General Contractor Responsibilities Expert

A general contractor's responsibilities are defined first by its contract and then by applicable regulations and recognized practice. They typically include coordinating subcontractors, supervising the work, checking quality, managing changes and keeping project records. Paul Gaston, a licensed general contractor, explains which responsibilities applied and how the contractor carried them out.

Owner, General Contractor and Subcontractor

Responsibility on a construction project is divided among the parties by contract. The general allocation on a typical design-bid-build project looks like this, but the actual contracts control:

Responsibility	Owner	General contractor	Subcontractor
Design and drawings	Through its design professionals	Reviews for constructability, reports issues	Builds to approved drawings
Means and methods	Generally not	Responsible for overall work	Responsible for its own scope
Coordination of trades	No	Yes	Cooperates with schedule
Supervision on site	No	Superintendent	Foreman for its crew
Quality of installed work	Observes, may inspect	Responsible to owner	Responsible to general contractor
Project records	Retains contract records	Daily reports, logs, submittals	Its own reports and submittals

Design-build, construction management and owner-direct arrangements shift these lines, and Paul reads the contracts before assuming any allocation.

Coordination

Coordination means sequencing the trades so each can do its work properly and none damages another's. It includes scheduling, resolving conflicts between trades, managing access and protecting completed work. Many workmanship problems trace back to coordination failures, such as finishes installed before substrates were ready or trades stacked into the same area. The subcontractor coordination page discusses this in detail.

Oversight

Oversight is the general contractor's ongoing attention to whether the work is being performed according to the documents. It is carried out mainly by the superintendent and through quality control practices such as inspections before work is covered. The level of oversight expected depends on the contract and the project. Paul evaluates what oversight was in place, whether it was used, and what it found. See construction supervision.

A small crew in hard hats standing inside a large steel frame building beside a mobile crane

Documentation

A general contractor is expected to keep records that show what happened on the project: daily reports, meeting minutes, submittal and RFI logs, change orders, inspection records and photographs. Those records are often the best evidence of whether the contractor met its responsibilities, and gaps in them can be significant. See contractor documentation for the records Paul reviews.

Means and Methods

Most construction contracts make the general contractor responsible for construction means, methods, techniques, sequences and procedures, while the owner's design team is responsible for the design. Disputes often arise where those responsibilities meet, for example where a design detail is difficult to build or a field condition differs from the drawings. Paul evaluates whether the contractor recognized such issues and raised them appropriately, through RFIs or notices, and leaves design adequacy to design professionals.

Common Questions

What are a general contractor's main responsibilities?

Typically coordinating subcontractors, supervising the work, checking quality, managing changes, maintaining safety programs and keeping project records, as defined by the contract.

Is the general contractor responsible for the design?

Not on a traditional project. The design is usually the owner's design professionals' responsibility. The contractor is generally responsible for means and methods and for raising constructability issues.

Does the delivery method change responsibilities?

Yes. Design-build, construction management and owner-direct arrangements allocate responsibilities differently, which is why Paul reads the contracts first.

Is the general contractor responsible for subcontractor work?

Typically the general contractor is responsible to the owner for the work, and the subcontractor is responsible to the general contractor, but the contracts control.