01-29-2014, 01:55 PM
Welcome to the forum! We've just recently gone through the building process and there are a lot of things to prepare yourself for if our experience is anything to go by. First of all, everything takes an insane amount of time. Submit your permits. Wait....... a long long time. Some sub trades are fast, some not so much. I'll try to focus on the positives:
We used Tracy Kim for insurance (previously from Pyramid, now at American Mutual Group. She's very professional and helpful.
Dave Holbrook is a really nice guy and a very good draftsman. His experience as a carpenter certainly is handy to his drafting trade and he has an architect to go to for a stamp that seems good. He's also on top of who is worth contacting for sub trades.
I'm not sure if he works Orchidland, but Nick Moore of Moore's Excavating out of Volcano was one of the best experiences we had. He did top notch work for an excellent price. Earth Karvers Hawaii also did some work (they'd been hired by the electricians) and were very nice people who did good work. Our electricians did good work, but scheduling them was a nightmare - I got the feeling we were just a side job they only did when there was no commercial work to do.
Drainpipe Plumbing was superb. Love those guys.
Other considerations: HELCO and SSPP's. Contact them about how much it would cost for electrical hookup. For us it cost $8000 for our share of the SSPP and then added on to that was the cost of hooking up from the road. These guys are robber barons. Sadly, the only other option is Solar, which has a high initial investment and then there's the issue of security so your valuable panels etc. don't walk. Hopefully you've taken the time to really experience the neighborhood - rented a house nearby for a few months to see what it's like, etc., gotten to know some of the neighbors.
There are a lot of very knowledgeable forum members here, many of whom are in the building trades. Kapohocat does project management and knows an incredible amount about the people and procedures involved. Rob Tucker, the owner of Punaweb, builds termite proof buildings. Many other really interesting and knowledgeable people.
We used Tracy Kim for insurance (previously from Pyramid, now at American Mutual Group. She's very professional and helpful.
Dave Holbrook is a really nice guy and a very good draftsman. His experience as a carpenter certainly is handy to his drafting trade and he has an architect to go to for a stamp that seems good. He's also on top of who is worth contacting for sub trades.
I'm not sure if he works Orchidland, but Nick Moore of Moore's Excavating out of Volcano was one of the best experiences we had. He did top notch work for an excellent price. Earth Karvers Hawaii also did some work (they'd been hired by the electricians) and were very nice people who did good work. Our electricians did good work, but scheduling them was a nightmare - I got the feeling we were just a side job they only did when there was no commercial work to do.
Drainpipe Plumbing was superb. Love those guys.
Other considerations: HELCO and SSPP's. Contact them about how much it would cost for electrical hookup. For us it cost $8000 for our share of the SSPP and then added on to that was the cost of hooking up from the road. These guys are robber barons. Sadly, the only other option is Solar, which has a high initial investment and then there's the issue of security so your valuable panels etc. don't walk. Hopefully you've taken the time to really experience the neighborhood - rented a house nearby for a few months to see what it's like, etc., gotten to know some of the neighbors.
There are a lot of very knowledgeable forum members here, many of whom are in the building trades. Kapohocat does project management and knows an incredible amount about the people and procedures involved. Rob Tucker, the owner of Punaweb, builds termite proof buildings. Many other really interesting and knowledgeable people.
Me ka ha`aha`a,
Mike
Mike