Just hire a general contractor and get it done right

Have you have ever hired a trade like a painter to work at your home and when they were working there you asked them the question “do you know anyone that can install some trim?” There answer if they are a respectable painting contractor should be “actually I know a contractor that can help you with that and they also would be able to help you with some of the other things that I have noticed you need fixed around your home.”

If the answer you get is “sure we can take care of that for you, anything else you want us to do?” then you should start to worry. I true professional painting contractor does not go out of his area of expertise. They do not start renovating bathrooms and putting up trim or fixing wiring or laying hardwood floors. They will have trusted contacts that they deal with all the time and will let them handle it because it’s what they do. In return they will expect that the next time the other contractor is working at someone’s house and needs some painting done they wouldn’t do it themselves they would call the painting contractor.

The reason that all of this works so well is that every trade is able to help every other trade with job leads. The homeowner wins as well as they get the job done by a professional instead of someone that thinks they know what they are doing.

If you pay a cabinet marker to rewire a couple plugs in your kitchen while he’s working on your cabinets and then they burn out later then you GOT WHAT YOU PAYED FOR! You saved a little bit of time and money by having it done by a cabinet marker and now you get to call a licensed electrician to come out and replace your plugs and probably the breaker. Now you have paid for the plugs twice. Hopefully there is no damage done to appliances or electrical fires.

What people don’t understand is that today’s modern houses are extremely complicated. This is one reason why there are so many speciality trades in the residential construction industry. It is also the reason why General Contractors are so important today.

General Contractors don’t employee every trade; they usually employ carpenters to do most of the wood work. The rest of the time the general contractor is organizing sub-trades to do all the electrical, plumbing, H-vac, concrete, communication systems and half a dozen other things. They don’t just organize them they instruct them on what has to be done, where it needs to be done, what it should look like when it is done and what other sub-trades they are going to have to work with to achieve this.

If you simply trust a sub-trade to do a job that isn’t in their range of normal work then you are asking for a lot of trouble and you could end up spending a lot more money than you think. Don’t just let anyone work on the important parts of your home just because their conveniently already there.

Remember you hired that painter because they were good at what they do, painting! So don’t make the mistake thinking that they can do everything else just as good. Hire a professional for every part of your house or make it easier on everyone involved and get a general contractor to do it for you.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.