WHY OUR BUILDERS ARE CALLED CONTRACTORS

Has it occurred to anyone why our builders here in Singapore are called contractors ?

A contractor is someone who has a binding contract with a party in agreement that he/she will deliver the agreed scope of work for an agreed sum of money.

It does not necessarily mean it is for a house or building. It could be from anything from cleaning a bathroom to delivering fish from sea to refurbishing a whole war torn town.

As the term implies, our builders are seen as brokers, go between and deal makers. It also suggest that construction may not be their forte.

So how can someone make a deal with you building a house when they don't know half of what it takes ? This would be the same reason why we buy houses through property agents instead of going straight to the developer. Do property agents know if the marble on the floor is grade A, B, C or D ? Most don't because they are in the business of making a sale. An experience property agent however, have a network of buyers and sellers whom they understand what they are after. Their sole duty is to communicate between 2 willing parties.

YOUR CONTRACTOR INVOLVES TRADESMEN

Your contractor knows a network of tradesmen who do parts of the work. Their sole duty is to communicate between all parties: client, architect, engineers and tradesmen.

Just the tradesmen alone, they need to deal with demolition, piling, concreter, formwork maker, electrical, sewerage, plumbers, mason and paviours ( they are called wet workers here) , roofer, glazing, painter, scafolder ....... and the list goes on. This is all happening in 7 languages ( english, Chinese, Malay, Tamil , Bangalah, Thai and Tagalog) of which Chinese is spoken in Mandarin, Cantonese and Hokkien.

Amidst all the communication, they need to interpolate this with construction sequence which is even more daunting. 

Understanding construction sequence involves multiple trades. For example for a painter to paint the building, they need a scaffolder. Sometimes, at the time of costing, this cross discipline is not visualised and therefore under priced. Since the contract is binding, the builder then has to think how other trades can be done more economical to make up costing for parts they didn't visualise.

This then leaves the other party of the contract thinking that they are conniving, deceitful and cheating.

The contractor also has to operate within what the law requires in terms of employment, workplace safety to building to a regulated standard.

If a builder requires so much resource and brain power and experience then each of them would deliver differently because they all develop their with different journey of experiences.

EXPECTING SOMETHING BOUGHT OFF THE RETAIL SHELF

In short, we call builders as a contractor because we simply think our relationship with the builder is as good as buying a product off a retail shop. This sales is formalize by a contract. The end user in a simple way does not see the work as a massive involvement of a major industry and focus only on what the contract says.