About This Manual
By using experience as a guide, this booklet was developed as a TOOL to achieve an ultimate goal. It is my opinion that the “ultimate goal” would be defined as a stress free project that meets or exceeds your expectations upon the completion of this most important endeavor of building your home, business, etc. This booklet is an inexpensive way to provide helpful tips; dos and don’ts; or even to determine if you want to be your own general contractor at all. I tried to stick to the most important highlights without overwhelming you with useless information, yet provide an easily accessible guide for you to handle your project.

I will take you through this booklet so that no matter how experienced or knowledgeable you may be of the construction industry, you may gain some needed information. If I teach you only one thing in this booklet, I hope it is to recognize a potentially harmful situation and rescue you before too much damage is done.

General contracting is the art of bringing several different trades together for the purpose of working as a unit to achieve a goal. It is not too difficult, and can be very self rewarding if you remain organized and professional with everyone involved. Use this booklet as a tool to easily refer back to when you have questions, or just to keep you ahead of your project in general. Above all else, I hope that you can use this booklet to make your project more enjoyable and that you have fun doing it. Good luck and have fun!