I would not be surprised to hear that you’re thinking of being your own general contractor because you think you can do as good a job as an experienced contractor and that you’ll save money too.

WHY DO IT YOURSELF?

If you’re about to begin work that requires only two or three different kinds of tradesmen, an electrician, a carpenter and a painter -– maybe you’re building shelves and adding a lighted workbench in your garage, for example – you can probably do a good job either of doing it yourself or of coordinating the professional tradesmen, but what will you do if one of them gets hurt on the job? Do you carry worker’s compensation insurance? And what if you find a deficiency in their work after they’re paid in full and have left your property? Will you have to pay twice to get the same work done again, because they haven’t given you a warranty?

WHY NOT DO IT YOURSELF?

I’m going to try to discourage you from doing the work yourself and from trying to be your own general contractor. I’ve observed that either of these choices will cost you more, take much longer to finish, will not look very good when they’re done, and may cause some pretty big arguments among family members along the way. Here are some reasons why being your own contractor won’t work:

• You won’t save any money on materials. The professional GC buys at a discount, and then tacks on his overhead and profit margins, so the cost to you is the same as if you buy those materials retail. But if you buy the stuff, you have to go get it and haul it back. The tradesman won’t warranty the installation of any materials you purchase for him, and how large is your vehicle?
  
  
• You will not have to pay his labor costs, but there are several things to consider here:

1. Does your time have value to you?
2. How many weekends are you willing to work before you’ll start taking breaks?
3. What happens to the rest of your life while you’re spending every weekend working on your house?

Someone recently told me that remodeling a home is the second leading cause of divorce in the US. Doing the work yourself will stretch this project out by months, if now by years. Does this make any sense to you?

• He has experience, skills and tools that you don’t have.
  
  
• You only have two unskilled hands; he’s got an experienced team.
  
  
• The work you do won’t be as polished as the work of a seasoned professional, and there will be details you’ll overlook that may require you do certain tasks twice or three times to get them right.
  
  
• You’ll have a hard time getting the subs to come when you call because you are a one-job wonder. If they’re good, they are working pretty regularly for professional general contractors where they can build a relationship and count on future work. They’ll get to you when they feel like it. If they’re not good, they’re available to work with you whenever you call, but who wants them?
  
  
• The risk of miscommunicating your requirements is pretty high because you’ve never run a job, and you’ve never worked with these particular subs before either. So you can plan on having to correct mistakes along the way, and on arguing over who should pay for that too.
  
  
• You won’t know how to coordinate the work on the site, so there’s a good chance that the subs will have to spend extra time coming and going. They’ll bump up their initial cost estimates, or insist on working on a "time and materials" basis, to cover these additional risks, and either way that will cost you more than hiring a good general contractor would.
  
  
• You don’t want to be in a position of insuring subcontractors’ work when they may not have adequate (or any) insurance.
  
  
• Since you’re the general contractor you won’t have any warranty to fall back on after the subs have been paid
  
  
• If your work looks like a do-it-yourselfer did it you may actually reduce the value of your home rather than increase it.
  
  
• And lastly, if you’re working on a rental property, all the extra time it will take you finish the project will mean you’re losing rents.

The first time you do anything, you don’t get it right. It takes years of experience to make the perfect cup of coffee every time. How much experience do you think it would require to hang overhead cabinets in the kitchen, or to install a new hot water heater, or to patch a leak in the roof at the bottom of a chimney?

Your best option is to engage a general contractor with integrity, good references, and years of experience doing projects just like yours. It will definitely save you money and time, and it may also save your sanity and your marriage. Honest!

MORE INFORMATION

You’ll find lots more information about the home remodeling process in Managing a Renovation: Staying in Charge and Out of Trouble, our friendly and comprehensive homeowner’s guide to remodeling project management. Download the table of contents and a sample chapter, or go to the order form to purchase it.

We offer ready-to-use construction forms, including a complete remodeling contract, in our Bookstore, as well. Have a look.

And, you may want to look at our list of More Resources for some great design ideas.

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