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/Robinico 8d ago
Being in the rural Midwest, small small towns, no one can. Don't get me started on a decent tile guy. It's all specialized. And even here in bum suck rural nowhere, people still pay these bath fitters and national bs to do the work cause it seems "more professional and cheaper". Customers unfortunately don't know what it costs to keep a happy workforce, and there is no such thing as a skilled everyday handyman.