Self contracting a project can be greatly beneficial since you learn all tasks and ultimately can afford certain luxuries that would normally go to a tradesman. I heard once that a construction project is a triangle with vertex points of cost, quality, and time, and normally you can only choose two of the three. Already I’ve blown my time schedule by months, but I am learning a lot about green construction.
By doing it myself, I can order tools that normally would have to be rented or contracted out. By reading other builder’s websites, a general contractor may charge between $6,000 to $15,000 to assemble a SIP structure. I looked into crane rentals, and they start $400 for two hours of service. It does not take too many crane hours to figure out that if a gantry crane costs $1,200 that’s just 6 hours of crane rental. If a tool is not too large, the answer is why not?
The material lifting I’ll need to do is no more than 600 pounds, easily carried. I’m looking into renting a conveyor belt to move debris to a recycling bin. They’re are so many time saving and labor saving technologies, that’s it worth my time investigating and ordering, well in advance of the project actually starting construction.