acting as own general contractor

Yes, licensed electricians and licensed plumbers, definitely

Note that in NYC all plumbing and electrical work must be done by licensed tradespeople. Even professional GCs must sub out this work to licensed people. But nothing legally prevents the homeowner from hiring the subs directly and not through a separate GC.

Thanks – that’s a lot to think about. Once in Ithaca NY my husband submitted plumbing plans for a new bathroom.The building inspector shot them down, but explained the reasoning behind the rules. He redid the plans and they passed with flying colors. But he still used too-large pipes to carry water to the attic.

Definitely possible, and can actually be enjoyable if you know what you are doing and know how things work. If not, it can be an absolute nightmare. For instance, being able to “Do Plumbing” is not important while being a GC but knowing “How Plumbing” is important otherwise things can go wrong.
The biggest thing a GC does is help the Trades coordinate correctly, take the responsibility and double check everyone. For instance, the Carpenter can map out his roughing walls correctly but if the Plumber is not aligned and off by half an inch, everything can have to be redone; at the cost of the GC.
My brother and his wife did this recently without much prior knowledge and did a good job actually! It was a lot though and there were quite a few mental breakdowns

Definitely possible, and can actually be enjoyable if you know what you are doing and know how things work. If not, it can be an absolute nightmare. For instance, being able to “Do Plumbing” is not important while being a GC but knowing “How Plumbing” is important otherwise things can go wrong.
The biggest thing a GC does is help the Trades coordinate correctly, take the responsibility and double check everyone. For instance, the Carpenter can map out his roughing walls correctly but if the Plumber is not aligned and off by half an inch, everything can have to be redone; at the cost of the GC.
My brother and his wife did this recently without much prior knowledge and did a good job actually! It was a lot though and there were quite a few mental breakdowns

if you hire licensed trades and a licensed architect and engineer where required, and file, if is perfectly legal for you to GC this. People do it all the time. what you want to be careful of is ensuring that all of your subs have the proper insurance and workers comp and licenses so that if something goes wrong or someone gets hurt, their insurance picks up, not your homeowners (and i hear people say “their homeowners has workman’s comp”; any policy i have looked at has workmen’s comp for the cleaning person or nanny, not licensed trades).

if you were to do something like this, you would want to hire a real good carpenter who can and will work with the other trades and guide you a bit as to who comes in when to do what rough in and what has to be done before closing walls. also, be careful with demo work. taking down bearing walls, not only do you have to file but you also better follow what the architect says and do not just hire “some guy” or some HIC, you need someone who’s insurance specifies demo work (for instance, mine does not allow it).

a lot of the naysayers will come on here and say you can not do this – legally. i have watched people do this in the city and one guy told me “i can pull a permit to move a gas line” and guess what, he did and had to explain to the DOB that it could be done (so long as a licensed plumber did the work and signed off; this was a while ago before these buildings blew up, so i am not sure if you can still pull a permit yourself, but 18 years ago, you could).

in many jurisdictions GC is an insurance requirement. it means you carry insurance that will provide protection and allow you to contract other trades and have coverage over them if something goes wrong. in NYC it is a DOB requirement and they don’t even ask about insurance but want to make sure contractors have a minimum of 25k in the bank for 3 straight months before issuing a license; they want you to have assets if you will be working for others, building out of the ground structures. this is not you.

Xagor mentions the cost of insurance. people i know who have done this have not purchased additional insurance. but you know what, he or she might be on to something. maybe there is an insurance that you can purchase that will over ride the entire job. maybe you can set up a corp and buy GC insurance or just buy it in your own name. it would make sense right? if something goes wrong on a job (and i have seen it happen though i have not been involved in it from a responsible party position) and the insurance companies get involved, they all finger point and go after one another trying to assign blame and liability. so for example, let’s say a wall framer leaves a 2×4 sitting against a window frame and the plumber walks by with a piece of pipe and hits the 2×4 and it falls out the window and lands on a baby stroller. that will get expensive fast and the plumber’s insurance will blame the framer and his insurance and the parent of the baby will not care whose fault it was – they just want the bills paid and the baby’s college education and retirement and trip to the moon all paid for – so guess what – THEY SUE ALL OF YOU (they have to, but that is another story. they have to sue everyone just in case you did something wrong on the site as well. like, maybe it comes out in court later that you removed the window frame the night before and there for share part of the expense of the babies trip to the moon). so i would check if you can buy a blanket construction policy that will protect you. but let me tell you this- be very careful shopping for insurance and be sure you buy something designed to protect someone in your position (i recall someone building their own house in another state and they bought construction insurance and there were rules that went with it; we do not hear about “construction insurance” here in the city as much as most of the buildings have been built; i bet they have it on Long Island still). do not listen to insurance agents. good ones are good and can be trusted, but the way the world is going, most people will sell you anything just like those idiots wearing orange aprons in that big box store. also, if you do decide not buy additional insurance or that it does not exist, check to see what your homeowners will cover if something goes wrong. you do not want to do all of this and put it at risk because some trades person comes to work with a hangover.

even though i am a small contractor, i had worked for a Property Management firm in another state (I was a field person, not in office) and have worked in buildings in NYC and have had to watch the insurance thing play out with at least two flood damage claims and one fire and when multiple insurance companies are involved they literally try to assign the blame elsewhere; they have legal depts dedicated to this. it was kind of interesting to watch as they requested information and contracts on the other parties just to see how they can go after them (this is why contractors unplug their equipment at night; if there is a fire, the insurance companies will try to say it was “that guy’s saw”).

I’d be interested to follow this process as our new renovation blog since our last one has ended. Especially since you’re at the very beginning of the process and have questions that many ppl are faced with at tge start of such a challenging task.

This is not a practical idea. The cost of carrying the insurance will outweigh any significant savings and most likely result in a loss in the long term. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.