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Copyright © 2006 by
Bob Schwartz
San Diego
real estate broker
Certified
Residential Specialist
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Types of Contractors
A general contractor is the foremost contractor you have to hire for a foremost
renovation project. The general contractor though, has other subcontractors that
he oversees for the renovation of your home. The repair and maintenance
contractors you need are very different from the general contractor.
In general the General Contractor does not provide the labor to build the house.
The laborers come from the subcontractors or the trades. This may include
carpenters for roughens, excavators, flooring, painting, concrete sub, plumber,
electrician, roofer, and the finish carpenter. The general contractor hires the
subcontractors and holds their contracts. Holding the contract means that they
are working for him, they are under contract to him and he pays them directly.
When you hire a general contractor you only have a contract with him not all the
subs. The general contractor marks up the subcontractor's fee a certain
percentage of the construction amount.
For this fee the contractor does all the administration and scheduling of the
subs. He also pays, provides supervision of the construction, provides
dumpsters, port-a-john, insurance and other miscellaneous things involved in the
construction project. The contractors make money by charging for labor and by
marking up the materials. The general contractor is referred to the generalist
and the subs are the specialist. Whenever you need just a specific thing fixed
in your home you would always hire a specialist. A specialist would be for an
example a plumber or electrician. When hiring someone for maintenance task some
people just hire a guy with a magnet advertising on the side of his truck but in
reality he is not licensed at all. This could be people like gutter cleaners,
painters or lawn care. Usually using these types do work out but you must be
careful because you do not have the legal protection as with using a licensed
contractor. It's just better to use common sense and keep yourself protected by
going with someone who is licensed.
It's typically easy to tell the unlicensed contractors or scam artist or
possibly someone who is just trying to get in your home. Use wisdom and do your
homework to steer clear of the following pitfalls.
1. Unlicensed contractors often go door-to-door asserting that they "just
finished a job down the street and we're in the neighborhood and noticed your
roof needs patching."
2. They may hurry you and twist their words stating, "If you act now, you'll get
a special price."
3. Unlicensed contractors either "forget" to pull construction permits or they
ask you to do it for them. If you do this, you are assuming accountability for
the project as well as the contractor's mistakes.
4. Some states require contractors to list their license numbers on their
vehicles, their estimates and their advertising. If a contractor has not done
that, this is usually a bad sign.
5. If you see a license number in an ad, and it has a different number of
letters, numerals and digits than all the other licenses, this probably means it
is a bogus license number.
6. Be distrustful if a contractor provides only a PO box or cell number. That
may mean he does not have credibility in the community and could skip town when
people start to complain.
7. Unlicensed contractors often ask for a lot of money up front if not the whole
amount. Consider this a red flag and try not to pay any money in advance. If you
must, keep the amount to a minimum.
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