General Contractor Questions
 

Have a few questions regarding general contractors.

I'm looking at 2 future projects and would like to do the general contracting myself. I'm in the trades, so I do have some experience with the type of work being done etc.

Projects
1) Building my own house, demo old and rebuild from scratch
2) Taking the general contractor role for a reno in a commercial suite. Relatively small size store; work scope will include additional electrical, plumbing, carp/finsihing work



- What is the exact role of a general contractor?
(As for as I know. They are responsible for keeping sub-contractors on time and getting the project lined up. Pulling permits as needed)

- Do you need a licence to pull certain permits or can anyone pull them?
(I know for electrical + plumbing, they will need to pull their permit. Is there any permits a general is supppose to pull?)
- Is there specific licences ill need for?
- Any crash courses?
- Insurance matters or is it up to my sub-contractors (plumbers/carps/etc) to have insurance?


What are your thoughts regarding this + tips

had a client (father (saw mill worker during day), son (physio therapist by day) duo) subdivide a lot and build 6 homes.
- they coordinated all the trades through subcontract and made the payments
- they hired all the architects/p.engs and paid them
- they carried insurance for property, didn't see any liability ins (presuming sub cons carried it)
- they did the books themselves and maintained the corporation

based on this, seems general contractor is another term for project manager.

for what its worth, clients were brown - so i'm guessing they found the cheapest way possible to do this...

The biggest way you will save the most money is managing as many aspects of the work as possibly yourself. To me it’s kind of an all or nothing gig because it’s hard to coordinate between two separate parties ie. you have your own plumber but the GC uses his electrician (which honestly most GC’s probably wouldn’t go for anyways)

Electrical I’m not 100% on the details but with electrical work it’s one trade where as an owner/builder you can essentially pull a permit yourself and do the work yourself, however, a liscenced electrician must sign off on your work (assuming all the liability potentially)

I was a superintendent for 4 years building townhomes and even with tenders and contracts it’s still a tonne of work managing people. I’d be relatively confident in building my own home now and starting from scratch but I guarantee you it would be the most stressful building process I’d have gone through, as it seems most things are when it concerns your own lol.

Building in Vancouver takes forever in terms of permits and inspections so keep that in mind other municipalities aren’t as bad