Can someone send me a PM with the photo link please? I forget how to move to the new group.
Hope the joists are running the right direction!
Cb has started a photo group for this project per reply #1 but so far all that’s on it are the floor plans.
Ah see that now…I figured it out …but to anyone new…that will be a challenge!
@coralbrook I hope this time you are charging at least 30% on top of what you are paying your workers, instead of giving away their labor at cost.
For a project like this I almost think it would be better to charge by time and materials, with a nice initial payment, instead of trying to have a fixed price upfront. Too many unknowns and there will be a ton of changes and additions as you go along.
Agreed! We don’t want you loosing money on this project!
Does the owner have a realistic budget and fully funded for all her purchases? I would hate for any delays in her purchases to throw a wrench in your construction schedule.
This sounds somewhat like the La Jolla townhome.
All of my jobs are time and materials. I prepare an estimate based on what is discussed at the walk through, with a contingency for what we find behind the walls (which happens 100% of the time!!). For this project I made it very clear to her that it was going to cost a lot of money to pull plumbing, electrical and venting over to the new locations. This is because we cannot just drop a new drain down to the basement or something. We have to route everything to the existing drains. At this point I think the existing drain lines are running along the back wall in the plans.
We started yesterday. I calculated the exact extra time when I returned south in heavy traffic. It is 21 minutes further than the La Jolla job each way. So a total of 40 minutes extra for the crew.
For this job, because time is critical, the owner and I hired a professional demo crew. The cost for demolition and hauling of everything in the condo is $6,000. I calculated it would cost $5,500 for 4 guys and all of the hauling for 4 days. For another $500 I am going to let them be the ones that have to haul all of that crap down all the stairs and figure out how to get it into a truck and off to the dump.
Yesterday my crew spent half the day having to take at least 15 loads of big heavy stuff like ladders and tools out of our trucks and up all the stairs into the project to get started. Poor guys were dripping sweat!!! Then we spent the rest of the day safely disconnecting all the plumbing and capping it off. Disconnecting appliances and sink drains. Then we took off all the lighting and capped off the wires.
Today the demo crew started and I have already received several calls from my lead. “I’m not responsible for this!!! They are doing things their own way!!! They are not listening to the instructions that you gave me on the priorities for demolition. You need to hurry up and get here” Obviously the demo crew just goes in swinging and we are always really careful and probably too slow with the way we do it.
I hope I remember to take photos today 
@coralbrook so I take this to mean that the condo owner now actually owns the unit…was this the one where the closing hadn’t yet taken place in your first post above.
I hope you don’t get into too many snags with the HOA…
OK, these ladies are hilarious, but in a fun way! The owner real estate agent came with a couple of the other real estate agents from the office, including the boss. They brought someone to ‘film’ them doing demolition’. They are planning to create marketing materials out of the remodel of this condo (have no idea why). So they show up in high heels, perfect hair dos. I outfitted them with work gloves, we taped up the giant sledge hammer with pink tape and they put on some of our eye protection glasses.
We filmed them pulling up carpet and sledge hammering some walls. First wall they started hitting, they immediately hit a stud and glass shattered on the other side of the wall. I moved them over to another area where it would be safer They thought demo was fun!!! Until about 20 minutes later they were too hot and decided to leave and go out to lunch
Owner closed escrow and recorded Tuesday afternoon. Started major demo today and by 8:30am the HOA Manager was over complaining because we are not officially ‘approved’ yet. We presented the plans and scope of work at the Architecture Review meeting last week but final Board approval is tonight at a Board meeting.
We compromised on what we could or could not drag out of the condo today.
I have to say…our HOA would have the same position. Our board gives final approval…and without that, you really aren’t supposed to do any work.
But I think you knew that…right? Did the owner mislead you?
I pretty much knew that. But, I think an owner has a right to replace window coverings, lights, appliances, carpet, etc without some kind of formal approval?? I was careful to try to focus on those types of things.
The part that I cannot figure out is why an owner has to wait 2 months for approval? We just got lucky that she hired me right before this month’s meetings. What happens when a homeowner buys an outdated place and they need to get stuff done ASAP before they can move in? What if there’s a flood and you need to tear out your floors and replace immediately? What if you find a fantastic new refrigerator on sale and it’s getting delivered tomorrow??
We have full approval now at tonight’s board meeting. Except for the new window I wanted in the Den. That was denied.
Hmmm wonder why the one denial? Proving board had authority?
I think they have general CCRs that prohibit changing any exterior windows. It’s too bad because the window would be facing the ocean and would capture more ocean views. Now it’s going to be a dark cavern room.
They probably didn’t want to change the look of the outside of the building. An extra window in one unit could disrupt the uniformity of the outside.
Or they may have not wanted a hole cut in the building envelope, which would then require trim or stucco work that would be hard to match with the rest of the building, and could lead to water or insect infiltration.
In the case of emergencies like floods, HOA will act quickly.
Your post above made it sound like the folks doing demolition were doing a lot more than removing carpet and curtains, and appliances. It sounded like they were actually doing demolition.
Where I am, carpet, curtains and appliances don’t have to be approved by the HOA…they are considered replacement or redecorating. But changes to the outside, or demolition of things like walls must be approved.
Maybe I misunderstood your post above about the folks doing demolition.
But glad you got the go ahead.
Will the owner still want to do whatever the den was going to turn onto…without a window?
The new window probably caused two issues for the Board. Changing appearance of exterior of building by adding a window but also, they probably knew that it would change the unit to a 3 bdrm which increases the occupancy allowance for rentals, etc.
In reality, we were doing some cabinet, mirror and vanity demolition also. I also needed to open up certain pockets of drywall to investigate beams and structure in order to get the information to the structural engineer and make some quick decisions about layout changes. I am sure we were past the point of acceptance if the HOA had walked in, even though I tried hard to keep the demolition on Day 1 to items I thought would be allowable.
I loaded some pictures of the demo mess so far
That kitchen has a low ceiling! And the floor was raised? That’s crazy. I’m glad you’re giving it back those 6".
Yes, the current kitchen has a sloped ceiling. The far west 2 ft edge of the room is under 7ft high. And this is measuring from our new lowered floor!! There was a row of upper cabinets and microwave above range. They must have been awfully low:). The next 3 ft hovers between 7 ft and 8 ft. Ceilings are 8 ft only about 50% of the room. Another reason to move kitchen to other room where it can be lighter and brighter, not a low ceiling dungeon