General contractor
The licensed pro who runs a construction or remodeling project end to end — hiring and scheduling subcontractors, pulling permits, ordering materials, and answering to you for the whole job.
A general contractor (GC) is the single point of responsibility on a project bigger than one trade. Rather than you hiring and coordinating a plumber, electrician, framer, and tiler separately, the GC manages those subcontractors, sequences the work, pulls the permits, and is accountable to you for the result — typically marking up the subs and materials by roughly 10–20% for that coordination. In the U.S. there is no federal GC license; most states require a state or local license (often with a [surety bond](/glossary/surety-bond)), though a few don't license GCs at all. Hiring a GC makes sense for multi-trade jobs where the coordination and liability are worth the markup; for a single-trade job you can often hire that trade directly. Learn how to choose one in [how to find and vet a good contractor](/guides/how-to-find-and-vet-a-contractor).