"This year I am planning to remodel my parent's house."

You'll need a contractor's license if you're in Florida. You can only GC residential property in your own name here and if you sell it sooner than a year after you get your CO, you can be charged with contracting without a license. A guy with a house he was living in had the title in the name of an LLC he owned. Couldn't work on his own house.

The biggest problem with cutting out the GC is leverage; you have none. Not only has a good GC sifted through all the local riff-raff to get to reliable subs, he provides them a lot of work regularly. You don't. You're one retail job. When he calls them, they will come. If that means delaying or abandoning you, so be it.

The challenges with consumers acting as a general contractor and attempting to hire sub-contractors: 1) Sub-contractors don't know you; 2) Sub-contractors stay busy and give first priority to general contractors with whom they have work successfully in the past and who will give them repeat and continuous work; 3) You don't know the sub-contractors, their work standards, schedule, dependability and willingness to show up an stay on your job until the work is finished; 4) Construction, scheduling and supervision tends to be a full-time job, and many consumers cannot devote full time to it, since they have another job to make a living; 5) Many consumers are not familiar with design, construction, scheduling, standards of the trade and have little ability to organize, schedule and supervise the work of others in the construction field.

There is a reason why general contractors have an overhead and profit built into a construction project.

Many consumers will be much better off to find a reputable, dependable and quality-oriented general contractor and let them use their experience to find proper subs and get the job done right the first time.

If you are one of those consumers who has all the knowledge, experience and time of a general contractor, then go for it. Otherwise, exercise prudence...

Your wish list says a teardown would be cheaper. And that's why you need a designer and a GC. You'd just march along doing the whole thing piecemeal without the big picture. Two or three years later, when you added it all up, plus all of the backtracking and redoing already done things because you didn't know the right order of operations, you'd see your ''saving's'' were illusionary. And then you'd see that you could have bought an all new house for less.

I'm still a little bit confused at these answers. I have worked with a GC on my current house and it was A NIGHTMARE. He didn't know where his subs were, they came when they were not supposed to (I wasn't home), they did horrible work on my cabinets etc.

And everyone saying that I will be doing work myself - no, I will not be? I am simply outsourcing each job to a COMPANY, not subcontractors - the companies probably have their own installers and subcontractors and the company has excellent reviews from Yelp/Houzz - so I at least know who will be working on my house versus trusting a general contractor to outsource through his own connections (who I cannot verify where they are from).

And to Sophie, I believe you commented on one of my other questions regarding expanding the house: you are mentioning for the second time "You could have just bought a new house/its cheaper to just live somewhere else" - you don't seem to understand that sometimes a house is for an INVESTMENT and if its in a great location and has amazing views, it is worth spending money to redo a house. There is no way I can afford to move into a brand new house in the same area with the same views. It easily costs a million dollars more to buy a brand new house in that area...

Hire a GC and save yourself a whole lot of headaches. Each day I visit our counstruction site, I'm so glad I hired a good GC.

How do you know what to pay for drywall? Framing? Foundation? Roofing? Can you get all subs to the site daily. Do you know how to underwrite contract? Will you estimate exactly materials? The issue there when you pay for the roof, for example, $47 labor per sq and $81 in materials per 27 squares = $3456. But if you let the contractor estimate $60 sq + $100 / materials per sq times 33 squares = $5280. You just paid 153% markup. It is more than general contractor charges. In the 300k house 153% markup will end up costing you $459k.

=

You will end up paying more and end up taking 2x the time. On the other side, if you are familiar with the construction industry, have contractors, framers, foundation, can get decent discounts - have at it.

Brian did you mix up what you meant to say?

Not all GC's and subcontractors are created equally. A very wise man told me the definition of construction is Stupidity and Punishment... Now with that said I'm sure there are a few people that can pull off a small project with some luck and diligence. The real issues are risk management, insurance and indemnification. When something goes wrong and God forbid Very Wrong will you be insured? Not sure if your homeowners policy covers general contracting... Do you have enough wisdom to issue written scopes to each trade that specifically identifies the materials, grades, details and specifications or will you leave it up to the Sub?

A quality general contractor stays in business because he or she provides value to their clients and is respected for his character, honesty and knowledge.

Good Luck

"A very wise man told me the definition of construction is Stupidity and Punishment"

I thought the definition of construction was "The process where the influence of the architect is slowly removed from the building".

Architectrunnerguy:

I worked on a public university remodel. A plumber and I were discussing how some things could have been done faster, more efficiently, and save the state money. The plumber ran his ideas past the architect and the architect was having none of it. That architect should have been removed from the building.

Joe.....Some are that way. I work well with virtually every builder I work with but some don't. Pure speculation and I hope I'm wrong but from the other thread I'm thinkin' you don't have a very high regard for architects as a group anyway. But to be honest, I don't have a high regard for some INDIVIDUAL architects either!! LOL!!

It's a big jump going from a bad experience with one general contractor to going it on your own. Why not interview a couple of reputable contractors for your project needs before writing them all off?

There is absolutely no doubt that the very best projects--finished results and enjoyable experiences--are the ones where owner, architect and general contractor are all on the same page, respectful of one another and encourage each other to make suggestions for improvement when/where needed.

This probably most often happens when all three are in on the project from beginning to end, and where the architect and general contractor have worked together successfully in the past and understand one another's communication habits.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case in many design and construction projects.

The lesson for consumers is to get this right at the outset--not ignore it or try to save money by short-circuiting it.

@ Virgil is right on point. I'm continually amazed how many folks rationalize inferior design and inferior construction as "I saved a bundle by using the low cost designer and low bid builder." In our (coastal VA area) those are the same folks who are spending time and money on rot repairs after only three years because their "lower cost builder" installed wood windows and they didn't know the difference. Saved a bundle? No, they didn't.

Homebuyers should consider how a particular investment (whether in quality design, construction, systems or amenities) contributes to the longevity of the structure, the comfort and enjoyment of the occupants, the home's operating and maintenance cost, its curb appeal, and its resale value.

Consider that If a home appreciates at only 3% annually, and the incremental investment in quality design is 6% to 9% of total project cost, it represents 2-3 years of appreciation. If the homeowner pays 5% more for higher quality construction, that cost represents 2 +/- years appreciation.

I say go for it. There are a lot of nay sayers out there but if you do some research about "owner builders" you will find many people do this all the time with great success. You will have headaches, you will have stress, but its a trade off. There are plenty of good reliable subs out there that are willing to do the work. You will just need to research them. Best thing to do is have a written contract for the work.

Will GC's get better pricing. Sure. Then they mark it up and you end up paying more than you may have paid yourself. I did a full gut remodel a couple years ago and found a great set of people I will continue to work with. Are they the cheapest? Probably not (plumber is for sure) but I felt the prices were reasonable and I got good work out of them. Go by word of mouth. Get on Nextdoor (the app) and ask your neighbors for recommendations on contractors. If you have time to do research and understand the basics, you can do a lot. If I can rewire my house by learning off youtube and pass a city inspection, anyone can.