Role of General Contractor in building mechanical systems

A general contractor, or prime contractor in some areas, is the person or company in charge of organizing and carrying out projects such as new residence building, large construction operations, renovation, demolition, building, reinstatement and more. In most states, General Contractor's must be licensed, certified, and ensured.

For example, a General Contractor would be called upon when an owner or developer of land drafts a project plan and choose a site. Sometimes, an architect will gather a design team which would then influence the task of the general contractor. In many cases they also contribute in the design process by supplying their own design services in addition to pre-design services, where they help in exactly estimating the budget and help to progress the cost efficiency of the operation.

After the initial stages of a project, the general contractor employs subcontractors with unstable specialties to contribute to part of the project. This may contain subcontractors providing electrical, plumbing, mechanical, environmental services, and more. Most important reflection for contractors everywhere is bidding. To obtain projects, General Contractor's go through a range of bidding processes.

General Contractors: Bidding
Bidding is a process recognized to almost all General Contractor's. Whether it's a general contractor in Utah or a General Contractor anywhere else in the world - the bidding process involves competitively submitting proposals to direct a construction project for either a set price or a share of profit. Typically, the price submitted by the competing general contractors is based on a bill of quantities, which is a list of materials and or services provided by the General Contractors. This list outlines as exactly as possible a practical cost per item. Often, the competing contractors must give as much detail as possible - signifying a realistic price.

While the bidding process is highly dependent on price, many times price is only one small factor. Often, general contractors will submit a lower price to safe the bid when in actuality that lower price is infeasible, resulting in the project running over budget.

Design-Bid-Build Bidding
Another common bidding process is the design-bid-build method, where an owner selects an architect who releases construction documents to a set of general contractors, who then bid on the project. In the competitive bidding process, they suggest what they believe the cost of the project will be in total, with costs such as materials and the contractor's fee included.

Design-Build
Another common bidding process is design-build bidding. With this method, the design and construction detailed are handled by a single business - the design-build contractor, which is usually the general contractor or even the architect. With this system, project risk is minimized for an owner or real estate developer and the delivery schedule is shorted by combining the design and construction phases of the project.