Frequently Asked Questions about Jaggers Construction

Jaggers Construction Inc. has been in business since 2004.   In addition, both Deron and Kim have worked in the construction industry prior to starting the business. Deron Jaggers, President and Licensed Contractor received his master’s degree from the University of Tennessee later working for John Deere and Volvo Construction Divisions in the US and Europe.   Kim received her undergraduate degree in Statistics from the University of Tennessee while working for a local builder.  She worked for many years in quality control in support of the Oak Ridge facilities and mission. Joining the team in 2022, after graduating in Supply Chain Management and working for three years in the private sector, is Ben Jaggers, who serves as Project Manager.  Together, we provide a multi-skilled team approach to building your home.

Jaggers Construction Inc. is incorporated in the State of Tennessee since 2004.   We are licensed and insured.   Deron Jaggers is licensed by the State of Tennessee as in Residential and Small Commercial Construction with a limit of $2 million per project – License number 52753.

Validation Certificates are available to be sent directly to you from our insurance company which is general industry practice – Wyatt Insurance (865-470-9654).    We carry Worker’s Compensation (WC-41-015707-00) and General Liability Coverage (Q45 1150494) ($1,000,000 occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate).   As you move forward, we can have these documents sent to you and have your financial institution listed as holder.

We build on a cost-plus basis. This means we charge 19% on material and labor to build your home. This fee is broken up in monthly installments paid during the construction of your home.

Our customers truly like this process, and we invite you to contact them about it. Because you will get a copy of every invoice for material and labor and know exactly what you are paying us – you see exactly where every dollar is going. You will also be able to take advantage of our discounts with suppliers. Furthermore, we do not lock you into using our material suppliers if you can get better deals (i.e., your cousin sells carpet and can give you a good deal). However, we do use only our laborers and skilled craftsmen because we know the work is done well, and we are supplying a one-year warranty on that work.

The homes we build vary based on design, lot constraints, etc.; but most of our homes – from big to small, from complex to simple tend to be coming in between $275 – $320 or more per heated square foot. This includes materials, labor, and our fee. Certainly, this number is varying in our economy due to material prices and will be refined to your individual home once we complete an actual estimate. We are happy to look at a plan you have found online etc., and give you an educated, ballpark price range at no cost to you.

Generally, it takes us about 8-10 weeks in this busy building environment to do an actual estimate from a full set of plans – so we can see more detail than is given from online house plans. Due to the volatility of building material prices, we will do these estimates when you are within four months of your potential start date. Deron will take full sets of plans to our skilled labor and major suppliers for actual quotes and will spend many hours doing calculations himself. He will also visit your site and assess costs related to your lot and ARC if applicable. The result is a tremendously detailed 40-plus page spreadsheet, and a cost to build the home that we feel very confident about. We charge $1,000.00 for this estimate.

An important thing to note about us, we will lock our fee not to exceed the associated fee with this estimated cost to build at the time of estimate. However, if you come in under budget our fee will float down. We do this as a measure of good faith to let you know we do our best to accurately estimate the cost of your new home and to let you know we will not benefit if the cost of your home goes up. However, we will reduce our fee if your home comes in under budget.

We feel good about our estimates. Deron does a very thorough job and likes to get the estimate as accurate as possible. We are confident our suppliers give us competitive prices which we pass on to you. We are also confident in the consistent quality we are able offer because we have been using the same skilled craftsmen for many years. In addition, we believe our way of doing business has fostered trust with our customers, and that is tremendously important – and the reason we feel like we have stayed busy during slower economies too.

We have worked diligently to find and use the best laborers and craftsmen in the area- who are cost competitive and excellent in their work. We have used the same workers for many years and have built relationships with our crews. We feel this provides consistent, dependable quality and, because we have long-term relationships with our guys, we can depend on them to get the job done right and come back if any problems arise.

