Basically, a commercial contractor is a building contractor who has experience in commercial construction for businesses.”
What do Commercial Contractors do?
Well, a commercial contractor works on projects such as:
- building and remodeling of schools,
- corporate offices,
- restaurants,
- retail buildings,
- land Investment
- large scale Multifamily Housing
- storage units, and more.
Responsibilities
There are a lot of responsibilities when it comes to being a commercial contractor working on a large project. The larger or more unique the project, the more complicated it becomes. So, hiring a commercial contractor with a lot of experience is the top priority.
Among other things, your main expectations are for the commercial contractor to be professional, work with your timeline for the finished project, and keep to your budget.
When hiring a commercial contractor, the expectations of their role and responsibilities include the following:
- Overseeing the entire construction project and development
- Acquiring the proper and safe materials
- Renting and using the appropriate equipment
- Communicating with other project managers, owners, and vendors
- Logistics and reporting
- Adhering to codes and zoning regulations
- Complying with the budget and timeline
Choosing A Commercial Contractor
The efficiency of a construction process is often associated with the successful choice of a contractor. Often choosing the lowest bid contractor involves high-risk exposure for the client.
Sometimes, when going for companies offering the lowest prices, there can be issues. Because the lowest bid companies often don’t offer the best service, it’s not unusual to find completion delays, poor work quality and/or financial losses, among others.
An offered bid price is undoubtedly an important factor in choosing a contractor. But, many other essential issues are vital in project implementation. So, those must be incorporated into the contractor's evaluation process.
To carry out the specifications of the project, the contractor should have specific capabilities that cannot be merely reduced to the price.
Some of the most important evaluation criteria that you need to consider when choosing a commercial contractor includes:
- human resources;
- plant and equipment resources;
- project management capabilities;
- geographical location knowledge;
- location of home office;
- a contractor’s capacity;
- project execution capabilities;
- technical–economical analysis
- financial stability,
- performance,
- fraudulent action,
- contract failure,
- corporate stability,
- progress of work,
- health and safety,
- previous debarment,
- competitiveness
- quality standards and other relevant project-specific criteria.
What Skills & Qualities Does a Commercial Contractor Have?
There are a few main differences between a commercial contractor, and other contractors, such as those in the residential space. Although, some overlap is to be expected, commercial contractors do have some differences.
To help you understand what exactly a commercial contractor is, we outlined some of the qualities and skills that they should have.
1. Experience and professionalism
Commercial contractors tend to have verifiable experience, and a sense of professionalism. This is highly sought after, especially when commercial constructions can be as costly as they usually are.
2. Good Communication
They have exceptional communication skills. Since this contractor will be handling most of the crucial aspects of the project, they must be able to present their ideas rationally to their client during discussions and must answer their questions.
3. Exceptional Customer Service
For the project’s success, the contractor must provide excellent customer service. This will prevent miscommunications and will help the project run smoothly. Contractors must be:
- easy to reach,
- quick to respond,
- friendly,
- polite, and
- careful when answering clients’ questions.
If the contractor is unable to cooperate with the client on all levels and fails to form a productive business relationship with them the project can easily fail.
4. Highly Organized
An excellent contractor must be able to complete your project with high-end work from start to finish. Renovation and remodeling projects are highly challenging tasks and have complicated timelines. Therefore, to complete the project, extensive planning and coordination are required. This organized behavior from the contractor’s side is critical for managing large projects.
5. Detail-oriented
Because construction projects are highly complicated, not everyone can comprehend them. Only skilled and detail-oriented contractors with a vast knowledge of all aspects of construction can handle such jobs.
Detailed-oriented contractors provide the best product delivery and the best customer service possible. They ensure quality at all stages of the project, make practical, detailed plans, and follow the contract.
6. Portfolio & References
A good commercial contractor will have both a portfolio, as well as references. This not only allows you to know that they are reputable, but it also gives you insight into who they are as a company.
Of course, this will also stand as a testament to the quality of their work.
7. Range of Services
Today’s commercial contractors often do more than just build structures. There are many facets of the building process that need to be addressed.
A commercial contractor often also has an interior design division to ensure that the furnishings, accessories and furnishments complement the architecture and are suited for your type of business.
8. Time and Budget Management Processes
Reputable companies know how to keep commercial construction projects on schedule and budget. They do so due to developing reliable processes and having experienced industry experts.
A building project should run like a well-oiled machine, and commercial contractor can deliver exactly that.
Final thoughts
There are a variety of things that makes commercial contractor’s what they are. We hope that this post has helped to answer the question of what a commercial contractor is.
At Buildrite Construction, we pride ourselves on being commercial contractors with a national footprint. If you need any commercial construction work done, contact us today!
