What to look for in a general contractor?

Lorne Rose Architect works with general contractors all the time on home-building and renovation projects in Toronto and throughout Canada. In doing so, Lorne’s network of contractors has grown to be very substantial, as well as being eclectic: Lorne has gotten to know the various approaches, skill-sets, costs, and, in a word, characteristics of numerous contractors around Toronto. So, when you as a homeowner ask Lorne “What should I look for in a general contractor?”, his answer is going to be, “Well, it depends.” It depends on your personal priorities and preferences, as measured by the following variables: cost, quality, and timing.

Different contractors from Lorne’s extensive network are going to be better or worse fits for your project depending on which of these variables is most important to you. For this reason, it’s incumbent on any residential architect to work with you, the client, to determine what matters most to you at the start of the project. If you want to keep costs down, then Lorne will suggest a contractor who is more affordable; if you’re in a hurry, then Lorne would suggest another whom he knows is available to begin the job right away and complete it quickly.

Of course, everyone always says they want the best of all three variables—cost, quality, and timing—and that all three are equally important, which is why Lorne takes the time to dig deeper with the homeowner whose project he’s working on. With enough discussion and planning, Lorne is able to identify the homeowner’s genuine priorities. Some homeowners have budgetary restrictions; others have schedules that require them to move in quickly. Lorne will work with you to determine the contractor who is the best fit to work on your home building project.

There’s also the question of approach and temperament: there are some contractors who work out of the back of a truck and will hand the homeowner a stack of invoices to pay; then, there are others who have offices, staff, and exceptional reporting processes. On the one hand, you pay for a higher level of service; on the other, it makes your life remarkably easier during the project. As a homeowner at the beginning of a new residential architecture project, you almost certainly don’t want to wear the hats of bookkeeper, interior designer, renovator and so on—although, to be sure, there are some homeowners who do want to carefully manage the project and see where every penny is going. How much ownership of your project do you want to take on? How much do you want to hand off to a specialist? These are the kinds of questions that Lorne Rose will work with his clients to answer before undertaking a residential architecture project.

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