The finishing schedule on a custom home is usually a moving target. Why you ask? Because things come up that the contractor and the homeowner don’t expect. When things come up that one of these parties doesn’t expect changes are made and when changes are made it usually adds more time to the finishing of the house.
A lot of time changes come about when people have picked their finishing’s and realize that they don’t blend together like they thought they would or the cost of them is more then they wanted to pay or that they cannot be installed like they believed and they are forced to start over again.
Sometimes materials ordered for finishing are backordered or of a limited supply or the order is simply less material then is required not allowing the full installation of the product. This all ends up costing time, time to wait for more material, time to pick it up and time to re-schedule the sub-contractors that have to install it.
When you build a custom home the general contractor uses up to 30 different sub-contractors along with their own employee’s to build your home. When materials delay the installation then the sub-tractors find other work at other building sites. You then have to wait for them to become free or work at both places slowing the progress they make down at both ends.
Weather can play a key part in the finishing schedule as well. If your home is already enclosed then you don’t have to worry about rain slowing down production, but finishing houses in the middle of winter can cause delays depending on the availability or accessibility of the home after a snow storm. This past winter was a prime example of this, in our area we had highways and roads closed for more than 2 full weeks over a 3 month period in the middle of winter. Trades men, material delivery and clients all had trouble getting to projects in the area and that delayed everything about the finishing of projects.
So when you ask your contractor for the finish date of your home, don’t be surprised if the date changes the more finishing gets completed. It’s not that they don’t want to finish it’s more because they can’t until all the material has arrived and all the decisions have been finalized.
Rob Abbott
Village Builders Inc.
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