The massive pile of lumber arrived today. My wife hobbled out (recent knee surgery) to the site though and documented the scene. We are pretty excited as it seems that things reallt start picking up once you get the lumber. I wanted to share one of the best tips I read about recently from Sgt. Rich's blog the other day and got a great piece of advice about widening the 16 foot driveway to 20 feet.
Quote of the original text; "-HUGE TIP....Work a deal with the concrete guys to push the width of the
driveway to the edges of the garage (approx. and additional 2' on each
side). We paid $300 on the side to the concrete guys to do this. I
cannot explain how great that additional 2' on each side is."
Unfortunately my PM said this was not possible. The contractors are not allowed to do additional work and the housing permits were only for the driveway I'm getting. BUMMER!
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| You like my hard wood? |
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| Our walkout basement |
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| Sorry neighbors! |
from various blogs I gather some PM's play nicely and others don't. You can still get it done. A house started after mine began missed the opportunity to have the drive way widened at the time the drive way was poured. He still widened it after the fact. He even had it colored and stamped to look like brick. classy touch.
ReplyDeleteSo my recommendation is to get the name of the concrete contractor from your PM, tell him you want to set something up after closing (if PM asks). They set something up directly with contractor. Who knows, maybe he will tell you he can do it at the time of first pour.
Okay are you buying that "permit" argument?
ReplyDeleteWe were told the same thing by our PM. He told us repeatedly at our preconstruction meeting that he would be building us the house we contracted. Nothing more, nothing less. We were not allowed to do anything to the house ourselves until we had closed. So, no extra insulation, no smurf tube, no driveway widening. Some PMs are accommodating and others just are not.
ReplyDeleteWow that stinks. The whole point is to do it before it's done or the walls go etc. That way the cost to you is much lower. I am still working on it.
ReplyDeleteYou can always add afterwards. I have already priced out my extension and stamp on my patio. And also, note to your PM, they NEVER use ALL of the concrete, so why not add more to the sides instead of throwing away unused concrete that catch this idea 'YOU ARE PAYING FOR'
ReplyDelete;-)
Tell him (or the concrete guys) to add the "LEFTOVER" to the side of the driveway...
He did give me their numbers so I am going to call them and see...
ReplyDeleteThe main thing that bothered me was he said the permits he is using is for a 16' not a 20'. So in theory some permit inspector could raise a stink about the discrepancy? I'm going to call the concrete guy and maybe even the permit office and see.
I would definitely do that. Some areas you can research new home building permits and call and get questions like those answered.
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