I've never served as a general contractor for an entire build, but I have for a couple extensive renovations.

The biggest difference I can determine is that it takes a LOT longer, because a contractor may be able to coordinate subs very well and in between your job and another so something's always happening. When I am scheduling my own subs, I can never get them lined up one right after the other and there are gaps in time.

I had a bathroom done by a contractor who specialized in bathroom renos in 1-bathroom houses. He had multiple crews in and out every day because he had several baths going on at once. The bathroom was complete in 8 days and we were without a toilet for a little over a day. A typical bath may take a couple weeks with a general contractor. I did one from the ground up in a basement that took months to get 90% complete and a year after it was started it's still not 100% complete.

Palimpsest - You bring up a great point! I am finding the same is true. It seems to be harder to get good quality subs when you need them because they're already busy working for contractors.

A homeowner can never get the leverage over subs that a successful general contractor has.

Not sure I can be of much help, as we're just framing right now, but yeah, it's a bit of a migraine. Just stay on top of things, we have a budget and rough timeframe that we're constantly keeping updated.

Just to clarify, we are serving as our own contractors for a lot of reasons.

We have had the land cleared (was wooded), driveway put in, house site/ground prepped, and the foundation work is scheduled to begin Monday!

Kris_21 - I couldn't agree more, and we haven't made it to framing yet...hope to start that on October 6th.

This is my job, for the time-being, as I've been unable to work due to health issues, so I have the time. And like you, I'm constantly updating our budget and timeline. It seems to change every day, so I have a love/hate relationship with all of my spreadsheets.

Yup, tons of spreadsheets. And, agreed, it's a long story how we ended up being the GC, but in fairness, we have an ex-GC who's helped out a lot. (And my husband handles more than I do, so how he's not completely stressed out I have no idea)

The framing has gone pretty quick, that's helping things. Finally getting a visual on what we're ending up with.

We are acting as our own GC, and I'll second what Pal said about taking longer, we haven't had to wait on subs that often, but it has happened. My husband works full time and travels frequently, I do not, so the majority of the GCing has been on me. I think the biggest thing for me is the amount of research I've had to do, you have to make sure you know the right questions to ask, have a baseline of what's expected from that sub. What you want for the end product, ect. Lots of spreadsheets, lists, and you have to be prepared to make decisions immediately- your'e the one in charge.

That said, everything is going very smoothly for us, (so far.) We hired all great subs. We're also doing a lot of the finishing work ourselves, so it is dragging on, but it's because of us, not the subs.

I hope you've done your homework. First off, you HAVE to know what GC pricing compared to consumer pricing from the subs. HUGE diff!!!!! It's 40--50% diff!!!

Bovine scatology.

Builders these days can't get many items as cheap as consumers who make it a full time 10 hour a day job to scour the internet. But they do have relationships with local and reliable supply houses that understand that time is money on a build. If the HO understood that as well, they'd put a dollar value on the bargain hunting and then realize the value of local and relible, even if it came at a higher up front cost.

If a trade gives a homeowner a bid 50% higher than a builder, it's gonna be due to the PIA factor of dealing with someone who won't be able to keep to the initial schedule or have the site actually ready for them when they show up. They don't know what they don't know, and the sub has to do more than he bid for in order to complete the job he did bid for. That's a lot different than ''builders get 50% discounts''. Owner builders who are organized, actually understand the process, and are not condescending know it alls will get similar GC pricing, just not GC priority scheduling.

We are about to contract our build so I don't have advice yet, but I'm sort of nervous. We have a GC, an electrician, a plumber, and a carpenter in the family though. It's very common around here for people to contract their own home. We've done MONTHS of research, getting bids, spreadsheets, etc. It's been a slow process, but we are finally getting ready to start. We expect it to take longer for sure, but we know that going into it. One thing I was pleasantly surprised about was that some of the local shops have offered us contractor's pricing if we buy bulk orders from them (plumbing fixtures and lighting fixtures). Our selected plumbing fixtures ended up being cheaper through the local place than if I shopped individually for them online, even with sales. We also get contractor's pricing on building materials from the place we've selected to get those from.

It is no doubt going to be a TON of work and we haven't started framing yet so I'm sure I'll be wishing we had hired a builder in another month or so. I don't work and we live about 10 minutes away from the site of our new build so we can be there every day, which I think helps.

