Why Is It Difficult To Get Contractors?

Someone asked me, and we've often asked ourselves this as well, why is it so hard to find contractors to help get work done on the house?  We've experienced difficulty with the trenching services, the plumbers, the electricians, as well as others.  So why is this?

As it turns out, we pay or are willing to pay, the same as amount as what these guys are getting through their commercial building customers.  The difference is that their commercial building customers are a source for repeat business, whereas we are not.  Therefore, if they aren't busy, they'll do work for us, but otherwise, we're going to keep getting pushed to the back of the queue as far as when they can work.

So it stands to reason that we've had trouble.  In comparing notes with other people I know in the area, who are also building (or have built) their own homes, it has been the same experience for them.  The best luck they've had is to pay for day labor and supervise closely.

Still Rushed but Not Stressed

After further consideration, and talking it over with Rachel, we decided that the money we were going to be paying for waterproofing help, and slab prep, was going to be a whole lot of money for not a lot.  It was going to be a lot in terms of progress that I have not been able to make on my own, but it was going to use up the rest of our money and wasn't a lot of value added.

So Rachel decided that she'll help me.  We're getting a list of things to do and products to buy, and looking to hire some local help.  Our plan is to get the waterproofing done in a weekend in August (before the rains come in the Fall), and get the roof covered as soon as possible.  This will be some dirt work.  I'll have to buy dirt as well as get someone to help move the dirt we have up against the house and get the berming completed.

Likewise, some local help can get us the slab prep work we need, and with Rachel's help, I can get the phonecalls made, the workers lined out and all the things done that I couldn't do and hold down a job at the same time.

This will save us a lot of money, which I feel a lot better being able to save and spend somewhere else (on the house, of course).  Rachel is happier about it.  I don't think Ralph Smoot (the guy in the Austin area that was going to help us) is happy about it.  He's not returning my e-mails right now and there've been no phone conversations since our decision either.

I had literally planned to get him to do the work up until dinner lastnight after work.  I had the contract printed out.  I had already given Ralph our address and instructions on how to find the place, so that they could have materials delivered.  All that remained was me provide a check and the signed contract, which I was going to Fedex for a Monday delivery.
At dinner, Rachel said she didn't feel comfortable with that decision and felt that it was an awful amount of money for what we'd be getting.

I can definitely say that this was nothing against Ralph or his son Conrad.  It was a money issue.  I wanted to get the work done, but I didn't like the idea of being out of money afterwards.  This way, it'll probably take us longer to get this stuff done, but we'll have the money left to go further on construction than we would have been able to otherwise.

I still haven't gotten a return call from Jay Scafe (@ Terra-Dome) because I had wanted to check and see if he had anyone to help us with the waterproofing, and what they might charge.  If it was a better price, we would entertain that solution for certain.  The thing is, Jay hasn't returned our calls.  He's either out of town, or just not checking his voice-mail yet.

Feeling Rushed & Stressed

I'm feeling rushed.  I'm under a lot of pressure.  It feels overwhelming, but I have to do this.

I have a unique opportunity to make some great progress in a short amount of time on the house.  However, this comes with a cost.  Money.  And we're almost out of it.  So I've had to ponder this to decide what to do, and I don't have a lot of time to make the decision.

Ralph Smoot and his son Conrad (see http://www.earthshelteredhome.com) have proposed to come and help us get our waterproofing done, as well as helping me finish the slab prep work so that I can pour the floor concrete.  The thing is, they have a tight schedule and I feel rushed.

Ralph is proposing that they come out in a couple of weeks.   I think this is good for their schedule, but he also says that it'll get in before the rain returns in the fall, and it'll give the waterproofing time to cure a bit before winter.

I have some factors that stress me out on this.
   1.  It's a lot of money, but the good thing is that it's a great amount of progress in a small amount of time.
   2.  Once the waterproofing is down, we've got to protect it, so it has to be buried within a few weeks.  We have to get the place bermed and the roof covered.  (but we can't do that until the floors are poured).
   3.  Ralph recommends no berming until the floor concrete is in (for wall stability).  So once the waterproofing is done, we're committed.
   4.  We are running low on money.
   5.  There is an enormous amount of floor prep that I don't think Ralph realizes, although I've documented it for him extensively.  It may be that he doesn't consider it to be as big an obstacle as I do, although his price for helping me on this aspect is minimal.  It's worth the money.
   6.  I work during the day and haven't had time to devote to calling slab contractors to see what their labor will run.
   7.  I'll have to purchase rebar and get that delivered to the site, and I'm not sure what 3800 feet of #3 rebar is going to run (yet).
   8.  We're running low on money.

