When There Is No GC All Hell Can Break Loose

Some folks don’t know what a residential general contractor (GC) does.

The great Tom Silva on “This Old House” says it best: “A GC is a lot like a baseball coach. He or she puts the right player in the right position at the right time.” A great GC will also make sure that you are getting the best quality for your money and the right solution for a particular problem your home is having.

Here are some photos of an HVAC system a homeowner had installed in their home. This is called “high velocity” air conditioning. We commonly use this in older homes that don’t have any ducting. Instead, they typically get their heat from radiators. These old houses usually have huge basements and some hidden wall spaces where these insulated air conditioning tubes can be run.

When there is no GC on the job, you get an install that looks like this:

What do these guys care if they took up a huge portion of your basement ceiling and floor space? They are there to install HVAC in the easiest manner possible. They didn’t do anything “wrong,” but it could have been done more neatly and with a thought to the future. A GC would tell them to consolidate areas of ducting so that, in the future, if the homeowner wants to install a finished basement, they can do so without moving the ducting. Just one of the many advantages a GC offers.