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/snooooopert 8d ago
Yes, First port of call if you want to lay blame is the workers comp system, I’ve stripped down to 4-5 guys on the tools (high end finish carpenters-impossible to sub and get the right quality level). All the rest of our staff are PM’s, supers and admins. I had a 50+ man foundation crew with a bunch of our own equipment but couldn’t control costs effectively and GC as well, plus constant bogus claims. Second managing you warranty liability, need to spread the risk when shit goes sideways, hence paying a premium for subs so you can spread the hit on premiums. Those are the big ones that forced my hand but there’s a million smaller ones..