By definition, a contractor is employed to perform work or provide services under a contract. In the U.S., the most well-known type of contractor is a general contractor that deals with making a project from the smallest details to the bigger picture, according to https://www.homecarecontractors.com/contractor-seattle/. In America, over 36,000 licensed general contractors deal with home construction and repairs.
However, depending on the entity that requests the service, the category of a general contractor might split into two types: general contractors and prime contractors. Even if the terms are interchangeable, here are the descriptions of both of them to better understand the hierarchy of general contractors and when you will need them.
General Contractors
A “general contractor” is a company that the principal/owner hires to complete certain tasks. The fulfillment of any or all of the mentioned duties is then farmed out to subcontractors. There must be three parties involved in a general contractor relationship: a principal, an independent contractor, and a subcontractor employed by the independent contractor. When any element of the job is subcontracted to another firm, the independent contractor’s position shifts to that of a general contractor.
The primary responsibility of a general contractor is to find contracts and provide the required coordination and control to ensure that the project is completed on time and within budget.
This suggests they’ll be primarily concerned with the customer/owner and larger concerns. They will oversee the project on a daily basis, coordinate vendors and subcontractors, and serve as the project’s key point of communication.
One of the most valuable assets of a good general contractor is their network of reputable subcontractors. For the most part, many contractors used to manage every aspect of a project in-house, but as the construction business evolved, things changed.
A single contractor might have handled a wide range of jobs and overseen the whole project from beginning to end back then. Contractors are now more inclined to hire others to perform specialized work on their behalf. This is when our subcontractors come into play.
Prime Contractor
A prime contractor could be used as a synonym for “general contractor.” Virginia law defines a prime contractor as “a licensed contractor that performs, supervises, or manages the construction, removal, repair, or improvement of real property.” More specifically, the term prime contractor refers to a contractor who works directly with the government.
The phrase “primary contractor” refers to a contractor who does business directly with the government. Prime contractors, like general contractors, project manage licensed subcontractors and ensure that the work is done according to the contract’s specifications. They may also hire their own workers.
Prime contracting is an unhelpfully ambiguous phrase that spans a wide range of contracting procedures beyond this extremely broad meaning. On the one hand, it can refer to a type of design and build that includes a facility management component. On the other hand, it can refer to a long-term relationship between a client and a contractor to deliver a variety of new projects as well as maintain the new estate and, in some cases, the existing estate.
Even more unhelpfully, Primary contracting refers to a single-point-of-responsibility delivery contract in which the contractor is compensated for subcontractor charges and a fee for overhead and profit.
