Wow, there sure is a lot of emotion around this topic. I can understand both views. The contractors view this as a threat to their livelihood. The owner/builder wants to save money. But there is no reason to resort to namecalling from either side. The owner/builders should let their results speak for themselves. The contractor really is not threatened because there are soooo many homeowners that would never take on this job.
Anyways, I am planning to be a owner/builder. I will be starting in August. Realistically, saving money is not as important to me as the satisfaction of saying "I did this" (but I do like a da saving money!). Concerning the sub-contractors, if you carefully select ones that you can verify that they have been around awhile and are insured and have references, then you have little to worry about. Make sure they have assets that you can sue them for if they don't back their work properly. Concerning things like sloping, electrical spec, plumbing specs. you should be working from an engineered plan (with an engineer's stamp) designed for your specific property. This plan will cover all of those things. As far as subs not caring about you because you are a "one shot" I have that covered as well. I started with the largest gunite company and asked them who they prefer to work with. They gave me a list of subs to get bids from. Those subs know that I got their names from the gunite company and they know that I will be bad mouthing them to their peers if they screw me. So I am not really worried about that. Oh yeah, make darn sure you get the lien release after you paid them!!
This is my first post to this forum and I will start a thread and post pics and such of my pool build progress. Can anyone recomend other pool forums?
Thanks,
Robert
