General Contractors and their role

[Joseph Gisler]

When it comes to a General Contractor, are they exactly what the name implies? Do they take care of everything like hiring the electrician, removing walls, etc. or is it a case by case basis?

Growing up working with my father who is an investor, he has always done the work himself or acted as the general contractor in a sense I think (hiring an electrician, plumber, etc. separate) so while I have lots of experience in construction, I have never worked with a “general contractor” and so I don’t know how to examine the relationship as I find one in my area.

[Dave Gallogly]

Great question.  Being a General Contractor in Mn and real estate investor I can only speak about my experience in our state. A general contractor in our state is someone who has passed an exam issued by the state, paid the appropriate fees and has liability insurance along with workman's comp if they have employees.  I say that because the level of expertise varies a lot between each one from very knowledgeable in all areas of construction, codes, and business to  someone with very little in each of those areas. In our state if you want to build a skyscraper or in reality any commercial building there is not requirement to have a general contractors license.  You do have to work with official city and state officials and inspectors to make sure the structure is built at a high standard though. Why do I start off with all of this? Its the persona not the title that makes someone good that can do all the things you talk about.

Ok, that is enough ranting and raving. Back to you question.

A General Contractor should be knowledgeable to work with and direct all areas of a project.  They hire subcontractors for each discipline as in plumbers, electricians, HVAC contractors to complete a project. It al starts with your conversation with them and what the scope of work you want accomplished within the project and what they accept they will do.  Be very clear with the relationship of what your expectations are with the project and how you communicate back and forth with each other.  It good to ask them what are the different things they do in a project and what things are expected of you.

We could go a lot deeper, but does that help?