General Contracting

What a general contractor is responsible for

On a remodel, a lot of different people touch the house. A carpenter frames a wall, a licensed electrician runs new circuits through it, a plumber moves a drain, an insulation crew fills the cavities, a drywall finisher closes it all up, and an inspector from the town looks at each stage before it disappears. Someone has to decide the order, make sure each of them shows up when the last one is done, and be the one the homeowner holds to account when something is wrong. That someone is the general contractor.

At Modern Remodeling that is the job we take on. We hold the building permit, we write the scope, we hire and schedule the licensed trades, and we answer for the finished result. You do not have to referee between an electrician who says the framing is in his way and a framer who says the electrician came too early. Those conversations happen between us and them, and you hear about them only when they affect you.

This page is about that role, the paperwork and the accountability that come with it. The carpentry our own crew does is covered on our General Construction page. Most projects need both, and on most of our jobs we do both.

The permit and the license behind it

In Massachusetts, structural work on one- and two-family homes is supervised under a Construction Supervisor License, and the building permit for that work is taken out by a licensed supervisor who is responsible for it. Steve Murphy holds an unrestricted Massachusetts Construction Supervisor License. When we pull a permit, it is under his name, and the building department knows exactly who to call.

That matters more than it sounds. The permit is the town's record of what is being built and who answers for it under the state building code, 780 CMR. Inspections are booked against it: typically rough framing, rough electrical and plumbing under the licensed trades' own permits, insulation, and a final. If a homeowner pulls the permit to save a step, the homeowner becomes the party the town holds responsible for the work. We would rather carry that, because it is ours to carry.

Steve has 20 years in the trade and has run his own company for six. He started Modern Remodeling after years of working for contractors who lacked communication, and the permit is one place where the difference shows. You will know when it is filed, when it is issued, and what each inspection found.

You can coordinate your own trades if you want to, but you take on the scheduling and every disagreement between trades.

Hiring and scheduling the licensed electrician and plumber

Massachusetts requires electrical work to be done by a licensed electrician and plumbing and gas work by a licensed plumber or gas fitter, each under their own permit. Nobody without the license does that work on our jobs. What we do is hire them, give them a clear scope drawn from the plans, and fit their visits into the schedule so the house is ready when they arrive.

Timing is most of the work here. An electrician who shows up before the walls are framed and blocked wastes a trip. A plumber who comes after the subfloor is down has to cut it back open. Each trade's rough inspection has to pass before insulation goes in, and insulation has to pass before drywall. We line those up in order, and when one slips, we move the next one rather than letting the job sit idle.

Older houses make this harder. When a wall opens in a 1920s colonial, it is common to find knob-and-tube wiring, undersized drain lines or a gas pipe nobody expected. The licensed trade tells us what the code requires, we tell you what it means for the scope and the price, and nothing changes until you have agreed to it in writing.

On a larger job there may be more licensed hands than those two, a heating contractor relocating ductwork, say, or an insulation installer. The arrangement is the same for each. They work to our scope, on our schedule, and we check their work before the next trade covers it.

One number to call, one name on the job

Owners who have been through a remodel before tend to tell the same story. They spent the project chasing people: calling the plumber to ask where the electrician was, calling the electrician to ask whether the inspector had come. On our jobs you have one number, (781) 974-4263, and one person who knows the answer. Usually that person is Steve.

Being the general contractor means we answer for work we did not personally do. If grout lines wander or a drain runs slow after the plumber has left, it is our problem, and we bring the right person back to fix it. The homeowner should never have to work out whose fault something is. One customer put it this way: "If its not right; Steve wont put his name on it!"

That accountability is the reason to hire a general contractor at all. You can coordinate your own trades if you want to, but you take on the scheduling and every disagreement between trades. Most of our clients would rather spend that time on the decisions that really are theirs, like the layout and the finishes.

Changes, hidden conditions and the paper trail

Every remodel turns up something. Water damage behind a shower that looked fine, or a joist somebody notched for a pipe forty years ago. When it happens, we stop, show you, and explain the options before anyone keeps going.

Changes are priced in writing before the work changes. That applies to surprises inside the walls and to changes you decide to make, like moving a window or upgrading a finish. You sign off, the scope is updated, and the trades are told. Nothing lands on a final bill that you did not see coming.

At the end you get the permit closed out with a passed final inspection and a clear record of what was built and what changed along the way, with the trades' sign-offs in it. That record is useful the next time you sell, insure or renovate the house, and handing it over is part of what a general contractor owes the owner.

See the rest of our construction work, or browse the gallery for rooms we have finished.