Subcontracting and costs

Annie1960

Does anyone know if I would pay more if I employ a building company that subcontracts work out, than employing all the various trades directly?

Any other pros or cons of subcontracting vs. going direct to the people who will be doing the work?

TBagpuss

I guess the advantage (particularly if the work you are doing will involve more than one trade) is that the head company will be responsible for coordinating the different tradespeople.

I would expect it to cost more as you are paying for someone else to coordinate and manage the job, also a larger firm is more likely than individuals to be above the VAT threshold, so it is more likely that you will have to pay VAT.

Annie1960

Yes, there's definitely VAT involved!

Cisco001

Is it complicated job?
Do you know how to managing the project?

Marktheshark

The biggest pit fall is interim payments, only a project manager really knows how to control what percentage of work gets paid what, brick and block work looks impressive yet is a fraction of the budget cost, the real costs starts at first and second fix .
Pay too much out in the initial building stage and they vanish leaving you with not enough cash for the expensive detailed work involved in finishing the project.

Cisco001

Marktheshark wrote: »

The biggest pit fall is interim payments, only a project manager really knows how to control what percentage of work gets paid what, brick and block work looks impressive yet is a fraction of the budget cost, the real costs starts at first and second fix .
Pay too much out in the initial building stage and they vanish leaving you with not enough cash for the expensive detailed work involved in finishing the project.

Not really.
You can ask for all inclusive fix quote from contractor. this could led to higher price, but all risk with contractor.

You just need to make sure the contractor fully understand the requirement and don't make any changes after accepting the quotation.

Regarding, how much to pay with interim, it would down to individual to make own assessment.

Annie1960

Cisco001 wrote: »

Is it complicated job?
Do you know how to managing the project?

Yes there are lots of different aspects.

The soil pipe from the bathroom runs down through the kitchen below. I wanted to replace the kitchen first, but now realise I need to replace the bathroom first to re-route the soil pipe before I can begin the kitchen. There are also gas pipes in the kitchen which have not been chased into the wall, both tanks in the loft need to be replaced, and I'm awaiting the results of asbestos tests for the artex that covers most of the house.

That's just for starters!

Annie1960

Cisco001 wrote: »

Not really.
You can ask for all inclusive fix quote from contractor. this could led to higher price, but all risk with contractor.

You just need to make sure the contractor fully understand the requirement and don't make any changes after accepting the quotation.

Regarding, how much to pay with interim, it would down to individual to make own assessment.

I'm not too worried about interim payments, it's the total cost I'm thinking of.

Does the main contractor add on a margin? For example, if they get an electrican/GasSafe engineer etc who charges, say £500, would the contractor add their own margin on top of this and pass on a higher cost to me?

Furts

Annie1960 wrote: »

I'm not too worried about interim payments, it's the total cost I'm thinking of.

Does the main contractor add on a margin? For example, if they get an electrican/GasSafe engineer etc who charges, say £500, would the contractor add their own margin on top of this and pass on a higher cost to me?

The main contractor will add a margin to all the sub contractors, to all the materials supplied and then an arbitrary profit on the total cost which will depend on market forces.

The cheapest way would be for you to Project Manage, you to buy all the materials at very keen prices, and you to engage all trades on a labour only basis. But this is beyond the capabilities of many, for valid and understandable reasons.

Many would recognise the limits to their time, the limits to their knowledge and the desire for a quiet life. Hence a main contractor is engaged.

System

the main contractor should give you a total price - you generally won't know what their markup on subcontractors labour rates are - unless you can be on the site and available a lot of the time I would go with a main contractor every time - the day to day scheduling of the subcontractors can be difficult to manage if you are inexperienced.
I have seen a lot of projects getting hit with time delays when self managed...

Furts

the_r_sole wrote: »

- the day to day scheduling of the subcontractors can be difficult to manage if you are inexperienced.
I have seen a lot of projects getting hit with time delays when self managed...

I second this. Grand Designs and all such programmes would have viewers believe that anyone can Project Manage and anyone can self build. It all looks so easy until one has a go.

Main Contractors have a profit in view and this drives them to utilise labour and sub contractors to work quickly in order to get the money in quickly.