Building your dream home doesn’t have to be a nightmare. Learn the secrets to finding a reliable contractor, managing your project like a pro, and avoiding costly mistakes – all in one easy-to-follow guide.
Are you planning to start construction of your own house soon? Then this is something for you…
Did you know that in house construction, one of the most important steps is choosing the right Contractor?
Building/labour contractors are some of the most important ones, and you should choose them carefully.
He is the only contractor you will be dealing with from start to end of your house construction. Sometimes, you need them even after your construction to fix some issues here and there.
If you choose the wrong person, you will suffer a lot financially and mentally.
I learned some lessons after building two houses with two builders and two different types of contract agreements.
I will share everything I know and learned in my Building Contractor Guide after constructing two houses.
This guide includes everything new and first-time home builders need to know about picking, evaluating, structuring deals, common construction mistakes, etc., and all the information I shared inside this guide.
This guide contains 45+ pages of content to cover all the details with relevant images for better understanding.
These are all easy-to-understand guides; you can cover all these in one sitting.
But I recommend first going through roughly once… second time, sit and try to grasp all the points slowly so that you understand properly what it is.
Never underestimate the importance of choosing the right building contractor.
I have seen and heard many horror stories about Building contractors leaving or creating problems during construction.
What you will do in such cases?
Suppose any issues happen with the contractor during the construction work. In that case, it’s not easy to choose another contractor.
Because none of them show interest in starting a problematic project.
Not just that.
All contractors start the project with full energy… but they don’t have the same energy to complete your construction work once they start.
Why?
Because now the project is confirmed. Even if a delay happens also, you cannot easily change the contractor.
That’s the reason.
Why do some projects get delayed while others finish as planned?
It could be due to the building contractor’s role as well.
In this guide, I’m going to share all the important points that all new users need to know.
I have personally seen…
– Contractor creating a dispute at the ending stage of the construction (with my dad friends house behind our house)
– Contractor not reachable during housewarming function (they need even after function) (near our house, one uncle informed)
– The contractor stopped working in the middle of construction (at another dad friends house & at our plumber’s house)
…and many such disputes I have personally seen and heard.
They all happen because the house owner makes mistakes when choosing the right contractor.
If you want to avoid such issues yourself, here is a guide. Written by someone who has gone through construction experience twice.
This guide is not just about choosing the right Building Contractor…
It’s also about framing Good Contract Terms.
Just choosing the right building contractor is not enough.
You have to properly frame the agreement so that you don’t get into any dispute with your contractor.
If yours is the first time and relied on your contractor for agreement, then you are doing wrong.
Because the contractor brings an agreement that is favourable to him instead of you.
How can we prevent such a thing?
Easy. Even if the contractor brings agreements, mention the points I shared in Contract Tips, and you will be safe.
These are the few areas where disputes with building contractors usually happen.
Building Construction Tips and Lessons
I also shared some of the common mistakes many new owners make while constructing their houses unknowingly.
These are the lessons that I learned after making such mistakes in our house by spending our own money on it.
Avoiding these mistakes while constructing your house can save you thousands of rupees. You cannot even fix some mistakes if you must do so later once the construction ends.
If you know all such mistakes at the construction stage, you can avoid making them all…
65+ such construction mistakes/tips are shared in this guide.
You will save a lot even if you use any two of them.
In this guide, you will learn the following:
- Tips to choose the right building contractor #1
- Qualities you need to know before finalising contractors
- Ignoring this step while choosing a contractor will slow down work from the contractor’s side #1.4
- The simple test to check the quality work of the contractor and his team #1.6
- Ask these questions to his work-in-progress building owners to know about the contractor #1.7
- Remember this tip to reach your contractor in case of an emergency #1.8
- How one skilled contractor tried to collect cash upfront by small changes he made in the labour payment structure #1.9
- Our first and second building contract terms #2.1, #2.2
- How I would structure my building contract terms now #2.3
- Two Detailed Building Contractor Agreement Template (only for labor contract, not material contract) to safe guard owners in word doc format #2.4
- Discuss these things with your contractor before finalising the deal #3
- Don’t forget to discuss this with your building contractor, which is related to plumbing work, or else they may say it’s not ours. #3.6
- Understand this point to stop losing money #3.10
- These contract tips will save you money in building contract labour expenses. #3.13
- best time to discuss contract #3.14
- The main mistake we made in our first building, which resulted in paying more than we discussed in the contract terms #4.2
- Few labour tips
- Follow this Room Chajja tip shared by our engineer, and you will remember me after completing your building. #4.20
- Things you need to remember if you plan to install a solar water heater #4.37
- Want more water pressure in taps? remember this tip when building a house #4.39
- Forget this tip; your staircase will convert into a waterfall during the rainy season #4.40
- Install wall drop? then remember to do this where Waldrop will come #4.41
- Don’t do MS/SS work before finishing this task, or else you will regret it later #4.42
- Make sure to follow these tips when plastering, or else you will end up paying more to your painting contractor #4.43
- In the process of finishing plastering work faster, don’t make this common mistake done by most house owners #4.44
- Need to Place washing machine on the terrace? then you need to know this tip before you do so #4.45
- If you are installing sliding windows and you want granite platform around windows… then don’t make this mistake #4.46
- If you install granite flooring and want to carry a lengthy slab to the first and above floors… It would be best if you kept this in mind while building walls #4.47
- Things you need to remember while building a parapet wall #4.53, 4.54
- And much more…
Who Is This Training For?
- If you have not yet started your house construction work
- You still need to finalise your building labour contractor
- You need to understand the In and out of labour contract
- You need to structure a better agreement with your contractor
- You need to save money in labour contract
- Knowing some of the construction best practices
Who Is This Training Not For?
- You already finalised your building contractor & signed the contract agreement.
About the Author
Hi, I’m P K Arun. With a labor contract, we constructed our house in Bangalore. We learned a lot of lessons. I’m sure many of you who will build a house without experience will face some challenges. So I decided to share everything that I learned here.
Frequently Asked Questions
It’s a mini text-based digital guide delivered in a PDF Format.
You can reach me by emailing arun (at) houseconstructionguide.com. I’ll be glad to answer any questions you have.