Why you need to hire a Licensed General Contractor

An experienced licensed General Contractor is someone who knows the building codes well. Because of his extensive experience, he can coordinate all aspects of a project and supervise other subcontractors. His experience also enables him to handle more than one project at the same time.

For each of these tasks the General Contractor is responsible for the following:

• Obtaining competitive bids
• Telling the subcontractors when to come
• Telling the subcontractors how much to do on each visit
• Making sure that the work, which must be completed by one contractor before another is able to do his work, is actually completed
• Overseeing the quality of the subcontractors' work
• Making sure that any warranty problems that occur after the job is done and after each subcontractor is paid are taken care of with no cost or problem to you, the Customer.

An advantage of using a licensed General Contractor is that he will be able to call upon a number of subcontractors to obtain competitive bids for these tasks. He will also be better able to get them to perform in a timely fashion, which is no small task in the building trades. The reason he can command a fair price and a timely response from his subcontractors is that they depend on the work he provides them. Another significant advantage to using an experienced General Contractor is that he is likely to know which subcontractors to avoid because they have a history of poor workmanship, unreliability, and unethical pricing tendencies, such as taking advantage of Customers with "bait-and-switching" and "low balling" tactics. A General Contractor also is likely to have the necessary insurance to protect against something going wrong, such as someone getting seriously hurt on the job. This is important, since it limits your liability.