# What is the difference between a General Contractor and a Prime Contractor?



## sweet3 (Aug 20, 2017)

Title says all.


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## CApainter (Jun 29, 2007)

A quick search identifies a prime contractor as the chief contractor who is responsible for the project. He or she can hire a general contractor.

A prime contractor is typically in charge of large projects with multiple phases that may incorporate different GC's and subs.


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## Brushman4 (Oct 18, 2014)

In other words, another layer of B.S. to wade through, put on your hip boots!


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## Wildbill7145 (Apr 30, 2014)

Brushman4 said:


> In other words, another layer of B.S. to wade through, put on your hip boots!


Huh?


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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

The “Prime” contractor promises to get every job done in two days?


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## CApainter (Jun 29, 2007)

Brushman4 said:


> In other words, another layer of B.S. to wade through, put on your hip boots!


I thought the whole idea of contract law, and those who apply it, namely contractors, was to clarify specifics that could become BS if it weren't laid out in a contract.

And if that means having a prime contractor that can organize the scope of work on a large project, I say the better for everyone. Too many so called contractors fly by the seat of their pants as it is.


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## ThreeSistersPainting (Jan 7, 2017)

Prime contractors make them sound like they may be out of a transformer movie...

I know here in Bend Oregon we see more Construction Management Companies who have Managers that work with the homeowners. A great example of this would be Hayden Homes here in the NW. Customer hires Hayden to build a house, a construction manager is assigned to coordinate all subs to complete the job. Any work questions the sub may have goes directly to the CM for that project. The CM manages work place safety, time management, cost management, quality assurance, etc. 

You can actually get a degree in Construction Engineering Management


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## Brushman4 (Oct 18, 2014)

Wildbill7145 said:


> Huh?


Maybe you've never had the chance to work on huge commercial projects with some of the largest general contractors and developers. The main thing you'd be missing out on is the aggravation caused by too many layers of management. Things like having to go through 3 or 4 supers to coordinate having the rock/taping sub go through a completed section before you (the painter) to punch the area out only to find that a few days later they repaired drywall after sections you had the punch list completed.
We didn't just go punch out an area willy nilly, we were directed to by the gc, as the old adage goes, "too many cooks spoil the broth".


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## slinger58 (Feb 11, 2013)

I always thought "prime contractor " was just another term for general contractor.

But I'm with Brushman, between GCs, architects and designers, there's already enough cooks in the kitchen.


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## CApainter (Jun 29, 2007)

Brushman4 said:


> Maybe you've never had the chance to work on huge commercial projects with some of the largest general contractors and developers. The main thing you'd be missing out on is the aggravation caused by too many layers of management. Things like having to go through 3 or 4 supers to coordinate having the rock/taping sub go through a completed section before you (the painter) to punch the area out only to find that a few days later they repaired drywall after sections you had the punch list completed.
> We didn't just go punch out an area willy nilly, we were directed to by the gc, as the old adage goes, "too many cooks spoil the broth".


Are you sure it wasn't the responsibility of your direct superior to coordinate that correctly? Your example still doesn't merit the elimination of control by a prime contractor, if one even existed in your example.


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## Brushman4 (Oct 18, 2014)

CApainter said:


> I thought the whole idea of contract law, and those who apply it, namely contractors, was to clarify specifics that could become BS if it weren't laid out in a contract.
> 
> And if that means having a prime contractor that can organize the scope of work on a large project, I say the better for everyone. Too many so called contractors fly by the seat of their pants as it is.


Say what? Translate?


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## CApainter (Jun 29, 2007)

Brushman4 said:


> Say what? Translate?


You know that you're just encouraging me, right? lol!

Special Translation for Brushman4:



> I thought the whole idea of contract law, and those who apply it, namely contractors, was to clarify specifics that could become BS if it weren't laid out in a contract.


Contracts spare the contractor and homeowner from the BS that often arises when one party is trying to get over on the other. 



> And if that means having a prime contractor that can organize the scope of work on a large project, I say the better for everyone. Too many so called contractors fly by the seat of their pants as it is.


Sometimes it takes a real leader to direct all the wannabes towards a common goal.