There's a great opportunity here.  By the end of August, we could be months and months ahead of where we'd otherwise be.  It's just that we'll also be out of money so work will slow down after this temporary surge in progress.

Garage Sub-Floor is Virtual Done

We did it.  With Rachel's help this weekend, we were able to finish the work in the sub-floor of the garage.  I barely have 30 minutes of work (maybe less) left, but it was just too hot (over 100F in the shade) to finish the work today.  It was 17:00 and time to quit.

We got a lot done.  We have a supply line for running electricity from a backup generator, if we ever get one.  It wont have to be retrofitted later.  The conduit is already there.

We put in an earth tube and have a much shorter one to install, which will only take me a few minutes on another day.  The earth tube (sometimes called a cooling tube) is for virtually free airconditioning.  In our case, it wont be completely passive due to the fact that we wont really have a chimney effect, so for the system to work, we will be installing a small fan in the system (so it wont really be completely free, but it'll be low cost).

See http://mb-soft.com/solar/saving.html  This site tells about an earth tube system that we really like.  We've read about earth tubes for years but never quite found a solution that would prevent mold and/or mildrew from growing inside the tubes.  This system does that, due to sloped pipe and a place to draw off moisture at the lowest point, and sumped from a drywell nearby.

As stated, we installed the tube in the floor.  This will be for bringing in cold air to the garage (it could later be converted to living quarters, so having A/C felt like a good measure to add to the garage before the garage floor gets poured.

A second tube (closer to the exterior) will be installed as a "return" air duct.  These are 4 inch pipes that are a part of a closed-loop system for air circulation and cooling.  The pipes will be connected to a series of pipe run out into our pasture, approximately 4 or 5 feet deep, and then looped back to the house.  A complete loop, where warm air enters the 'return' pipe, goes through the earth and is cooled and brought back into the house through the other pipe, being drawn through with a small fan.

The system works in other homes and it'll work for us too.

The garage will have its own fan for circulation, but when we install these same type of pipes for the rest of the house, they'll be run via a whole house ventilation system that will also have a filter and possibly a dehumidifier if we feel necessary.

Anyway, we got the work done.  Only the return pipe is left to do.  I can do that one evening this week.

I'm very pleased at where we've gotten progress, but frustrated that it has taken so long to get here.  I am looking to get some help.  Help is hard to get, because you want someone that knows what they need to do in one of these types of houses, and not just anyone can do that.  I think I might be able to get some expertise though and it might not be cost prohibitive.  I'll know for sure in a few days (I hope).

Bogged and Blogged

I was making progress on the house, but have been bogged down again (lately). It has gotten to the point where it's just too hot to work after I get home from my regular job. I've worked all day already, and then to get home and work in 100 degree weather is just not something I can keep up.

Last weekend, I had to work on a busted water line, and so I didn't really work much on the house. This water line was out in our pasture. I'm not sure how it got broken, but I had to dig and dig until I could find the broken part in the pipe and fix it. What a mess that was.

And digging takes a lot out of a person, and in this heat, it's doubly so. I spent most of Sunday recovering from the hard work in the heat on Saturday, and so very little work got done on the house. I think the electrical work is done on the house, with the exception of a feeder line (a 2 inch conduit) from a backup generator that we hope to get. I don't know if we ever actually will, but I want to provide the conduit just in case.

This weekend, because of the heat, we're hoping to get up real early (maybe around 4:00 or 4:30) and get started early, so that we can get our outdoor work done before it gets really hot. In addition, because Rachel and I tend to work better together, we're both going to work in the garden first. I'll help her there and we'll get that work done, and then she'll help me in the house. I hope to get that generator line put in. After that, I just need to get some ventilation lines in that we will eventually hook up to a closed loop earth tube system, which we will install after the house is built. We want to ventilation system in the floor beforehand, obviously.

As I side note, I've started "blogging". If interested, see my blogger site at http://les-stockton.blogspot.com

Garage Electrical

I've almost got all the sub-slab work in the garage done. Yeah, I know I'm slow. I didn't get into anything big this weekend, because I was afraid I'd get into something and then get a call that I needed to go to the office to work this weekend. I didn't want to have to stop in the middle of something big, so I piddled. As it turns out, I didn't have to work this weekend, but it's likely I'll be putting in a lot of overtime this coming week. I'm not happy about probably missing a baseball all-star party Tuesday night though.

I have almost all of the electrical done, and I only have some ventilation ducts in the floor. Then after that, I put a thin layer of sheet insulation on top of the compacted sand, and then some rebar and steel mesh over that, with pex tubing snaked in every few inches (for radiant floor heat). We'll call a concrete contractor in and his crew will pour concrete and smooth it out into a nice floor for us.

