What is a General Contractor?

A general contractor is a good person to have around for everything from a small job to a big job. If you are buying real estate then you will need such a professional to work for you in the same way that a family buying their first home may need the services of a contracting expert. Whether it is an entire condo that needs work, your bathroom or your kitchen a general contractor can do the job for you. If you find someone you like, who does really good work, then you may wish to call on this person time after time in the years to come.

A contractor can be responsible for managing a renovation or improvement project from the very beginning to the very ending. He will be the one that provides you with the bids or estimates you need and he will be in charge of rounding up all of the materials for the job at hand. He will also be in a position to hire subcontractors and to lease the vehicles that are required for the project. Perhaps a truck is the only vehicle needed but a backhoe may be needed as well or even a crane.

The general contractor will also be the one to take care of all of the accounting records for your endeavor as well as the personnel records. He is also the one with whom all of the responsibility for the work lies. Complete liability is in the hands of the general contracting professional.

To hire a general contractor is to hire someone who is an expert in the field that he works in. There are many fields of specialty for those who choose to pursue this type of occupation. Some contracting specialists think on a big scale and choose to work on office buildings and/or other large commercial projects. Some choose to work with residential dwellings while others choose to work on bridges and still others prefer work that can be done on bridges. A general contracting specialist has his pick of which area appeals to him the most.

A general contracting person must work very closely with all of the subcontractors he hires. He must know what they are doing at every step of the way. No detail is too small to go unnoticed by the professional who knows his work well and knows his team well.

The general contracting expert needs to be well acquainted with every aspect of the project. He needs to understand how to do electrical work, flooring, foundations, roofing and plumbing. He also needs to know how to put in cabinets, how to do framing and also what is involved in landscaping. The "general" aspect of being a general contacting pro means that he must be adept and knowledgeable in a number of different areas.