As far as pricing materials, a lot of places will give you a builders discount if you let them know that you are serving as your own GC, just ask. Our framer (who is a GC) offered to call his guy and price shingles for me, and turns out my quote was better than his, not by much, but it was cheaper.

And of course, scouring the internet for sales. Like I said, time of research on everything has biggest thing for me. I would do it again, but hope to never have to!

There is really only one reason I have been acting as the GC on my own projects and that is because I want complete control over certain outcomes of the project.

I am designing the project and one of the things I am doing in at least two of the bathrooms is coving all the horizontal and vertical corners which means the dimensions of the bathrooms are going to be based primarily on the size of full tiles. This takes a lot of planning and in the best of scenarios still involves a lot of tweaking during the build. In the first bath we had to take down some cement board and shim behind it to end up with a full tile rather than full tiles + a sliver. This takes a framer and a tile setter you can interact with a Lot.

It's actually more expensive than working with a typical GC on a bathroom job because a typical GC wouldn't even DO the above, in my experience. They wouldn't take the job when you told them what you wanted to do.

I am sure I *could* find a GC that would do exactly above, because I've seen work like this. But I couldn't afford GCs that would typically do projects like this. I am using subs from a GC who will do projects almost like this but I can't afford the $80+ an hour per person on the job + the materials markups they charge. And the project manager is usually breathing down the neck of the guys doing the work to do it faster. I am also using electricians and plumbers that this GC used to use but their fees cut too much into the GCs profits and they no longer use them

So I am saving a little money over the typical high-priced contractor who would execute what I want, and paying a Lot in the extra time it takes. But I am spending more than I would for a GC that would do the typical okay bath renovation.

Thank you for all the replies so far! I have been purchasing things like fixtures, tubs, flooring, etc for over a year. I've kept up with what I've spent versus what it would've cost us if we'd bought it retail, and so far, I've been able to save over 50%. The majority of those things have been purchased online.

Interestingly enough, the quote for our framing materials that I got from one of our local lumber yards is less than the quote our sub got.

I did what Sweet-tea suggested and told them I'm serving as my own GC, and then got quotes from three different places, compared them and negotiated from there.

It definitely takes a lot of time and a lot of spreadsheets, but since I've been unable to work the past year due to health issues, this has been my job.

Hs....unfortunately......subs 'assume' that from O/B and auto quote consumer pricing.

I think you've gotten sound advice from the folks here, this site was a real help at times while we built our own house. Here's what I'd add:

1. Remember that you're in charge of the house build holistically... something I haven't seen from GCs building in our area. You understand what the exterior and each room is supposed to look like, and you know how each piece fits together... example: our deck framer kept crying that I was overbuilding the deck (2x10 12"OC joists, 12' span). What he didn't listen to, was that we waterproofed and tiled over that framing... and it needed to be rigid for that.

2. Research ahead of the subs before they show up, I knew how large our return air ducts needed to be when I did the walkthru... so he was caught off guard when I told him where and how big they should be, and that was how it was going to be done.

3. Don't be afraid to cut bait with contractors and call someone new.

Brian

"... when I told him where and how big they should be, and that was how it was going to be done."

It may be your house, but it's my job. It will be done the way I want it done or I won't do it. I take suggestions from homeowners, but never, ever, demands.

Starting to tell subs how to do their job is an excellent way to have them quit. Such is the luxury of self employment.

I think there has to be an interaction though. When I redid the HVAC in my house I did not want the typical boxed out chases and soffits typical in my area of row houses. If someone said "That's the only way I will do it" I didn't hire them. I hired someone who worked with the existing design of the house and we ended up with one necessary chase that will need to be boxed out and the rest is hidden. They were more expensive but we were able to work together to achieve the result I wanted. I knew it wasn't impossible as a design professional. On the other hand I did not tell them how many ducts or sizes to run.

So I have to disagree somewhat Trebuchet. If you don't tell some subs how you want things done, they may do it whatever way they feel like it which may be far from the best way. You sound like a consciencious contractor and one who thinks about things, but you are giving these attributes to all subs and not all subs have these attributes.

We were our own GC on a recent new build. Every thing went well for us as I have a lot of family in the business and got a ton of great advice. The only thing that I would point out is that there is a lot of clean up, adjusting/fixing things that a GC would normally do. That now falls on you as the GC, not a big deal but something to know.