How do you prepare your house for building a house addition?

Question: How do you prepare your house for building a house addition?

Every so often, I get a question that comes out of the blue, but is such a vital question that I can't believe I haven't covered it yet. The question: "How do you prepare your house for building a house addition?" I'll add my own question: "How do you prepare yourself for building a house addition?"

To answer this, I drew on personal experiences, and well as some frank comments from contractors...

Answer:

Protect Against Theft

Here's the one that will give me the most heat from other readers, but it's this: the chance of theft is very high. It's doubtful that the contractor will rob you. He/she won't spend a lot of time on your job site, and they don't have opportunities to linger around your house very much.

But it's the subs you need to think about. Yes, most subcontractors are honest guys trying to make a living. But one reality is that the subcontractors often pick up day laborers whose names they barely know. I will go one step further and say that most of these shaky individuals are the ones working outside in foundation, digging, roofing, clean-up, etc.

Recommend: Everything valuable that is transportable should be locked away in the house or removed from the house.

Protect Against Damage

Well-meaning subs can still hurt your home in other ways. Addition-building is heavy work, and it's far more invasive than you might think. The old myth of "they'll break through at the last minute, so they'll rarely be in my house" is not true. Even before "break-through" they need access to services in the main house. After "break-through" they will be spending a significant amount of time in your house, often unsupervised.

Recommend: Keep fragile items in house, but remove from the work area as far as possible.

Protect Against Dust

The guys will usually try--and God bless them for trying--but it's never good enough. What I'm talking about are those dust-shields they tack up to protect the rest of your house dust and dirt.

Recommend: Rather than complaining about the poor quality of their dust shields, simply remove dust-sensitive items to the far end of your house, behind a closed door.

Portable Toilets

Any contractor worth his salt will order up a portable toilet; it's a necessity (heck, you're paying for it anyway). Without one, you'll have subs traipsing through your house every 20 minutes, relieving themselves of their Starbucks Grandes.

Recommend: Make sure the contractor orders a toilet and that it gets delivered.

Order Your Own Stuff and Store It

Plan on supplying some materials yourself? It's a great way to cut back on the contractor's onerous 20% commission charge, and you make sure you get the things you really want (i.e., bathroom fixtures, faucets, etc.). This is not a necessity, but some homeowners do this.

Recommend: Order your materials now and store them. Keep all receipts.

Noise and Work Limit Clauses

Because the subs are freelancers, they will often show up at your work site at weird hours to do something. Often, this entails starting up the generator to power their tools. If you're running off of the house electricity instead of generator, you still have to hear the pock-pock-pock! of the power nailer. Now, the subs do need to put bread on their table, but not at the expense of your sleep. So, to avoid those 5:30am Saturday wake-up calls...

Recommend: Make sure there is a work-time limit clause in the contract--and that the contractor makes the subs stick to it.