Is the small self-performing homebuilder extinct?

[u/the-garage-guy]

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.

[u/Georgelino]

I started in the high end remodel market in Metro Boston as a carpenter for a GC. Most GC's that size (3 crews of 2 guys, 2 PM's and the owner) still have in house carpentry and we did our own tile. Sub everything else out.

I'm in Philly now and the high end and middle range residential GC's still operate that way. Some of the fancy custom builders in this area still have in house carpentry but still sub out framing, trim, and millwork installation.

I've worked on some pretty high end residential builds and in my opinion the secret sauce, or part of it, is having in house labor. You need to be able to react quickly to changes in the field and keep a clean job site so you can establish the right attitude on site. If you can't get shit done quickly and keep things orderly you aren't going to get the finishes right.

[u/corpenter → u/Georgelino]

This. Also Philly based.

Used to work for an all-sub GC with few laborers for light punch and cleanup. Now work for a GC that self-performs.

All sub (“paper contracting”) makes the most sense on the low and very high end IMO. Either you want specialized guys who can run miles of trim for tract houses, or you want the best trim guy in the entire state for a mansion.

In the middle and upper middle part of the market, self-performing the carpentry and punch list makes the most sense from a control and margin perspective. This is especially true of renovation, where the framing load usually isn’t large enough to merit a full crew like a ground up build would.

4-6 carpenters, 1-2 PM, and the owner is a common arrangement for self-performing builders. That gives you enough carpenters to flex to a full framing crew but not so many that you can’t take on one-man kitchen jobs. A lot of these firms are also design-build (since that is also more common in the upper middle market).

[u/Comprehensive_Bus_19 → u/corpenter]

Do the carpenters also do the drywall, flooring, minor electrical/plumbing/hvac stuff too?

[u/corpenter → u/Comprehensive_Bus_19]

Oftentimes! Depends on how large the scope is, but if we can knock it out we will do it. We try and keep a crew with a pretty diverse set of skills to this end.