Some GCs, don't like this and others don't mind it. You'll probably know that early on when talking to GCs.

There are many advantages of this, if you have the interest, time, knowledge and tools. If you don't have DYI interest and experience, you could be in for a long haul.

Pitfalls:
Finding good subcontractors may be hard and GCs may have more leverage to get them to do your job on time. Think about contracts with incentives and penalties.

Permitting and insurance: some cities allow you to pull the permits and be the GC. You then assume liability if someone gets hurt on the site. So, talk to your insurance agent.

Time. If you don't mind living with sawdust and remodeling your kitchen over the course of a year (or two or three), then DIY sounds perfect. I have no problem living with plywood floors and plywood countertops while the real things are being made. However, my DW has no tolerance for this.

Fern4, there are many steps in this whole process and I would recommend listing them out as fully as possible. There is another thread on this right now. Then figure out what you can do and what you want someone else to do. Perhaps you don't like structural stuff, but you know the basics of electrical and plumbing. You can then do that and hire a licensed pro to certify what you've done. Maybe you love working with concrete and want to take a stab at the countertops. Perhaps you know the basics and then you want to do the demo, cabinet install and painting.

Good luck.

Todd

The problem with combining GC, selfGC and DIY is who is responsibile for what throughout the job. Everything must be spelled out very specifically in a contract with contingencies and prices (an hourly rate) for any change to the original contract. There are many things that can change the scope of a kitchen remodel and cause issues. You may want to consider paying T&M (time and materials) if you can find the right GC. Good Luck

I think you'd be much better off General Contracting the whole job yourself and subbing out those jobs that you don't feel qualified to do. Most GC's who are worth dealing with will not want to get into a hodge podge pile of who knows who is responsible for what, and especially with homeowner labor, which usually underestimates both the time and skilset necessary to accomplish the job. Knowledge of scheduling the trades in the right order and the resources to have different subs available is why you choose a GC to begin with. Mixing it all up with no clear responsibility for overall job timeline and flow will cause you nothing but huge headaches. Better to start off with you in charge and get the bids for all of the work yourself. Of course, this presupposes the fact that you have enough of a knowledge base to be able to spec out the bids and understand the scope of the project to begin with. If you don't fully understand all of the demolition/construction phases of your project, perhaps saving more money for the project and truly engaging the services of a GC would be better for you in the long run. But, it is the rare GC who will even deal with DIY labor in a major project. DIY jobs usually wreak havoc with the time line, and most aren't done up to the quality of a professional, and the GC is dependent upon the job being done right so as to make the next job be correct. There is no point in dealing with a GC in the first place if you plan on doing their job for them, or doing a trade's job either slowly or not up to standard. It's just a problem waiting to happen for all involved.

What is the scope of the project? If you are not doing structural work and you have some people in mind to do plumbing/electrical etc, I would recommend acting as your own GC. You will need some rudimentary knowledge of the process though so you know what order to do on. For instance, my kitchen had a leak last year which necessitated new base cabs and subfloor/floor. Since the kitchen was 20 years old, we decided to to the whole thing.

What I did: Demo, sheetrock walls, hardwood floors, unpacked and placed cabinets, knobs, painted, ran ductwork for vent, installed vent insert and will tile myself.

What I paid for:
Drywall guy to drywall ceilings (can't do by myself) and tape mud and sand the whole kitchen.($300)
Random helper guy (known for his trimwork but knows how to do everything) installed the cabinets, counter height window, repaired cedar siding outside, 3 interior doors and trim in kitchen. ($1800 plus lunch everyday)
Electrician ran new wires for appliances, outlets, chandelier and 6 recessed lights. Later he installed all the appliances and lighting ($1800)
Plumber ran lines for prep sink and hooked up 2 sinks, installed 2 disposals and dishwasher. ($1400)
Counters done by soapstone people
Limestone hood installed by mason ($1500)

As you can see, I only paid out $6000 in labor for my whole kitchen. I saved considerable amounts of money.

It takes longer to do it this way since you have to wait for the one person to finish before making an appointment with the next guy. It took a full 6 months from demo to having a functional sink. There are still 2 small things to do even 15 months later. I was able to purchase higher quality materials with the savings on labor.

Figure out what you can do yourself and go from there. Demoing the kitchen can save you a few thousand. I think sheetrocking takes some prior experience. Cabinets can be easy or difficult depending on your walls and floors.

Here is a rough order of events in a kitchen remodel.

