a union shop for a residential renovation. I am not sure when you did your renovation but most buildings require the gc to be licensed as well.

Ok I didn't end up buying the property, thanks god!! saved at the last minute...

well: I've done it before and the broker of a sale on a floor below asked me to ovesrtate my cost by 200% to make it credible. Primer has many points: it is hard. but done well can be incredibly lucrative. anyway , good luck with your next buy