Ate you a retired contractor that you can be home all day and understand all the conflicting and competing priorities between the trades? How do you plan to source and hire hire contractors? Do you even know any non busy vetted trades who would work under that arrangement?

Those seem like projects very independent of one another, and if so you should be okay. But if there is any overlap, you will get fingerpointing between contractors if anything goes wrong. Will you stagger the projects? I think you will need to or chaos might ensue.

@MizLizzie Thank you. They will definitely be staggered over the course of two years. Definitely not all at once.

In that case, you're really looking at three separate projects. Personally, I would still prefer a licensed contractor to oversee each project, but I wouldn’t feel the need to bundle them under one GC. Good luck.

Roofing is almost always a specialty contractor. One contractor may do both siding and windows.

WRT the interior,mit depends on what you want with your “update” and “partial finish.” You can find one company that can do a great job of framing, drywall, finishing the drywall, trim,painting, and installing flooring. Plumbing, electric, and HVAC probably need specialized contractors and possibly an inspection. A GC would coordinate everything and arrange permits and inspections. And be insured.

They should all be insured, but the GC especially.

Kim:

People are always trying to save money by GCing their own jobs. That is foolish, particularly in the times we're in.

The subs you want are booked solid by smart GCs. Your chances of repeatedly finding reliable subs are slim. A good GC has spent plenty sorting them out. If you want that expense, have at it.

Furthermore you'l always be a onesie. When a good sub on your job gets a call from a GC that throws him a half million in work a year, you're getting dumped, believe me. Contract, schmontract.

The biggest thing you need and that GCs have is leverage over subs. You have none and can't get any.

And a GC may have multiple subs for each trade, so he could possibly work the next available into your job faster than if you were waiting on one specific guy.

Updating kitchen, bathroom and finishing a basement would require a GC because there are many different trades involved which have to be coordinated. As posted, unless you have the skill set and time to supervise and coordinate the project, you need a GC.

Roofing and updating the exterior is somewhat different, In my experience roofers are a one-off since they would be acting as the GC for their employees to the extent different skills are necessary. Your roofing company doesn't have to be the same as your GC and - at least in my experience - most people hire a reputable roofing company because you don't need the additional layer.

I would expect to use a GC with his own subs for the interior work and if nothing goes wrong, plan to use the same guy for all phases of interior work. For example,  with that type of project, you will likely end up needing a major electrical upgrade. The most reasonable solution for the entire project may not be the best approach for each of the individual steps. You don't want to get to phase 2 or 3 and find you have to backtrack and redo the earlier work. It is alway good to get the person on board upfront as they will find it easier to follow on their own work than someone else's work. Having one contractor helps avoid paying multiple times for background and familiarizing themselves with the property.

Some exterior contractors will do roof, gutters, window, trim and siding while others only do part of the project. The one time we did a complete exterior, we had one guy handle the project. He did mostly roofing but also did complete exteriors with his own guys while many contractors around here subcontract the roofing portion. With a single company there are fewer fingers when the pointing starts.

I completed our bathroom remodel without a GC. I had no experience. It was more time consuming than I expected, but it was also rewarding. It saved us some money too. However, if you don’t have excess time and you’re not mechanically, I would not do it. There were times that I had to figure out how to do something because a sub didn’t do something right or finish a job in time. Some of the stuff was easy to handle, but others were time consuming and tough. Good luck!

I agree with Joseph, as always. This is the takeaway:

"The biggest thing you need and that GCs have is leverage over subs. You have none and can't get any."

Knowledge is your primary leverage. The more you know about something the better for you. . .And then there's the other strong leverage you have. The money. No doubt getting the knowledge and then finding someone competent to do a job will be significantly more effort than leaving that to a GC. If you put in the effort, you'll save a lot and you can also get a better finished product.

You can certainly incentivize a subcontractor without being a contractor. Goal alignment isn't that hard really.

I have personally offered a bonus for timely completion, a contractor getting an extra 10% by making a deadline is a fair bit of incentive. I assure that people have never been that great at passing up a short term benefit for a long-term gain.

I have also gotten good work when I am willing to wait, I just tell them to stick my job in their back pocket and if they have a break on their schedule give me a call. One of the primary job of a G.C. is keeping subs on schedule, tell subs you are willing to fill the holes in that schedule and you can often get work done. You how quickly your job will get done.