08-24-2008, 05:18 AM
I think this thread has is offering unusually good advice, which is nice to see. I think if I were interested in large structures, I would be much more interested in concrete than I currently am. I advocate heavily remodels and small structures for ecological and ethical reasons, and strongly suggest that is where the future must go, but at this point the smaller the house one builds, the more difficult and costly on a square foot basis it becomes. But, that is another issue entirely.
Oh yes, owner builder is by far the way to go, the most honest, and the best for both parties. The main reason people chose a general contractor to take on the project with a general contract, is that they feel that they don't know enough about the project to be involved. That's probably true, but if you don't know that much, you're not in a position to determine if your contractor does either, which of course is the basic problem. If you don't know anything about building--don't build. Buy an existing structure.
As for Rob's question a while back about wooden boat owners. Wooden boat building is making a very strong comeback. Of newly built custom boats, a very high percentage is wood, or wood laminate construction, probably 80 percent or more. Of production boats, fiberglass is still common, but the market is shrinking yearly, and of large yachts, aluminum is probably the largest demographic. The reason for laminate wood boats becoming the dominate type of construction in boats size to perhaps 70 feet is simply that it's the cheapest, strongest, aesthetically attractive, and long lived of any type of structure. What has really tipped the scales is the cost of fiberglass resin, which has risen 10 fold in the last 15 years, making even small fiberglass projects expensive. If I can get started building catamarans, it's completely possible to grow the lumber on site nearly as fast as I can build boats. That's about as green as any endeavor can be.
Oh yes, owner builder is by far the way to go, the most honest, and the best for both parties. The main reason people chose a general contractor to take on the project with a general contract, is that they feel that they don't know enough about the project to be involved. That's probably true, but if you don't know that much, you're not in a position to determine if your contractor does either, which of course is the basic problem. If you don't know anything about building--don't build. Buy an existing structure.
As for Rob's question a while back about wooden boat owners. Wooden boat building is making a very strong comeback. Of newly built custom boats, a very high percentage is wood, or wood laminate construction, probably 80 percent or more. Of production boats, fiberglass is still common, but the market is shrinking yearly, and of large yachts, aluminum is probably the largest demographic. The reason for laminate wood boats becoming the dominate type of construction in boats size to perhaps 70 feet is simply that it's the cheapest, strongest, aesthetically attractive, and long lived of any type of structure. What has really tipped the scales is the cost of fiberglass resin, which has risen 10 fold in the last 15 years, making even small fiberglass projects expensive. If I can get started building catamarans, it's completely possible to grow the lumber on site nearly as fast as I can build boats. That's about as green as any endeavor can be.