Author: wantony

The owner wants to save money for the project he/she wants to do by not hiring a GC, what are the pros and the cons, what risk has the owner assumed by making this decision?

• One of the problem that may happen if the owner wants to save money by not hiring a General Contract would be that the owner does not have the same experience that the GC. For example; a GC responsibilities include setting deadlines and budgets; coordinating with sub-contractor, including electrician, plumbers and in some of the cases interior designers; managing employees, obtaining appropriate building materials and services necessary for the construction. The owner doesn’t not have that kind of experiences and it would create a really bad situation by choosing the wrong materials/ high prices and, not doing the work efficiently.

One of the main problem in this case is communication, the project was bid lump sum at $50 M, but then there was a $1 M big error. The PM lost his project engineer and was not allowed to replace him with any experienced help. He did what was right trying to hire someone from outside and get the work done as soon as possible because he didn’t receive any supervision or support from the GC and the Architect.

The Architect didn’t do his job well, he didn’t supervise properly and the PM took most of the blame. At the end, trying to get the job done so cheap, fast and without a proper supervision can cause a lot of problems in the future.