While hiring a handyman who works in your area might be suitable for minor home improvement projects, such as putting up shelves or changing a light fitting, for larger projects that require different types of expertise, a general contractor’s help is a must.
Here are 4 reasons to hire a general contractor and not a handyman for most home improvements:
- To protect your investment
Many home improvement projects can be costly, and even smaller ones can take up a chunk of your savings; protecting your investment becomes essential, and the best way to do this is by ensuring that all of the work is carried out by qualified and experienced contractors.
When you hire a general contractor, they will have a team of subcontractors ready to provide their expertise and skill for every stage of the project. This reduces the risk of costly mistakes being made, protecting your investment.
2. To reduce the risk of financial liability
The majority of handymen who work for themselves, are not required to have insurance, and should they or anyone they hire to help with the project, injure themselves on your property, you could be held financially liable. With a general contractor, on the other hand, accidents and injuries are covered by their license and insurance, meaning you never have to worry about being held liable financially.
3. To ensure a high standard of work
While a handyman may be able to carry out smaller home improvement projects successfully, the minute they’re asked to do something beyond their skillset, the chances of the work not being carried out to a high enough standard, increases significantly. Not only are general contractors overseers for all of their subcontractors, but they themselves are often overseen by a project manager, too, leaving little room for mistakes that could prove costly further down the line, and guaranteeing the quality of work throughout the entire project.
4. To gain project continuity
Even if your handyman accepts that they don’t have the training, skill, or equipment to complete every part of the project, and they go on to hire the relevant tradesperson (or multiple tradespeople) to help them, this can add time to the duration of the project, and ultimately, money. When a project’s timeline becomes threatened, not only does it mean that you’ll have to wait longer for the work to be completed (which can be extremely inconvenient depending on the scale of the project and whether or not you remain in the home while work is ongoing), but as the old adage: time is money, states so clearly, delays could end up costing you dearly and bump up the project’s overall cost. From having to pay for more nights in a hotel, to paying extra for contractors to be available at a moment’s notice, without a general contractor to ensure the smooth running of the project, it could end up costing you additional time and money that you hadn’t planned for.
For a smoother project that runs to a stricter and tighter timeline in which each aspect of the project can be tackled in the right order, hiring a general contractor is the only solution.
For any home or business renovation project that requires the skill and expertise of more than one type of trades person (such as an electrician or a plumber), hiring a general contractor and not a handyman, is the most convenient and cost-effective solution.