Case Study 2: Owner’s Contractor
- What risks has the owner assumed? The owner would be right when it comes to saving money on this project by not using a General Contractor (GC). However, there are pros and cons to his decision.
Pros:
Sub-contractors are independent business people he would save money because he doesn’t have to provide insurance for them or pay employment taxes for them. Depending on the owner’s jurisdiction and scope of the project it is also possible for him to save money by being his owner General Contractor, this also depends on the local law.
Cons:
Some of the cons of not having a General Contractor are. They know the codes, permits that need to be pulled and the process to get the job done as efficiently as possible. GC also understands which components need to be completed and when how to schedule their sub-contractors accordingly.
General contractors can likely get better prices on materials and labor, they already have good relationships with sub-contractors so they’re guaranteed to get better prices on materials and also saving the owner money in the long run; but most importantly a GC work is also warranty for a certain amount of years and also the liability is transferred to the general contractor and not the owner if someone gets hurt on site ( Workers Comp)
- What risks are the designers and contractors assuming through this system? Well as for the designers they would be facing inconsistency, the possibility of poor quality of work and design might be at risk at not being atheistically pleasing. As for contractors, the workflow might be conflicting because of time management and no lack of coordination from higher supervision.
