General contractor services

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General contractor services
If you are planning to engage in a medium or large construction project, you will probably need to tap the services of a general contractor. General contractors may have different names, such as builder, building contractor or remodelling contractor. General contractors are given this particular name because they have the role of supervising the entire building process and making sure that they follow the owner's directions and get the job done in due time and for the established price. In order to achieve that result, they will use people in their own team, as well as sub-contractors. One important thing to know is that these sub-contractors will not be hired by the house owner and will not be responsible to him, but to the general contractor.
Among the main responsibilities of a general contractor are offering the owner an approximate cost for the entire project, negotiating this price with the owner, putting together a contract, finding and negotiating contracts with subcontractors, getting the needed permits and licences for the building project, finding and ordering the needed materials, making payments to suppliers and subcontractors, interpreting the plans, taking into consideration the owner's needs and desires, supervising the work that subcontractors are doing and fixing any problems that may come up.
That means that, besides the basic general contractor services, a general contractor will have periodical meetings with the owner, discuss the outcomes that the owner expects and in the same time make sure that the subcontractors respect the owner's vision and solve any issues that may come up. Additionally, a general contractor will need to keep a tight and organized schedule and make sure that the project is running smoothly at all times.
Some general contractors have their own crew that they use on the project, others may rely exclusively on subcontractors, while there are some that use a combination of both. Usually, on smaller projects, a general contractor will use their own staff, while bigger projects will almost always require hiring subcontractors.
When choosing a general contractor, there are some things that you should bear in mind. First of all, references are extremely important. For example, if you are working on your building project with an architect, you should ask him to give you the name of contractors he has dealt with before and which he considers to be honest and efficient. You can get other references from relatives, neighbors or friends that had similar work done. Another way to make sure that you choose the right contractor is to first hire them for a small job and see how it goes. If you are satisfied with the result, you can be confident that you project will go smoothly.