Most people hire a general contractor once or twice in their lives, usually for the biggest purchase they will ever make. The general contractor is the company that turns approved drawings into a standing building, and the one you hold accountable for cost, time and quality. Knowing what that job actually involves makes it far easier to judge who should do it.
What a general contractor is responsible for
On a villa or a low-rise residential or commercial building, the general contractor takes the approved architectural and structural drawings and delivers the building. In practice that covers:
- Mobilising and setting out the site
- Excavation, foundations and the concrete frame
- Blockwork, partitions, waterproofing and insulation
- Coordinating the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) trades
- Procurement, subcontractors, site safety and the programme
Whoever else works on site, the general contractor is the single party answerable to you for all of it.
1. Drawings, permit and contract
Before anything is dug, the design has to be approved and the building permit issued — in the Kingdom this runs through the Balady platform. The contract should then fix four things in writing: the scope, the bill of quantities, the programme, and the payment milestones. Most disputes later on trace back to one of those being vague.
2. Site preparation and substructure
Survey and setting out, excavation, soil treatment where the ground needs it, then footings, neck columns and ground beams. Almost all of this ends up buried, which is exactly why it deserves the closest supervision and inspection. Mistakes here are the most expensive ones to fix.
3. Superstructure
Columns, beams and slabs are formed, reinforced and poured floor by floor. Good contractors test concrete as it arrives — a slump test on site and cube samples sent for strength testing. It is a small step, and watching whether it happens tells you a lot about how a contractor works.
4. Blockwork, services and the roof
The walls go up, conduits and pipes are laid in before plaster, and the roof is waterproofed and insulated. In the heat and humidity of the Eastern Province, roof insulation and waterproofing are not the place to save money: they decide how comfortable the building is, and what it costs to cool, for decades.
5. Finishing
Plaster and screed, tiling, gypsum ceilings, paint, doors and joinery. This is the stage where many projects change hands to a separate fit-out company — and where arguments about programme, damage and "who was responsible for that" usually begin.
6. Testing, snagging and handover
Services are tested and commissioned, defects are listed and put right, and the building is handed over with as-built drawings and warranties. Ask for the snag list in writing, and do not sign the handover until every item on it is closed.
The cheapest place to find a problem is on paper. The most expensive is in concrete.
Questions to ask before you sign
- Is the company set up for contracting? Ask for a commercial registration that covers contracting work, and check its registration with the Saudi Contractors Authority.
- Who runs the site day to day? A named site engineer matters more than a glossy company profile.
- What exactly is in the price? Compare quotations line by line against the same bill of quantities. A much lower number usually means something is missing.
- How are payments tied to progress? Milestones should follow completed, inspected work, not the calendar.
- Who does the finishing? If the contractor hands over a shell and a different company fits it out, you are the one managing the gap between them.
- Can you see finished work and a live site? A tidy, well-organised site in progress tells you more than any render.
Why we carry a build from structure to handover
Designation works as general contractor and takes the same project on through finishing, joinery and fit-out. The team that pours the slab already knows where the joinery will be fixed, and the fit-out team inherits a building it has inspected from the ground up. You sign one contract and deal with one point of contact, instead of two companies explaining the gap between them.
Read more about our general contracting service, browse contracting projects, or send us your drawings for a scope and programme.
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