General Contracting

General Contracting is a delivery system in which the owner first hires a designer. All planning and designs are performed. Once a complete set of documents are ready, the project is put out to “bid.” Typically several contractors will submit a price to construct the project based on these documents. Usually the low bidder is selected and hired directly by the owner to construct the project, although this is not always the case. This scenario assumes that all bids are equal. Sometimes after the bid analysis a different contractor is selected. This may be due to many different items such as clarifications to the bid or other items such as qualifications or schedule. In either scenario the owner is making what they feel is the best choice for the project and such a large investment.