Looking for a great general contractor to build a house in L.A.
August 5, 2016 8:52 AM   Subscribe

I'm thinking about buying land and getting a general contractor to build me a house in L.A. I know from architect friends that having a good general contractor involved from the beginning is very useful. Anyone have any recommendations? Ideally someone who works in the San Gabriel Valley (Pasadena, Altadena, Monrovia, Sierra Madre) would be best. Also, we're first time home builders so if you've done it before and have advice on the process or what you'd do differently I'm all ears!

(PS - our architects are from the east coast and have no one to recommend)
posted by arnicae to Home & Garden (3 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
The Franklin report has an LA edition.
posted by brujita at 10:28 AM on August 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


I actually found my GC from my architect. I found my architect from Yelp, I believe, but it was many years ago. I interviewed MANY architects. Most of them would only speak to me in generalities about my project. I selected my architect because during our consultation he started sketching my ideas, showing me how it would actually look, and showing me alternatives for my ideas that wouldn't work. He was the only architect that I met with who actually did that. It was like the others were scared to give away work product by even doing simple sketches.

The other thing I did before I made the contract with my architect was I asked him for references, and I called all of them.

It was basically the same process with the GC; I got bids from literally 12 contractors. Talked to every contractor that had worked in my neighborhood. A lot of them were like "I'll make you a good deal, my friend!". I just knew that those were the guys who were going to leave stuff out, and we would end up with expensive changes later. In general those guys gave me a lump sum figure for my project.

The GC I selected gave me a progress-type quote: this much for demo, this much for framing, this much for plumbing, this much for electrical, this much for drywall, this much for finishing. In that context it would have been easy to compare quotes, but no one else gave me such a quote. Our GC wasn't the cheapest, but we felt he was the most transparent and most well-organized.

I also called all of the GC's references before I signed his contract. A second reason why I chose him was, at the time, he had six projects going. That may seem like a lot for a GC, but to me it meant that he had cash-flow, and that he wasn't going to take my check for materials and use it to pay his own mortgage, and then come back and hit me up for more money (that's happened to more than one friend of mine).

I was on-site every day so I could see the progress, and since I had been involved in drawing the plans with the architect I knew what was supposed to be where and when things needed to be corrected ("hey, that outlet is supposed to be on the opposite wall".)

My GC was very organized about when the city inspector would be coming by to sign off on the permits, so he never missed an appointment (we have notoriously difficult inspectors in our city, so it was a big deal that he got this part right).

There were things that my GC did not include in his quote, and he was very specific about it when he gave us the quote. We had to source the windows, cabinets, countertops, floor tiles, and shower enclosure ourselves. And all appliances of course. So it was our responsibility to make sure that we budgeted correctly for those items, and then that we ordered everything in a timely manner in order to not hold up the project. These are the kind of things that another GC may not tell you, and then suddenly you find yourself over budget in the middle of the project. Or work is stopped for two months while you wait for your windows to come in, and by the time they do the crew is working on another project and they don't get back to your project for another three weeks (so, protip: order your windows early!).

So, the longest part of the whole process was finding the vendors, and then getting the architect to finish the plans, and getting them through the city permitting process. It took four or five months for plans and permits to be completed.

If you're looking at the foothills then I would imagine you may need some sort of engineering inspection and sign off on the land (assuming you can find any open land in that area, but I don't follow the market on that side of town), and maybe some soil testing. All of that would take some time. Your architect should have good referrals for that work.
posted by vignettist at 10:49 AM on August 5, 2016 [3 favorites]


I'll memail you in a bit, after confirming that my rec is taking new projects.
posted by ApathyGirl at 7:11 PM on August 5, 2016


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