Just in case you’re not sure, sweat equity, as far as building goes, is when the owner does some of the work on their house themselves.  The idea is that you save money, or build equity into your home, by not paying someone else to do the work.  At Jorgenson Builders, and especially here in Utah, we’ve found this to be a sensitive topic.  As a builder, we generally discourage our customers from doing things themselves.  This can initially make people feel frustrated or upset because they feel like the only reason we won’t let them do their own work is so that we can make more money.  This is not the case and I’ll explain why.

As a builder, and a subcontractor, we have specific tools for the work that we do.  These tools make our job a lot easier, and help make the finished product the quality to require.    Most customers don’t have the proper tools for the work they want to do.  Can they still do the work?  Yes, but it’s a lot harder and often times doesn’t look as good.

You also have to consider the overall building schedule.  Most people can’t do the work as quickly as subcontractors.  The schedule is very important on a house, especially right now when everyone’s so busy.  We have a lot of subs scheduled out a good month in advance.  So if something takes longer than it should, it can push the schedule back a lot more than a couple of days.  Your next sub may not be able to come back for a couple of weeks if you miss their time slot.  Then you end up having to push everyone else back.

Quality is important to us at Jorgenson Builders.  When customers do their own work, often the quality isn’t where we expect our houses to be.  This can sometimes effect the work of subs who follow.

Finally, cost, the main reason customers want to do their own work.  Often customers don’t end up saving very much money at all when they do their own work.  When you factor in time and tools they have to buy to do the job, the savings is minimal at best.

When you build with Jorgenson Builders, let us do what we do best.  You can sit back, pick out things for your dream home, and enjoy the experience!