Hiring a G.C. (General Building Contractor)

So, you have a home remodeling project you want to do. Where dose one began?
Do you check the yellow pages, call a friend, search the internet for a reliable and Ethical G.C. or be a Owner Builder?



There are pros. and cons. With both options. First, lets look at G.C.'s you must do your homework and due diligence to see what works best for you. If you plan on calling contractors to get an estimate of the work you need done. Make sure they are all bidding on the same project with the same outcome. You must compare apples to apples, oranges to oranges and not bananas to lemons.



Some unethical contractors will give you a lowball bid just to get their foot in the door.
They will use substandard materials to increase their profits. Another way they make more money is Change Orders. A change order is any extra work you want done that’s not on the bid. Another change order could be extra work that has to be done that no one could see inside walls, like water or termite damage to the framing or poor craftsmanship.All change orders, for the most part, are T&M (time & materials) your billed for the labor per/hr. per/man and whatever materials are needed. This is how a lot of the lowball bid contractors make double and sometimes tripple the bid price.



A lot of contractors don’t have employees and hire illegal’s and or other people off the street they never met to work for cash. A good sign of this would be you notice different workers on the job from one day to the next. That’s because a lot of the workers looking for day work don’t always show up for work after they get a little money. Sometimes it’s because their hung-over, got arrested, missed the bus or just didn’t feel like working that day. I’ve work for contractors that would hire people off the street and I’ve heard every excuse you can think of.



Not only is hiring off the street illegal, its dangerous. Do you really want to have somebody working in your house that your contractor don’t even know, is he a illegal alien, a sex offender, a pedophilia (likes sex with children) or a fugitive trying to stay under the radar. Is trying to save some money, really worth your families safety?



GC’s also make their money by adding 5% to 50% or more to the Sub Contractors price for the work they need to do (Electrical, Plumbing, HVAC) and any other trade they sub out. Some GC’s get sub contractors for every trade that’s needed to do the job. So when you add up all the Sub Contractors that you’ll need, plus your GC’s 5% or more on each sub contractors bid, you can see how your home project can get quite costly.Sometimes your better off going with Owner Builder and hire a "WORKING" you know, a hands-on project manager to oversee your project.    8BWW55Q2AHFY