DIY ROOF TRUSSES PLANS
How To Choose Garage Building Plans
You bought your house a couple years ago, but it didn’t have a garage. You are now to the point you really need a garage, not only for you car, but for extra storage space as well. You would really like to build it yourself to save money, but know realistically that this is way over your skill level. There are several ways you can save money and still use a local contractor to build your garage.
First thing you can do is to get a good set of garage building plans yourself. You can save a small fortune by doing this instead of paying your contractor to design the structure. There are many options available online. However, I would not recommend looking for a free set of garage building plans, paying for a set of plans that has been designed and engineered by a professional will more than pay for itself. A good set of building plans will come with drawings, complete material list, cut sheets and step by step instructions.
As we have all seen with the economy, the realestate market took a pretty big hit this past year. This affected everyone, including building contractors, framers, roofers, etc. These people really need some work and will take just about any job they can get, and will be much more willing to negotiate on money and terms of the contract.
Once you have found your set of garage building plans, take the complete material list to two or three of your local lumber yards and get prices from them in writing. You will find that you can save anywhere from 10% up on your cost of materials. You may want to have each one bid on building your roof trusses too, this could be less expensive than what your contractor would charge.
Now you are ready to start talking to contractors. Tell each contractor that you are getting bids from that you will be furnishing the garage building plans and all the materials. This is one of those areas that a contractor will be more willing to accept in todays economy than they would have been when the market was hopping. Typically, a contractor will want to provide the material and plans, but they also want to add a percentage of anywhere from 10% to 20% onto the total cost of material, kind of like a handling fee. You can save a lot of money by buying the materials yourself.
Other ways you can save money is by doing some of the work yourself. You need to determine what you can do and make sure that is clear to the contractors who are bidding on the work. Things you might consider doing yourself is painting the inside and outside of the garage, construction clean up, maybe you know something about wiring, whatever it is you can do yourself, it will save you money.
What some people don’t know is that a contractor gets a proposal from each of the subs that he will need for a job and then, like with the material, he will add on a percentage. So even eliminating a couple of the subs, you could save hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
Find your Garage Building Plans Here!
For 12,000 DIY Woodworking Plans, click here: http://www.build-it-yourself.info
About the Author
I am the wife of a “Handy Man” and sometimes even his helper. We have saved so much money over the years because he was able to “fix it or build it” himself.
Being a handy man doesn’t come naturally for everyone, but you can still tackle some of these projects if you have a good set of plans and detailed instructions.
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