Working with us
Do I need a general contractor for my project?
The short answer
For concrete, metalwork or industrial insulation, you can work directly with CJM. A broader renovation involving several other trades may need a general contractor. Tell us the full project so we can confirm our part and what needs another provider.
What a general contractor is actually for
A GC exists to hold a job together when it has more trades in it than any one company does. They sequence the work, hire and pay the subs, carry the permits under their name, and stand behind the finished thing when the framer blames the plumber. That coordination is a real job and it is worth paying for on a project that has five or six trades in it.
On a project with one trade in it, there is nothing to coordinate. You are paying a margin for somebody to book a contractor you could have booked yourself, and to relay your answers to that contractor’s questions in both directions.
So the question is not really whether you need a general contractor. It is how many trades your job has in it, and whether anybody is already holding more than one of them.
Jobs that do not need one
Single-trade work, obviously: a driveway torn out and repoured, a patio, an equipment slab, a gate, a fence run, a railing, window guards, pipe or tank insulation, removable blankets, a strip-out and re-insulate.
And — this is the part people get wrong — the two-trade combinations we hold both halves of. A carport on a new slab is concrete and steel, but it is one contract, one walk-through and one schedule, not a project needing management. Same with a driveway and gate, a patio with a pergola anchored to it, or an equipment pad with the line to it jacketed.
That is the whole reason this company has a front door: two trades under one roof is not a GC job, it is one job. Multi-trade projects sets out how the estimate and the schedule work when more than one of our crews is in it.
When the answer is yes — and we are not the call
We are not a general contractor and we are not trying to become one on your job. We do not run other trades, pull GC permits or manage subcontractors. If what you want is one company holding the whole schedule and carrying somebody else’s subs, that is a GC and you should hire one.
Plumbing, electrical past wiring a gate opener, HVAC, roofing, framing and drywall are not ours. An addition, a garage conversion, a kitchen, a full remodel or anything that moves a roofline or a load-bearing wall needs several of those at once and needs someone coordinating them. Two more hard edges: asbestos abatement is state-licensed in Texas and we are not licensed for it, so suspect material stops and goes to a licensed abatement contractor; and residential attic or blown-in wall insulation is a different trade from the industrial work our insulation shop does.
Saying that plainly costs us the occasional job and saves you the afternoon. The full list is on about, and it has not changed since the day the site went up.
If you already have a general contractor
Then hire us the way a GC normally does: a defined scope, priced in writing, our crews scheduled against your dates. Three trades come through one vendor number, one W-9, one certificate of insurance and one set of invoices broken out by trade. Do you work as a subcontractor covers how that runs.
One thing worth checking with your city rather than with us: some permits have to be pulled by a contractor the city has registered, and which permits those are is set locally and changes. We confirm what your specific job needs during the free walk-through — licensed and insured explains why there is no single licence number to quote you in Texas for this work.
And if you are not sure yet which of these you have, call and describe the job. Working out whether you need a GC takes about two minutes on the phone, and we would rather spend those two minutes than have you spend a week finding out.