A Place for Baby

When you are considering updating or adding on to your existing home, it is critical that the work is done correctly. The homeowner often does simple renovations, but if you are dealing with gutting the kitchen and redoing it, or adding a room to your home, hiring a general contractor can make the job far more manageable.

Home Renovations

While there are some things you can do in your home to renovate it, when you get into a project that is going to involve removing or relocating walls, plumbing changes, and electrical work, hiring a general contractor to organize the job and line up the right tradespeople to do the work is best.

A renovation that involves that much work often requires pulling building permits and having the work inspected after it is complete. The general contractor you are working with will ensure the right people are on-site to do the work and that the proper permits are in place, so the work is being done legally. 

When the renovation turns into a larger project, and more rooms are involved, the contractor will need to bring additional resources and people to the job site, so it is essential that you hire a GC (general contractor) that can draw on local resources and subcontractors to get the work completed quickly and correctly. Some contractors and their crew will do most of the work themselves, and others will sub out most of the work and only handle building and construction work.

Working With The Contractor

Hiring a general contractor for your renovation allows you to work directly with the GC throughout the project. Being able to ask your contractor questions is the best way to ensure that you understand why things are being done a specific way, and it also allows you to have the contractor make a change before the work is complete. 

When it is nearing completion, changes in the project can be more costly because the changes may cause damage to things that are already complete. Discussing any concerns you have before the work starts is best and will help keep changes to a minimum. 

Set up a meeting with the contractor as soon as your plans are complete and go over them together. The contractor may also bring up some concerns with the design based on years of experience, and identifying these issues allows you to take the plans back to your architect for changes. If you include the general contractor in this process, they can point out the area of concern and discuss other options with the architect before any work begins.