HUGE general contractor overrun...educate the rest of us

10 years ago

Ashe's post makes my head throb and makes me want to eat a whole bag of salt and vinegar chips. I am just getting bids for a house I just bought for a gutted kitchen and bath, all new windows, removing several walls and building a master bath from scratch. This post makes me think that it might be simpler to assign different companies different tasks. I am already planning on using a basement guy to fix the water in the basement because I only trust him to do this. I am using a local window company, as I trust them. It makes me wonder, is it possibly a better deal to shop around for individual people to do each job? I.e, instead of a general contractor "managing" it all and marking up costs and probably juts making me nuts? Get a bathroom company to do the bathroom (found one on angies list. Great ratings, all they do is baths). Get my cabs at IKEA, hire an local guy to install my IKEA cabs (his specialty). You alrerady use the granite place to install counters. Then maybe hire a handyman to do little things like install appliances, put down floor etc. It seems like the more things to do on one teamÃ¯Â¿Â½s plate, the more likely things are to get lost in the shuffle? What am I missing here? I am sure coordinating it all would be stressful, but might not be moreso than a huge surprise bill. The bigger the total job for one company the bigger potential for a big OVERAGE.

On another note. I am more confused than ever after reading AsheÃ¯Â¿Â½s delima about if you do hire one GC to sub out the work, what the hell kind of contract is best/how do you avoid her situation? Can someone please make a list of things they learned about "managing" this whole process? Someone suggested weekly meetings.. I LIKE that. Taking it a step further, maybe you have them sign off that they are on budget each week? What else????????????????

Also, my contractor keeps saying he can get me "deals" but it sounds like others think they just mark up the prices? CouldnÃ¯Â¿Â½t going directly to the source and getting my own deals (i.e. negotiating prices at a major granite shop, negotiating window prices, etc. work just as well. ? I would think there would be one less hand out to pay in the deal/middleman.

Featured Answer

jellytoast

10 years ago

General Contractors make their money by marking up prices ... they mark up the materials, and then they mark up the subcontractors prices. Then they charge for their own labor and for their own guys to work on the project, too. But they do have construction knowledge (or at least they should), whereas many homeowners do not. That doesn't mean you can't do just as good a job of managing your own project, as long as you hire good, competent subs.

Yes, if you act as your own GC, you can try to negotiate for better prices on materials. Subcontractors often pay lower prices for some of their materials and they may pass some or all of that savings on to you if you ask ... for instance, a tile contractor can usually get a better price on tile.

I would let the appliance company install the appliances rather than hiring a handyman to do it ... that way if there are any problems the merchant can help you take care of it.

Personally, I would not trust Angie's List or any other online referral place. I would ask for references and then look at the contractor's work. I would also get multiple bids for things like a bathroom remodel.

If I ever did hire a GC (and I wouldn't) I would never sign a time and materials contract. I might do time and materials for some small portion of a job, but certainly not the whole project ... there are just too many ways for that arrangement to go south.

Oh, and if a contractor gives you a contract that appears to favor the contractor more than it favors you, it is perfectly okay to request things be added or deleted. If it is important to you, make sure it is in the contract.

This post was edited by jellytoast on Tue, Sep 10, 13 at 22:47

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