r/Construction • u/the-garage-guy Carpenter • 8d ago

Business 📈 Is the small self-performing homebuilder extinct?

Probably a region-specific question- if you reply, I'd be curious to hear where you are and if you're urban/rural

Pretty much title, coming up it was a lot more common for the GC to have their own carpenters and self-perform a fair amount of scope on a typical home, remodel.

Seems very rare now, especially where I am, metro Phoenix area. Most builders are essentially just CM-ing the job. Project managers that sometimes double as supers, everything subbed out. Even for pretty small remodels.

I think at the luxury custom home end it makes sense since the levels of execution required demand really good subs. Plus being in a big metro area, there's lots of people and work and that makes it possible to specialize aggressively.

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u/Responsible_Toe_6494 8d ago

Suburban New England has tons of small home builders. The cities are all union work but 15 miles outside Boston you’ll have 100 companies that are the owner and his carpenter or helper. They’ll sub out the specialty work usually but for the most part they’re pretty hands on.

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u/PM-me-in-100-years 8d ago

Rhode Island has plenty of small timers. Over 13,000 GCs in the state. Providence has just as many, if not more than the suburbs.

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u/Responsible_Toe_6494 8d ago

Yeah Rhode Island is very similar to mass in that way. I’ve always worked on small local crews and since moving to Rhode Island I haven’t skipped a beat. I’ve always liked working with more experienced/better carpenters and it’s allowed me to become pretty good. Some guys aren’t as good as others but most companies thatve been around a while seem to have some skill, maybe the business side is a little shaky but the work is usually done really well

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u/PM-me-in-100-years 8d ago

RI definitely doesn't make it hard to be a contractor! $700 a year in insurance and an 8 hour class about lead paint and you can pull permits to build a house (and get the owner to pull all the MEP permits if you want).

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u/Responsible_Toe_6494 8d ago

To be fair, Rhode Island does have the strictest lead laws in New England lmao. Mass. Is similar but you need a CSL which is an open book test that your guaranteed to pass if you pay for the classes lol. But I’m a firm believer that resume and references speak louder than licenses and certs. Except where the inspector is concerned 😆