Typically, some of our preferred suppliers are:
Christmas Lumber, Noland and Company, American Lighting, Gray Hodges, Modern Supply, Home Choice Designs, Dixie Kitchen, Tennessee Valley Waterproofing, Claiborne Hauling, Dempster Solid Poured Wall Foundations, Pella Windows, and General Shale Brick. However, we are open to using other material suppliers in the area if you have special relationships or preferences.

Many of our workers have been with us since the beginning with few exceptions where changes were made to improve and refine quality and assure cost competitiveness.

Construction Notebook – In order to make the construction process simple, you will be provided a notebook with step-by-step material selections needed, as well as your budget information for each selection and places to shop with supplier contacts (multiple suppliers for each product, their phone numbers, websites etc). You will receive our builder discount with suppliers, or you are free to choose your own supplier (if you wish). The notebook will also include an order of things to pick out as well as the budget amount you have for each category (ie plumbing fixtures etc). Our customers have found this step-by-step notebook process to take the “headache” out of building, and they have also found our supplier discounts help save them money. They also like having the flexibility of using a supplier they may have a special relationship with when it can save them money (for example your cousin sells carpet and can get you a special deal). In addition, Kim is available to help with color and product selection for your home. You can see some of her work on past homes under the “attention to detail” page on our website. You can also see many pictures on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/JaggersConstructionTn This service is offered free of charge to our clients.

Tom Wilson, United Community Mortgage Services, Tom.Wilson@ucbi.com , (865) 680-4394
Norma Sheldon, Loan Officer, Mortgage Investors Group, Norma.Sheldon@migonline.com ; (865)-482-8910
Stephanie Barnes, Vice President, Mountain Commerce Bank, Stephanie.Barnes@mcb.com (865) 694-5732

It is our policy to maintain frequent communication with our clients to avoid change orders. We will only charge a change order fee ($250) if the work has been done as we discussed and then you change your mind causing the work to be re-done another way. Example: We go over the house plan with you prior to framing. Once the framing has been done you don’t like the location of a window which was built to plan. We would charge a change fee to get the workers back out to re-do the window location. We will always tell you in advance if something will require a change order fee and let you make the decision to change it or not with this in mind. It is important to note – in all our years of building we have only charged one change order fee. We believe this is due to excellent communication.

We supply a one-year warranty for your home.  Additionally, if you are building a basement you will have a 30-year transferable warranty for waterproofing with your basement provided by Tennessee Valley Waterproofing.  This system is known as the Tuff n Dri system and is described at  www.tvwdrybsmt.com   In addition, we use the Drainstar Strip Drain System also described on their website.

We are confident in our workers, but it is our job to make sure the home is being built to your satisfaction.  This means being on-site very frequently.   Also, by being on site often we can keep things going smoothly and efficiently by planning ahead for material needs etc.   We will not take on more work than we can do and do well.

We are committed to doing our best to build a high-quality home, the way you want and within your budget.   We have years of experience doing just this and are honored to call our past customers friends still today.   We believe our dedication to doing all we can for our customers has kept us in business when others have found themselves without work.   We also know we owe everything to God, who is our ultimate provider, but Who is also the reason we are committed to honesty, integrity and hard work.   We can promise you – the homes we build aren’t just another “job” to us.    We know this home is more than a project for you; it is a place you will spend many days and make memories with your family.  We want it to be beautiful and we want it to be built well and within budget, so you can enjoy it for many years to come.  We also believe our best advertisement will continue to be happy customers.   Thank you for the opportunity to consider us to be your builder.

What We Believe:

  • We believe in doing all we can to do the job right, and that our company will succeed or fail because of how we treat people.
  • We believe that doing the right thing is not just a way to succeed in business but is part of who we are, who we want our children to be, and who we should be when we call ourselves Christians.  Our name is not the only name that we represent.
  • We believe you have the right to know where every dollar goes in the construction of your home.   That is why we build on a cost-plus basis.
  • We believe you should expect us to keep you informed of progress on your home, and we will return your phone calls in a timely manner.
  • We believe you can and should enjoy building your new home!

Ready to learn more? Contact us directly today:

865-603-9034