General contractor is a manager, and possibly a tradesman, employed by the client on the advice of the architect, engineer or the architectural technologist or the client him/herself if acting as the manager. A general contractor is responsible for the overall coordination of a project. A general contractor must first assess the project-specific documents (referred to as bid, proposal or tender documents). In the case of renovations, a site visit is required to get a better understanding of the project. Depending on the project delivery method, the contractor will submit a fixed price proposal or bid, cost plus price or an estimate. The general contractor considers the cost of home office overhead, general conditions, materials and equipment as well as the cost of labor to provide the owner with a price for the project.
Contract documents include drawings, project manual (including general, supplementary and/or special conditions and specifications), addendum or modifications issued prior to proposal/ bidding and prepared by a design professional such as an architect. The general contractor may be the construction manager or construction manager at high risk.
There are no set educational qualifications to become a general contractor, though many employers prefer a bachelor's degree. Some general contractors obtain bachelor's degrees in construction science, building science, surveying, construction safety, or other disciplines.
Most of the construction professionals are aware about the poor performance of construction, yet we keep seeing projects fail and lose money. Despite all the innovations and all the project management methodologies that are being implemented, the industry is still far to be efficient. The true problem is that we are not mastering the basics due to the lack of trainings and mentorship.
The goal of this course, is to teach you the basics. The basics of commercial and contractual knowledge skills and knowledge that you were not exposed to, the basics that we thought they are not for engineers, the basics that should be mastered by anyone working in the construction sector.
My goal is to share all the experience, knowledge and skills that I’ve I have gained from real work experiences in different tenders, mega projects; and international clients in different countries and present them to you as lessons to learn from.
The course is structured into 5 chapters, These chapters will describe the story of a Contract from its formation by the client till its execution by Contractors. This course will be your guide in any construction project and the way to improve your career path.
In the first two chapters, we will start talking about the basics in the construction. The skills and attitude of a project manager, and what you are missing to enhance your career. We will talk about how to read and understand international forms of agreement, the structure of any bidding documents and many more.
In chapter three, we will see how the contract is formed and developed by the Client. We will come across the important terms and conditions used in most of the agreements. I will introduce the risk management process and how risks are playing a major role in the preparation of any contract. We will talk about the choice of the right contract form, bonds and guarantees that the client can use to guarantee the success of his investment.
In chapter four, we will come across the typical disputes that occur in the industry, the common contractual pitfalls. We will see the root causes of these problems and how we can avoid them.
In the last chapter, we will see how the contractor can win and complete a successful project, starting from the estimation and bidding stage, passing through the award and negotiation of the contract, till its execution and administration.
We will talk about many topics, with real case studies.