Finally, we'll have one of the modules set up so that we can close it in. We'll put a walk through door in back (at the patio), one in front, two garage doors, and then the door to the kitchen. It'll be a secure place for us to put building materials and tools. It's a hassle to have to lock things away every time you work. Having it all in secured in the garage will be so much better. Plus, we'll have a bathroom out there too.

Visited By a News Reporter

A local news anchor (known as @newsjen on Twitter.com) visited our construction site with a camera man. We were interviewed as we gave a tour of the site, answered questions and tried to explain the virtures of building an earth home and why we would do such a thing.

I plan on posting a few photographs that were taken during the visit, but if you're interested in how the finished interview aired, you can visit http://www.newson6.com/global/story.asp?s=8618948 to see the text from the interview. There is also streaming video of the story as it aired on television. Jennifer and her cameraman did a great job condensing the visit into the key points.

June In Review

I had high hopes for June. I did get some work done, but not enough (in my opinion). I wanted to get utilities to the house. That didn't happen. I also had planned on having the garage utilities done so that a slab could be poured. That's about 3/4ths done. I'd probably be finished now, but I've had a few snags to occupy my time. I feel confident that this will be done soon.

I hope that in July, I can finish the things I had slated for June. It's a month behind, but so what. I've been behind schedule for a long, long time. It's not like I really have a schedule, other than my own. We don't have a bank pressuring us to get the construction done so that a construction loan can be converted to a mortgage. We're paying as we go, so we don't have that worry. The downside is that we aren't getting to live in our new house, because it's taking longer to get built.

With one person working on it, and not full-time, it's just going to take a long time to get the house done. It'll happen. I've just got to not get discouraged (as I have in the past) and just be persistent. And, we still have to remember to stop and smell the roses. We have to live life. We can't push ourselves so hard that we don't enjoy life. We have to live.

I have figured out that in order to get our utility work done, I'd like to find someone with a backhoe, and let them do the work. I will have to pay more to get it done, but they'll be faster than I will be if I rent the equipment and do it myself. It's a choice between saving the money and taking longer, or just getting the work done, and having to pay for it. So we'll get the trenching done. This will include some drainage work to the north of the house, to improve that from how it is today.

When I get a chance (probably this weekend), I'll write up a plan for July. I'd like to set goals, hoping that by doing so, maybe more progress will be made. Setting goals tends to motivate and keep us focused on objectives. There's so much to be done. I need to focus. (Plus, I have a real job as well).

June Is Almost Over

I'm now posting short updates on Twitter. (http://twitter.com/les_stockton) If you care to keep that close of track of my daily activities, you can get on. It's free.

I didn't get as much completed in June as I had originally set out. Things got in the way. A job, for one thing. Other things too. It's just the nature of things. Progress is made though and I'm happy. When I get the chance, I'll establish goals for July, which will probably be to complete the goals I set for June. It's do-able.

We'll have visitors soon.

Recently, a local television news anchor (who I track via Twitter) expressed interest in our earth home construction project. She wants to come out and see the place and ask questions, and possibly do a news story. I'm hoping that she wont mind that the place is not closed in yet, and that we don't have dirt on the roof yet, and that it's a work in progress, but with some considereable progress to-date. I'm also hoping that we can provide some good information on earth homes since the general public will be viewing the story. I'd hope that this would share an alternative on how to save energy, and since we live in a tornado prone area, that it might also be an alternative that people around where we live might be interested in.

Being interviewed for a story like this is quite an honor, but I'm careful not to make it a vanity thing. I want the information to get out. I have to temper my enthusiasm with being realistic, realizing that I can't get too technical when the questions are asked, although I'm not really sure what questions will be asked. So I'm hoping I can anticipate the questions, and have answers that will be reasonably understandable by the average joe that will be watching on television.

One thing that is a bit of a pain, is that Rachel wants the place cleaned up before they do the story. That means I wont get much actual electrical work done this weekend, because I'll be mowing, trimming, cleaning up and organizing not only the construction site, but also around the current living quarters (inside and out). Since our son is completely absent when it comes to doing any work around the place, this leaves it all to us (and the majority of the work outdoors to me, in the 90+ degree heat). And I've got to get all of this done this weekend, because the visit will be on Thursday (as currently scheduled). So I have to get all of this done.

The good news is that I am healthy, and all of this work will get done. The place will look good. Rachel wont be ashamed when it's seen on television. I just hope the story turns out good and that the place photographs well for the average public, and that we can impart good useful information.