General Conditions: The Line in Your Bid That Runs by the Month

Most of a bid is easy to picture. Framing is framing, the window package is a list of windows. Then there's a line called general conditions, sometimes a large one, and it's hard to tell what you're buying.

General conditions are the cost of running the job: the things that aren't part of any one trade but have to be there for the house to get built. They're also one of the lines that varies most between builders, and one of the few that grows every month the job runs.

What's usually in it

Builders don't all draw the line in the same place, but general conditions typically cover some mix of:

• Site supervision: the superintendent who runs the job day to day, and sometimes the project manager
• Temporary facilities: toilets, fencing, a job trailer or storage, signage
• Temporary utilities: construction power and water, and the monthly bills for them
• Waste: dumpsters and hauling
• Cleanup: ongoing jobsite cleanup and the final clean before you move in
• Equipment the job needs across trades: a forklift or telehandler, lifts, scaffolding
• Insurance, permits, surveys, and testing, in some bids
• Winter items like temporary heat and snow removal, in some bids

Notice how many of those are monthly costs. The superintendent gets paid every month. The toilet gets pumped every month. The forklift gets rented by the month.

Why it varies so much between builders

Where they put things. One builder puts supervision in general conditions. Another covers it in their fee. A third spreads cleanup and dumpsters across the trade lines. All three can be honest, and all three produce different-looking general conditions lines for the same house. That's why comparing the line alone doesn't tell you much. You have to know what's in it.

The schedule. Because so much of the line is monthly, the duration drives it. Say general conditions run $22,000 a month (illustrative). A 14-month schedule carries $308,000. An 18-month schedule carries $396,000. Same house, same builder, $88,000 apart, and the only difference is time.

Who's running the job. A superintendent who's on your site full time costs more than one splitting time between three jobs. That's a real difference in what you get, not just in price, and it's worth asking about directly.

How the contract type changes it

On a fixed price job, general conditions are inside the number. If the job runs long because of the builder, that's usually their cost. If it runs long because of changes you made or selections you made late, expect the builder to ask for extended general conditions, meaning more months at the monthly rate. Check how the contract handles that before you sign.

On a cost plus job or a GMP, general conditions are billed as they happen, so a longer job costs you directly. Here the line deserves a closer read: what's billed as general conditions, at what rate, and whether anything in it overlaps with what the fee is supposed to cover. If the project manager's time is billed to the job and the fee is also supposed to cover project management, you're paying for it twice.

Questions worth asking

• Can I see the general conditions broken out by item, with a monthly rate and number of months?
• What schedule duration is the line based on?
• Is supervision in general conditions or in your fee? Is the superintendent on my job full time?
• What's in your general conditions that another builder might carry elsewhere, and the reverse?
• If the schedule extends, how are additional months priced, and when do they apply?

For more on how each contract type shifts where to look, see Fixed price, GMP, or cost plus.