In my area, a builder and GC are the same thing. They are paid to coordinate the overall build, and all the sub contractors. I think what you are asking is whether to do a self build. We are doing a self build, or, we are owner-builders. We have hired my brother-in-law, who is an experienced GC, having built a few homes in the past, and almost 20 years experience in the construction industry. He's more of a foreman, or a consultant, though. If he was officially the GC, then all the trades would contract to him. He would have to pay them, and then submit a bill to us, with his own markup. He didn't want to put him in the position of having to pay out of his own pocket and being reimbursed. So the trades are contracting to us directly, and BIL is around for oversight and advice. We are also using his contacts, and his name, to let the trades know we aren't dumbass rich people ripe for being taken advantage of. (We're neither rich, nor stupid.) But he's not the GC, because he's not signing any checks. If I call up a foundation company and mention that he's my GC, they no longer want to talk to me, they want to talk to him. It's possible other areas have different terms, and maybe you would call BIL a GC. It's definitely harder to do it this way. I don't have another job right now, and this build is quickly becoming a full time job. I spend my week days calling dozens of trades. I have to call at least 10 companies to get 3 bids for every piece. Excavating, surveying, foundation, framing, siding, roofing, windows, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, gas hookup, drywall, ... Last week, I visited every tile wholesaler showroom in the city, at least twice, looking for the tile for my bathrooms. I visited 2 window places. This week, I need to harass framers again (I don't have a single quote for framing, and they all want at least 2 months notice), I will hopefully be onsite when they dig a hole, I need to call bathroom fixtures people, track down a front door supplier, finalize the window order, and get the cribbers lined up to hopefully start next week. And that's assuming nothing comes up that throws a wrench in the plans. I spend my evenings online, preparing for the calls I need to make the next day, and discussing the build with DH. If we'd hired a builder, I'd probably just be shopping for bathroom fixtures, and being pissed at the builder for not having a hole yet. It's hard to say which way would be better for staying on budget. If we'd hired a builder, and we weren't really specific on everything from day 1, then there would probably be budget overruns from things I add later. And additions generally cost more when a builder is adding on his markup, or has to return things he already bought. But, having all the costs in front of me, and writing checks weekly, I'm a lot more careful to choose less expensive fixtures, and not add things that are going to affect what's already been purchased. On the other hand, a builder knows a lot better what it costs to dig a hole, or build a 2 story wall, so the budget would probably have been better set to begin with.

Good luck finding a reputable contractor. We've lived in the same house for 26 years and in that time we've done many projects - new roof, new siding, a 1000 sq. addition, finished the basement, remodeled 3 bathrooms, added a screened in porch,installed a mahogany deck, a swimming pool, replaced brick walk with custom cut bluestone, remodeled the kitchen twice and had major landscaping done 3 times. We probably worked with 12 different general contractors and unfortunately only 2 of them would I ever work with again or refer to others. Even though we went through all the recommended steps in selecting our contractor calamities still happened - may of them directly caused by the GC trying to save time, money or appease one of his subs or another customer. You don't need to hear my horror stories I'm sure you've heard many. If you have the knowledge, the time and the fortitude to be your own GC then go for it. Just make sure you have all the insurance you need and an attorney to review all contracts. The last contractor we worked with was highly recommended by many people that I knew personally and whose work I had inspected. But he lost his foreman to an injury one week after my kitchen was demolished and everything went downhill rapidly after that. So even if you do everything right - there's still a good chance that things will go wrong.

If you are in fact in an area controled the the Los Angeles County Dept. of Building and Safety, you can, against mine and others advise, permit the project yourself. The permit application contains a paragraph, requiring your signature, in which you assume all of the liabilities for assertaing the validity of any persons performing any trade related funtion of the project. You can affirm that you and your immediate family members, ONLY, will be preforming all of the trade tasks. However, government agencies have a low tolerance for repeated failed inspections and will asses additional fees. You can elect to permit and act as the general contractor, hire subs with the requirement that they permit their specific trade. This will insure the validity of their âÂÂCâ lic., their city lic, and insurance. Hiring subs will require numereous sets of the plans, to conduct a comprehensive bid process, as well as the review of those bids to insure their cmpletness. When you act as the general you can require the trades to schedule and stand their own inspection, or you can schedule and stand the inspections. As the general, you are required to schedule the trades, some of which will have a low tolerance for delays and mis-scheduling, IE. wasting their time.

General contractor is a given..the rest-it largely depends on you-your funds, confidence what you can/cannot do, resilience, time and energy you can devote, etc. (And experience and passion of your contractor. He won't pick your finishes of course; but he might have an idea to put a window instead of a door for example or some other thing you didn't think of by yourself. Brainstorming is part of the process) we pulled off gut remodel plus addition plus reconfiguring stuff with the help of GC only but I'd say I longed to have a designer not once..would be easier. it's a very trying experience, long as well, you want more professional people by your side. It doesn't get done by itself-and it's a full time job, if nobody undertakes it, you do. So by all means either contact a designer, or maybe look at design-build firms. Just make sure you have a good chemistry with that person. Important with everybody of course, builder as well. You'll spend hours with these people..days..months..hopefully not years but can happen:) Minimize stuff that can go wrong by choosing right people. Some things will go wrong but the better your relationship is the more chance in overcoming obstacles. Architect, I'm not sure you need..your builder may advise with structural engineer if needed for that to be removed wall "Understand that if you are tearing out walls, finalization of the plan occurs AFTER the walls are out and you can see what is behind them"-agreed (we didn't tear down walls though, if anything we added some lol..but as we fully gutted the space-I know some stuff can't be predicted until you touch the wall and know what's there) So yes..the combo of general contractor and interior designer would be best. Whom to contact first? I'd start with a GC to get a feel of a general scope of the work, but I think both can be contacted simultaneously, or one can start with a designer too Whether people do double duty? Rarely. They might want to, but will not be best equipped for it even if passionate or simply won't have time. But you don't neccessarily need them to do double duty, in your particular case. Interior designers, for example, are trained to understand how the house works, so they are not architects but can have great vision and realize the mechanics that are required to achieve it.