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## slinger58 (Feb 11, 2013)

CApainter said:


> You know that you're just encouraging me, right? lol!




Go ahead and pontificate a little, CA.
It's Christmas!  


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## Brushman4 (Oct 18, 2014)

slinger58 said:


> Go ahead and pontificate a little, CA.
> It's Christmas!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


CA, the next Pope, lol.


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## slinger58 (Feb 11, 2013)

Brushman4 said:


> CA, the next Pope, lol.




Lol. Guess I should have gone with "elucidate ". 


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## CApainter (Jun 29, 2007)

Brushman4 said:


> CA, the next Pope, lol.


PT may not be the Vatican, but it'll do.


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## Brushman4 (Oct 18, 2014)

CApainter said:


> Are you sure it wasn't the responsibility of your direct superior to coordinate that correctly? Your example still doesn't merit the elimination of control by a prime contractor, if one even existed in your example.


This is the job that was the biggest PITA of all time for me, the former Ameritech Campus. http://www.chicagobusiness.com/real.../big-foreclosure-suit-hits-former-at-t-campus
The job was split between two giant GC's, we were working for Pepper Construction who had all the tenant work (build- outs), Then Turner Construction had all the base building (public areas).
Pepper had two big construction trailers that were loaded to the brim with superintendents and foremen. There was the head super along with 5 other supers, a carpenter foreman, and a laborer foreman.We had between 15 and 35 painters on this job every day for more than a year and a half.

This building was humongous, it was the equivalent of a 50 story plus office tower. Each section was 25,000 sq ft and I was tasked with running 3 two men crews doing the punch lists as each section was completed.Pepper had these things called Speed Memos that they would reel off from their trailer, one of the supers or the carpenter foreman would come up to me and say get these sections punched out by the end of the day on Friday. This would be Wednesday morning and I'd look at the memos and they would have 8 sections listed, no way in hell is this going to happen as that's 200,000 sq ft total.
The contractor who had the metal stud and rock, acoustic ceilings and the taping, hadn't even started punching out any of these sections and to make matters worse, the tapers were their sub and also a minority contractor and they wouldn't follow anyone's directive.

The funniest thing is early every morning you would see one of Peppers supers walking through the completed sections looking for sprinkler head leaks and he would say sprinkler leak Section 2.1, column line A, and would have the carpenter foreman repeating the same thing, while the laborer foreman repeated the same thing into the recorder. How many people does it take to identify a sprinkler head leak? It seems the answer is at least three!

There were so many layers of management (mismanagement) that it was like cutting through an onion. So this is what the big guy's get paid the big buck's to do. I call it micromanaging and overlooking the big picture, but hey, that's only MHO!


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## thinkpainting/nick (Dec 25, 2012)

Nothing they both don’t pay there subs 😆😆


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## CApainter (Jun 29, 2007)

I've been on several oil refinery shut downs that are similar to your story Brushman. 

I think GC's promise too much, then put all the pressure on their subs and laborers. Throw in un-necessary redundancy, and you've got the recipe for a cluster.


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## Brushman4 (Oct 18, 2014)

CApainter said:


> I've been on several oil refinery shut downs that are similar to your story Brushman.
> 
> I think GC's promise too much, then put all the pressure on their subs and laborers. Throw in un-necessary redundancy, and you've got the recipe for a cluster.


It was like they thought the more stacks of memos they spewed out were the key to making a project move forward.


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## CApainter (Jun 29, 2007)

Brushman4 said:


> It was like they thought the more stacks of memos they spewed out were the key to making a project move forward.


They have to justify their jobs with props. I see it all the time. They like making up things that don't even have to do with the original scope just to keep up the intensity and drama where none necessarily exists.


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## jennifertemple (Oct 30, 2011)

CApainter said:


> I thought the whole idea of contract law, and those who apply it, namely contractors, was to clarify specifics that could become BS if it weren't laid out in a contract.
> 
> And if that means having a prime contractor that can organize the scope of work on a large project, I say the better for everyone. Too many so called contractors fly by the seat of their pants as it is.


If, indeed, they are any good! A lot of big projects get into big trouble even with really big industry names.


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