The Two Types of Contractors: Full-Service vs. Independent Workers

When it comes to hiring a contractor for your home or business project, there are essentially two types of workers you'll encounter: full-service contractors and independent contractors who typically work for general contractors. Understanding the differences between these two types is crucial to ensuring your project runs smoothly and meets your expectations.

Full-service contractors are often a one-stop shop for everything you need. They manage the entire project from start to finish, ensuring the work is done to a high standard. They handle all aspects of the job—whether it’s designing, sourcing materials, scheduling, managing subcontractors, or overseeing the entire crew. They are typically experienced, well-organized, and efficient at keeping projects on track.

On the flip side, independent contractors, often subcontracted by general contractors, are the hands-on experts who focus on specific tasks, like plumbing, electrical work, or carpentry. These professionals tend to be highly skilled in their specific trade but don’t typically manage entire projects themselves.

The thing I often see is that people expect full-service contractor performance for independent contractor prices. Good luck with that. There is an old saying that you can do a job 1) quickly, 2) good, and 3) cheap, but you can only pick two. When you're picking the full service contractor, you're getting a good job done quickly, but it isn't cheap. When you pick an independent contractor, you will get it cheap and either quick or good. Personally, I work with contractors who do good work for a reasonable price, but that means I have to do a lot of the management myself. Sometimes they don't show up or have lots of problems. These are the tradeoffs. I accept them and we work together. I know what you're thinking. You're saying that you want to work with the person who is super easy to work with and charges reasonable rates. Good luck finding that person. My experience is that all contractors start off with reasonable costs. The ones who do a good job and are fast end up with a lot of business. As the demand for their time picks up, the law of supply and demand pushes their costs up, too.

If you keep this in mind, you should be be able to judge your contractor better. If the person has outrageous rates, are they performing and behaving like a full service general contractor, where you don't have to lift a finger? The more you pay, the more perfect the job should be. Or are you finding that you have to manage the job a lot? You have to call wondering where they are? You have to point out this or that multiple times. Is the guy rushing a sloppy job, or barely showing up an hour a day to turn a couple screws before hitting another job? Independent contractor.