Decide on your appliances so you have the specs before the cabinet design process. Don't actually purchase them until you know they will work in your design. Order the appliances before you order the cabinets to make sure they have them available before you order the cabinets. Have all spec sheets available for the designer.
Pick out your sink.
Design and order cabinets. Triple check your measurememts. make sure your appliances will fir in the cabinets. Make sure your sink fits in the base.
Demo: Order a dumster (at least a 10 yard) Demo a few weeks before the cabinets come in so you have several weeks to get the electrical, plumbing and walls before cabinet delivery.
Electrical: Usually done afer the design is done but before the walls are in. (Appliances, Outlets, Overhead lighting, Undercabinet lighting) Have appliance spec sheets and cabinet design available. Ask at what time you should call again and how much notice you need.
Plumbing: Sinks and water lines for fridge. Do this before the walls go up. Ask when he/she would like to be called to finish and how much notice they need.
Sheetrock after the electricians and plumbers have done their thing.
Paint before cabinets go in.
Flooring either before or after cabinets depending how you want to do it.
Cabinets Unpack immediately to check each piece and order replacements if necessary. Have appliances there for install for clearances
Install cabinets.
Install counters. Some appliances may already need to be in place or not (i.e. the dishwasher needs to be there if you are getting stone counters unless you buy a dishwasher labeled stone countertop ready.)
Once the counters are in, call back the plumber and electrician to finish up.
Hopefully now you have a functional kitchen. Now finish up by installing backsplash and misc repairs.

Good luck. Learning to do a lot yourself is an empowering experience. I figure if I could get a doctorate, I could do this stuff myself too. Now that I am done, I am thinking of selling and looking for a new fixer upper!

thank you Cleo 2007; that is very helpful.

I understand that a contract with a GC to leave a job unfinished would have to be very clear.

My question was intended to convey something more specific than a mixture of GC and owner involvement. I meant to ask how it might go if the GC were responsible for some specific tasks mostly related to an addition (foundation, framing, some plumbing, some electrical, exterior finishing, some sheetrock) and then left. We would then finish the kitchen ourselves, with whatever assistance we needed to purchase through the individual trades. I did not intend that we would be inserting ourselves or other subcontractors into the process during the time the GC was responsible for the job.

It really does have to do with making sure the parts we would do are things we already know how to do or feel competent to oversee and that everything else would be in the hands of the GC.

I hope that clarifies my question.

I certainly understand that this would drag out the process, perhaps for a long time.

My project has been accomplished in a fairly hodge-podge way, honestly, but it was "organized" hodge-podge. Through a friend I found a GC who was willing to do whatever phases of the job I did not want to/could not do, and it worked out AMAZINGLY, but I recognize that he was being very accomodating, and mine is an unusual situation.

I initially saw three options: 1-- get a GC, and stay out of his way (too pricey for me) 2-- Hire all subs myself: This seemed reasonable, but coordinating them and finding good ones was a nightmare. (I tried this approach, and after interviewing about 4 plumbers and a few electricians, none of whom I liked or trusted, I gave up.) and 3-- Have a GC with his guys do "some stuff" and I do the rest. This third plan worked very well, but it is a rare GC who will do this sort of thing, since the very nature of being a "GC" is that you are supervising/managing a whole project.

Here's how it is going for me:

Last spring to summer- made all arrangements with GC, bought appliances, designed cabinets, planned, planned, planned. This GC is pretty busy, but mine is a small job he was able to squeeze in between other things.

Last fall- made sure that my GC had a week free, and friends and I demo'ed the cabinets/floors, leaving the sink area intact. Then the GC and his guys came in, and in 3.5 days they pulled out all the drywall/soffits, did the electrical work, plumbed a gas line to the new range location, plumbed water to the new fridge location, and installed a new roof jack for the hood. They finished the drywall, and textured. Luckily the sink area needed very little other electrical/plumbing work, so they were able to work around leaving me a functioning sink.

Over the next three months, cabinets were getting built. This is where the timing was not ideal. One real downside to my "partial GC" plan was that he was very busy with other jobs, much bigger than this one, so when he was free to come in and work on my place for a week, I wanted to jump at the chance rather than waiting for the cabinets to be done. So then the cabinets took longer to finish than planned, so I had no kitchen for 3 months.

I primed and painted the walls, and my father and I installed the cabinets. I found my own granite people to install countertops, then my GC came back and installed the hood, plumbed the sink, and did a tiny bit more electrical work. Now I'm finishing up installing the flooring, and U/C lights, and then the GC will come back out next week and install the range, move and install the fridge and fix a couple of little things. He has been amazingly helpful in willing to come out a little at a time, between his other larger jobs. Eventually, I'll tile the splash, and my dad will help me with a lot of small wood trim items.

It is nearing the end, and doing it this way with a LOT of my own labor and all of my own planning saved me a huge amount of money, but it was very stressful.