When you are working on a construction or remodeling project, many decisions will need to be made. You may need many different professionals to provide services for you. Often that means hiring electricians, plumbers, and other contractors to do the work, but it is usually easier to hire one person, a general contractor, to handle and coordinate all the work for you.
Hiring a General Contractor
Before you hire a general contractor for your project, you need to decide if you need one or not. A project that only requires a carpenter and maybe a painter could be easy to handle yourself, but if you need to hire plumbers, electricians, painters, and other specialty contractors, you can start to become overwhelmed.
The general contractor can not only find and hire the right people for the project, but they will also coordinate the timing of each contractor's arrival on the job so that the work can get done without all the subcontractors being in others' way. This timing or coordination can make the project preceded much smoother. When everything is done at the right time, it can reduce delays.
Often the project can be completed early if you have a good contractor.
Purchasing and Scheduling Materials
Another function of the general contractor on your job is to coordinate the purchase and delivery of materials to the job site. If the materials are not on-site, but the subcontractors are, the subcontractor can not complete the work, and you can lose a lot of time.
Some subcontractors provide their materials, but the general contractor needs to make sure the right material is available before the subcontractor needs it in cases where they don't. It is also vital that the general contractor communicates with you anytime a material option exists. A color, texture, or type of material that requires choices should be run by you before the general contractor makes any purchases.
Working With Building Inspectors
The general contractor you hire for your project needs to understand all aspects of construction, plumbing, and electrical work to interact with the building inspector and relay information to the subcontractors if changes in the work need to be made.
A GC that understands the building code can often spot issues before the inspection occurs and get the problem resolved so that the building inspection goes smoothly. Usually, that means knowing the code, but not always doing the work. Most general contractors are on-site to ensure work is progressing, but they are doing a limited amount of the actual construction on the project in many cases.
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