Book Description

The Pat Fay Method of Home Construction is a Construction Management Book written for the homeowner. Home Construction is far too expensive and the Pat Fay Method teaches the homeowner how to build or remodel for $100/SF or less without a General Contractor. The homeowner does not need to be an expert in construction to be successful in their home remodel or new construction; they do need to be efficient managers who follow The Pat Fay Method. This book has chapters on Planning and Preliminary Design, Construction Meetings, Final Design, Scheduling, Permitting, Insurance, Project Safety, Contract Documents, Change Orders, The Contractor, Using Competition to drive down costs, Construction Materials, The Construction Phase, Cost Estimating, and Construction Management forms. This book was written as a result of the experiences the author (a mechanical engineer with over 20 years of industrial and commercial construction management experience) had while managing the construction of his new home in Seattle. He found that the rules of the industrial construction world do not apply to the world of home construction. The author and his wife successfully managed all the phases of construction and had a 3,500 SF house built by 30 different contractors for only $65/SF. This accomplishment can be duplicated by any homeowner but only if they follow the Pat Fay Method. If the homeowner turns over their home construction project to a General Contractor then the cost will be far too high. One of the problems for homeowners is that they only do one or two major remodels or construction projects in a lifetime. The typical homeowner is just not prepared to handle the issues inherent to working with home construction contractors without this book. For example, can you answer these simple but consequently expensive questions: what is your construction theme, how do you write a simple scope of work, how do you find good contractors, how do you handle unexpected change orders, how do you ensure quality materials are used on your project, how do you pay the contractor, how do you get your lien release, and how will the homeowner resolve a dispute with their contractor? If you cannot answer these simple questions then you need this book.