In any construction project, there are always several people involved and working together. These people include customers, architects, general contractors, construction managers, and other specialized people. Among these people, a construction manager or a general contractor is the most important person in every large construction project. Although both of them have the same goal of bringing the project to the owner’s satisfaction, there are clear differences between them. In this article, we asked a Toronto construction company team to help us distinguish these differences.
A General Contractor
A general contractor is a person who takes the responsibility of constructing the building. They usually make a team of experienced people. There is usually a supervisor to control the whole project and an architect in their group who designs the building project. Then the general contractor reviews and assess this plan to help him/her have a comprehensive view of the total cost. The general contractor will give this estimated cost to the owner to consult about the project.
A supervisor is a person who is usually in the workplace to observe how is the whole project progressing. There are also other people, including workers, electricians, carpenters. They all work under the supervisor’s orders.
The general contractor usually makes a team that has worked with them before in previous projects. This is a good large point for him/her since they know how to work together when the team is familiar with each other. Besides, in this team, everyone knows his or her responsibility. They know how to coordinate to meet project expectations promptly and with the highest quality. When the general contractor works with a familiar team, s/he can almost certainly be sure of the team members’ loyalty to the project delivery.
There will not usually be any problem or fight between this team because everyone knows each other and usually works in a friendly environment.
A Construction Manager
It can be said that a construction manager is a top person at a construction company. There is a big difference between the general contractor and a construction manager. The first one, as mentioned previously, should present in the workplace all the time. But it is not the same for the manager. As the name replies, s/he is the manager. So, it is not necessary to be at the workplace all the time. The construction manager can be considered as a boss for the general contractor. Also, s/he sometimes work directly with the architect to have a comprehensive view of the project. A construction manager is a person who is responsible for everything related to the project. s/he enters the design phase to make sure that everything is progressing well and the project’s goals are met.
A construction manager generally works much closer to the owner than a general contractor. The general contractor reports to the construction manager about the project. So, there is usually no competitive bidding between them.
A construction manager is one response to the budget. So, s/he tries to find solutions to deliver the project with high quality and lower costs. S/ he tries to provide value engineering ideas that maximize cost savings for the owner.