Construction companies have expertise in their skilled trade field and come in many types and sizes. They typically offer professional services that provide improvements to real property. That can be improvements to land or a structure.
The building industry is made up of many construction companies for each construction industry sector. This article will principally address the general contracting firm as the subject matter of Houston construction companies.
Effective Houston construction companies are typically seasoned builders and/or remodelers that service either residential owners and /or commercial owners.
They may also provide design and engineering services as well as offer residential contracting and commercial contracting.
General contracting construction companies provide a variety of building service packages and are professionally organized firms of many sizes.
This makes finding and selecting the right general contractor in Houston challenging for owners seeking solutions for their defined building needs.
The process of finding, vetting, and hiring a general contracting construction company can be complicated and frustrating. We will provide some guidance for obtaining a better understanding of how to break down this complicated building services industry.
We will start by explaining that Houston general contracting construction companies serve two major industry sectors; the residential & commercial industry segments.
That does not mean that they serve either but rather have the skill sets to provide professional construction and administrative management services for each industry segment.
Drilling down further on each of the industry segments that exists finds several focused service expertise for each firm namely; new ground up services and remodeling services.
We will break these subsections down further by discipline.
Learn About the Construction Companies that Offer Residential Building Services
Residential Construction Sector
Residential contracting is the professional practice of providing general contracting services to homeowners.
These can be single family homes or attached townhomes. Although condos and multi-family homes are considered residential in their use, the municipal building departments that issue permits treat them as commercial construction.
This is primarily due to the life safety assembly codes and fire safety requirements. Visit this link to learn more about the types of services that general contractors provide.
Home Builders
A builder is a generic name for general contractors that by definition construct buildings using materials, labor, and equipment according to the specifications and drawings they are provided by the owner of the property.
In this example, it would be a homeowner requiring the need for a new home built or ground up building on some form of structure such as a storage barn or garage.
Home builders typically hire subcontractors to perform the work required of skilled and licensed trades.
They perform construction management and administrative management over the necessary services to perform the scope of work. In many states general contractors are required to be licensed, but this is not required in the State of Texas.
Construction companies are building contractors that manage the contracting business including building design in some cases.
Home builders that perform any form of ground up construction will require both building design plans of which the foundation and framing plans will be sealed by a state certified engineer.
The owner has a choice of selecting a third-party architect and engineer or hiring a construction company that provides design to build services.
If the owner hires the architect directly, he will need to independently solicit general contractors to prepare bids from the architectural and engineering documents.
If the owner hires a construction company that provides design build services, the general contractor would be the single point of responsibility throughout the process.
We refer you to the provided article that examines the processes of new construction followed by general contractors for custom homes.
Home Remodelers
Remodelers are also construction companies and operate much like builders. The primary differences between remodelers and builders are that remodelers perform their services within existing houses that families already occupy.
In addition, these houses will likely undergo a degree of demolition before the house can be reassembled.
Typical remodeling services include service types such as home additions, whole home remodeling, kitchen remodeling, and bathroom remodeling.
These types of home remodeling also require home plans and in some cases engineering.
Kitchen remodeling and bathroom remodeling do not often require structural engineering plans unless load bearing walls and certain aspects of the foundation are disrupted.
But as a general rule, these types of remodels can be conducted without engineering plans.
If the placement of bath or kitchen features are being relocated, then there should be detailed drawings to guide the remodeler.
In the case of home additions and whole home remodeling, the remodeler will be required to have building plans that are engineered.
First, these are for obtaining work building permits and second, they provide definitive direction for the remodeler to build to the specifications.
This will ensure that there are defined performance standards and will also dramatically reduce communication errors regarding how the house is to be reassembled.
The owner should also require a contract and scope of work to avoid misunderstandings and comply with the best practices of hiring a remodeler. Visit this hyperlink to explore more about remodeling contractors.
