Planning a remodel? Then no doubt you must have come across the term “general contractor”. In practical terms it must have strikes your mind for a handful workarounds instead of hiring one. Nevertheless a general contractor is a should have on the site job in order to jump off any such mistakes that may prove to be a fatal one for you as an independent contractor.
You will for sure be appreciating the decision of hiring a general contractor. And this is the very reason for the reincarnation of the popular blog topic to do a more in depth analysis and summarize all the important aspects that may answer the most common questions on everyone’s tips so as to why to hire a general contractor for the next GC assignment.
Common Confusion with the concept of General Contractor
Doesn’t it sound very simple? You just hire entire subs and have a massive amount of money saved on the general contractor fee. Nevertheless few owners of the homes are able to pull this while majority of the homeowners keep running into major hindrances. We are aware of this thing as general contractors as we all have been asked to administer the owner built task that have gone completely wrong.
Constructing the house is very difficult to do task and consumes a lot of time. In majority of the scenarios it is a nightmare even for the skilled builders with highly detailed knowledge that is needed to keep the project on continuous mode that possibly fails every year. See that’s how twisted it could possibly be to run the construction show efficiently and smoothly. Allow us to give a compact list of reasons for what you have been paying up so far and what features of a general contractor eases your problems to sit back with ease in constructing a house. Often people get confused with what is a general contractor?
(A) Knowledge of the building procedure
You should not only be well informed but well versed with what is to be done, how it is done and what will be the right time to do it. It hardly takes a construction project going out of budget due to missing important factors that are to be considered in order to reduce or in other words minimize something that is increasing the overall cost of the project and should have been taken into consideration a long time ago.
(B) Being informed about the building (construction) trade
A skillful contractor will administer all of the subcontractors that are on the continuous and never ending quality check of every subordinate work. This is a very important factor to be considered in building a house or you may just run out of the budget. In some case scenarios it is quite natural that the costs may go out of control if not taken care as and when required.
(C) Being informed about the building codes
It is next to impossible for you to keep an eye on the work of a subcontractor and difficult is for you to see how fairly it is going to pass the inspection. An efficient residential General Contractor will do that for you and there is no need of you paying up inspection charges or fees in order to jump of the delays that may come into the picture incase of some or the other errors that is quite common in constructing buildings and infrastructures. General Contractor are the ones who are very well versed with the ins and outs of random variations that may come into the picture due to the specific construction codes and other needs.
(D) Having a sound knowledge of scheduling needed in construction
A general contractor is someone who needs to be on top of the scheduling and timings with respect to all the work. This can be mainly due to jump off delays whereas to get each and everything done in the desired timeframe. A general contractor usually spends a lot of time over the calls and ensuring that each subcontractor is running in accordance with their strict schedule of work and other important operations.
There is a high possibility of the presence of 30+ subcontractors even when constructing a regular house. So it is a must for each and every single one of them to be on time and show up on work punctually without fail so as to avoid the usual challenges encountered in day to day construction work. Even if one of the subcontractors misses his on his schedule this small mistake can impact the whole project negatively.
(E) Builder’s Relationships
Do you think that the subcontractors and suppliers are far more responsive to General contractors? As they had a past good working experience with them and there are high chances wherein they would keep their fingers crossed for working with them in the near future. Then this thought of yours is exactly how it is in reality. majority of the most distinguished and polished subcontractors are very choosy when it comes to choosing which or what work they would prefer doing.
Subcontractors take the charge as the knowledge they have with respect to the constitution and other related work with the associate they are currently working with. Also what chances or how good are the chances that they will be able to cope up with the work in absence and presence of interruption. This is due to contractor or clients payment track record. So are the relationships of a general remodeling contractor.
(F) Funds (Capital)
The proficient General contractors will make sure that they have enough funds to keep any project moving. As we are all aware that for the project to be on the continuous mode there is a need of enough money as nothing goes on without cash or enough funds. money is the basic need of any work whether it is a construction or other work related activities. Even more significant when the sub contractors try to pull the chain on the work under the circumstances if they are not paid up often proactively.
(G) Knowledge about contracts
Any idea of what factor is the biggest contributor for an acceptable change order? Is it possible for you to distinguish between a fake surcharge from a fair charge for any work done? The general contractor’s work and deal with contacts every single day and can no doubt bring this to your notice one of the tiniest detail or error that is there on the subcontractors contract
Eventuality
So that is how hiring a General Contractor becomes such a valuable asset to the renovation and remodeling project. This will give you a clear picture of what does a general contractor do?