Home improvement projects can seem daunting, particularly if you don’t consider yourself a DIY person. But even if you do know your way around power tools, you might have big plans for renovating your home that go far beyond your current skill set. In this case, it’s time to hire a team of professionals led by an experienced general contractor to do the job for you.
What Is a General contractor?
A general contractor is a professional who is charged with supervising every aspect of a renovation or remodeling project in a home or commercial building. The responsibilities of a general contractor include securing work permits, handling supply deliveries and hiring and scheduling subcontractors like electricians, carpenters and plumbers. If that all sounds like a big job, you are correct—and that’s why it’s a good idea to hire a general contractor to do it all for you.
5 Reasons to Hire a General Contractor
If you want to leave your remodeling project to the professionals, here are five reasons it pays to hire a general contractor to lead the way.
1. Save Money and Time
Home improvement projects can be costly and time-consuming affairs. As a budget-minded homeowner, you are able to review estimates from various professionals as well as choose more economical materials and upgrades depending on the scope of the project.
However, you won’t have as much room to negotiate when it comes to the availability of that labor and those materials. A general contractor takes over the responsibility of scheduling the project so that materials are procured and tasks are completed as close to the given timeline as possible.
General contractors are used to scheduling work and supply deliveries around busy subcontractors who are likely juggling multiple jobs in addition to yours. An experienced general contractor will have a slush fund to draw from as necessary to keep all subcontractors paid on time. This means that no one will threaten to walk off the job because of lack of pay, and your project will keep going according to schedule.
2. Leave the Project Management to the Pros
You likely have other work and family responsibilities to uphold in addition to any home improvement projects you have started. Particularly if you are working on a complex, multi-stage project, it is always better to leave the project management duties to a professional.
An experienced general contractor is a master at juggling various tasks, including managing material deliveries and hiring subcontractors. This will make it much easier for you to go about your daily life, even if it does mean much of your home is covered in drop cloths.
Of course, you’ll be kept informed of everything all along the way. But instead of communicating with all those different workers and suppliers, you’ll have the general contractor as your main point of contact so there is no confusion as to the status of the work.
3. Take Advantage of Established Working Partnerships
A general contractor with years of experience will have likely formed strong working partnerships with a variety of subcontractors and suppliers. That’s very good news for you as the homeowner.
For one, it means that those subcontractors and suppliers are reliable, as the general contractor has come to know and trust them based on their having many good experiences with them in the past. Reputation is everything in the home improvement industry, and everyone from general contractors to suppliers to subcontractors prefer to work with others who are known for keeping their word.
These strong relationships could also benefit your bottom line. General contractors are often able to get better pricing, both in terms of supplies and labor, especially if it means that a GC will be needing more of both for future projects. When a general contractor is fair and the working experience is a pleasant one, this bodes well for the timely completion of your project.
4. Enjoy Peace of Mind
There’s a lot of responsibility and liability that goes along with a home improvement project, and most of it rides on a general contractor. You can rely on your general contractor to be licensed and insured, and know that everyone they are working with will also be licensed and insured. Accidents on the job site can harm workers and cause damage to your home, so you will want to ensure that everyone and everything under your roof is protected by worker’s compensation and liability insurance.
Additionally, an experienced general contractor knows how to comply with all local codes and will therefore ensure that the subcontractors comply with them as well. This means that all necessary permits will be procured and that projects will pass a future home inspection. Property owners can rest assured that the work is being done in a professional manner without cutting corners that could prove to be detrimental or even dangerous down the road.
5. Have it Done Once, Have it Done Right
There’s a major sense of accomplishment that comes with the successful completion of DIY home improvement projects. But there’s a major sense of disappointment should that project fail or remain incomplete. While giving DIY projects the old college try is one thing, taking on dangerous tasks or ones that require more than your ability or your toolbox can handle is quite another.
To ensure that a job is completed the right way, it’s always best to hire a professional team of home remodelers. Their true value comes from their vast experience of doing many of the same types of jobs over the years, resulting in better, faster work than you can do as a DIYer who’s just learning.
If you do start a project and find you need to call in a pro to finish it, know that it could turn out to be even more expensive for them to fix your DIY errors than it would have been if you had hired them to do the job in the first place.
Time is money when it comes to home improvement projects. Hiring a general contractor can save you both. Aside from minding your bottom line as a homeowner, though, you can benefit from a general contractor’s experience in managing and completing many similar jobs in the past.
While you might be unsure of how to navigate all the steps of a multistage remodeling or renovation project, an experienced general contractor has seen it all and done it all many times. All you have to do now is enjoy the results.