Home Improvement Contractors
Home improvement contractors are traditionally a single focused source of service and product replacements for both residential and commercial construction.
They typically can be categorized as either licensed contractors or unlicensed contractors. Examples of licensed contractor trades are HVAC, electrical, and plumbing service trades.
In addition, security installation and monitoring are also licensed skilled trades. These licensed skilled trades offer their services to homeowners, commercial property owners, and general contractors.
The unlicensed skilled trades contractors that service both new ground-up, home remodeling, and direct services to property owners are commonly referred to as product replacement contractors.
Examples of product replacement contractors are roofers, painters, window & door companies, and garage door companies.
Product replacement contractors commonly serve homeowners, commercial property owners, and general contractors.
Commercial Construction Sector
Commercial contracting serves the needs of commercial property owners such as office buildings, retail strip centers, big box stores, warehouses, manufacturing facilities, restaurants, hotels, and multi-family structures.
Institutional structures such as governmental buildings, educational facilities, and infrastructure structures such as airports and utility structures are normally served by specialty construction companies that focus the services on these facilities.
To learn more about what commercial general contractors do and when you need to hire them follow the link.
Commercial Builders
Commercial builders are also general contractors that hire subcontractors, purchase materials and provide equipment to expedite commercial construction projects.
Commercial builders construct ground up new projects with far more alternatives than just wood structures. These building contractors create most of their structures using steel and concrete.
There are a variety of reasons that commercial builders elect to build with steel or concrete. Building contractors prefer steel structures for speed, cost and to save interior space. While concrete structures are typically cheaper but take longer to build.
In addition, to be a suitable cost-effective material, concrete is fireproof and performs overall better than steel.
Much like residential construction, there is a need for most projects to have permit construction documents.
Commercial construction requires electrical, mechanical, and plumbing to be engineered for most commercial buildings.
In addition, commercial construction buildings that exceed 12,000 sf or have an assembly space of 300 people require fire sprinklers and alarms.
Another difference is that commercial construction must comply with the American Disability Act requirements.
This requires handicap accessibility for bathrooms, entrance & exit doors, and required ramps at all elevated interior and exterior steps.
Commercial builders also provide new tenant build outs for retail strips, office buildings, and interior spaces build by building shell contractors or developers.
In most cases, the property owner or property managers will allow a tenant a build out allowance to finish a commercial space to their business’s specifications.
In these types of buildings, the common areas are already built out and general occupancy has been inspected and approved and operating.
To assist you with your search for commercial construction companies we recommend following the hyperlink.
Commercial Remodelers
Commercial remodelers offer an assortment of commercial construction companies providing services that involve the renovation or remodeling of commercial properties. Commercial remodeling can be more complicated than new commercial construction for several reasons.
The first is that a commercial property must be disassembled before being reassembled. This often means relocating load-bearing walls which involves temporary shoring and the displacement of everything in its area.
The second factor that makes it more complicated is that the business has operations resources, albeit people or equipment, that need to be interrupted when remodeling is taking place.
There are many different types of commercial remodeling construction companies that offer value to the owner;
- Space Renovations – these represent interior commercial remodeling,
- Change of Use – represents a change of use in a commercial building that requires strengthening of load capacities,
- Façade Remodels – represents the facelift of the exterior of an aging commercial property,
- Commercial Property Improvements – these represent a variety of commercial construction enhancements to a property,
- Product Replacement
- Door & Glass Front Replacement
- Roof Replacement
- Parking & Landscaping
- Painting
- Licensed Services
- Security Alarms
- Fire Alarms
- Electrical, Mechanical, and Plumbing
Conclusion
Houston construction companies play a significant role both as builders and remodelers in commercial contracting and residential contracting.
There are specialty building contractors that offer one skilled general contractor service and there are other construction companies that service all general contractor Houston need.
Please visit our home page to learn more about Houston general contractors and Marwood Construction; https://www.marwoodconstruction.com/
