General Contracting Do’s and Don’ts

You want to save a boatload of cash by General Contracting your own remodel.

But wanting to save money alone does not qualify a person! You already know that… But! you (or your wife) can be very handy with tools! You even have a garage full of them. Hold on a second there, tiger! Let’s talk specifics and hopefully save you and your family (and your subcontractors) a boatload of grief!

Full disclosure / full spoiler:
I strongly recommend that homeowners hire a VERY GOOD, well respected General Contractor with excellent reviews. (Read this companion post about how to get the best work out of the Contractor you hired) Even better if the Contractor comes recommended by a trusted friend. But wait! Won’t that cost MORE money? In the long run, doing the job WELL, costs you less. Here is how.

I can’t emphasize this enough: Doing a job correctly is the shortest path to completion.

Doing a job poorly without the right skill, craftsmanship and materials will cost you more in money, stress and strained relationships. Consider that some things can’t be fixed. For example, you can’t do much to sand a poorly textured wall after it has been painted; or worse, try and fix a sloppy paint job. You can’t sand latex paint! Similarly, gobs of caulk won’t make up for poorly mitered trim, it will quickly shrink and crack. You have one shot to do it right.

Right now it is very hard to find seasoned, well-qualified craftsmen, carpenters and contractors. This year, I have (unfortunately) seen some of the worst work of my career. More than any other year, I have heard sob stories about contractor walk-offs, lowball bait-and-switches, and just general all-out poor work. My own clients are dealing with this!

Quick Story to illustrate. A homeowner buys a dream property worth multiple millions. He hires a talented architect and gives her free reign. The project goes WAY over budget. The Homeowner, rather that settling up with the architect and parting ways, or, instead of scaling back, decides to save a few pennies by firing the General Contractor (?!?!) and to try to do the work himself. How hard could it be? Speaking candidly, his savings is almost insignificant compared to continuing to employ the talented architect (You get billed for every revision, visit, phone call!) Almost immediately things unravel. Bridges get burned with subcontractors. Materials don’t show up when the labor is there. Subs that the old GC hired have to find other work. Employees of the old GC get bribed to “come back and work on the side,” which is often not legal (definitely not ethical after you fired their boss!) An expensive furnace and HVAC system gets melted due to some ignorance about electrical codes. None of the deadlines are being met, pushing every subcontractor farther and farther out, making the profitability of working on the house worse and worse. People are dropping out. The cabinets that are sitting in my shop can’t be installed for many months, meaning that I have to pay for them before I get paid for them… There is no end to the mess. The man not only did not save money, it cost him and everyone involved more time, money and it probably will take a few years off his life! I write this in the present tense because it is still happening! Let’s break down what happened.

Common mistake #1 - “I don’t see my GC on the jobsite, so I assume nothing is happening.” This is a very common misconception. The job of a GC, the thing that makes him VERY valuable to you, is that he knows how to coordinate and orchestrate a very complicated set of metrics. He is working! He is on the phone ordering supplies, at the lumber yard, coordinating subs so that everything happens on schedule for you! Don’t assume that if he shows up later in the day that he is recovering from a hangover, more likely he was awake at 5:00 am planning for your project. That behind the scenes work is critical. Frequent check-ins with him will reassure you that things are still within budget and on schedule.

Common Mistake #2 - “This looks easy, I bet I could do it.” PAUSE TO CONSIDER! Even if you were the rockstar in high school shop, doing the work is only a fraction of the job. Planning, design, ordering materials, following building codes, hiring trusted sub-contractors - these are things that are critical to the outcome as well. This is the reason I recommend hiring the best GC that you can find.

Common mistake #3 - “I can barely afford the lowest bid. “ Do not pull the trigger until you can afford to do it right. The truth is, the lowest bid is often a disastrous choice. In order to get the bid low, they are guaranteed to cut corners by using cheap materials, unskilled labor or both! Consider that it will cost a lot more to re-do or repair a poorly done job than it will to do it right. Case in point: One of the worst drywall jobs I have ever seen was wrapped up the day I was scheduled to install cabinets. The homeowners were irate and insisted that it be redone. The way my schedule looked, I had to install this particular job before I could complete my next two installations, causing me to lose several weeks and thousands in profit while I waited for the poor hack to fix his mistakes. The drywall only looks a little bit better after all of those weeks of repairing it :( Everyone loses when you hire people based on price alone. Please save your money until you can afford to do it right!

Common mistake #4 - Falling victim to the “low-bid bait-and-switch.” That’s when a contractor lowballs a client in order to get the work. He then proceeds to pile-on costs and claim that everything is an “upgrade” that wasn’t in the original bid. This is a really poor practice. It hurts honest people. It is bad for the industry. Don’t fall into this trap! If you don’t have a recommendation from a friend, Average out all of your bids and pick one that is close to the middle. Contractors are not all created equally, and you usually get what you pay for.

Points to consider:

-Consider not General Contracting yourself unless you are knowledgeable about the organization side of the job. Also, it takes thick skin to make sure poor work does not pass. Managing the workmanship of others is a critical skill in a good GC.
-Hire based on merit, good reviews and recommendations.
-Beware of the low bid. The lowball bait-and-switch is a common way that homeowners get soaked.
-Hiring a family member who “dabbles” in drywall, painting, plumbing, etc. may put a strain on your relationship if a misunderstanding arises or you are not happy with the quality of the work.