A general contractor is the one company that signs for the whole job. On a Dallas remodel, addition, or build-out, that means MASACO Construction owns the schedule, the trade partners, the permits, the inspections, and the finished result. You get one contract, one project manager, and one number to call. We’re a woman-led general contracting, remodeling, and development firm based in Plano, and we run projects across Dallas, from 1920s Tudors in the M Streets to 1980s two-stories in Far North Dallas. This page covers what a GC actually does, when you need one, and how we run a job so you’re never the person chasing a subcontractor at 7 a.m.
What a general contractor actually does on your project.
The word “general” is the point. A framer frames, an electrician wires, a tile setter sets tile. A general contractor takes responsibility for all of it and for the order it happens in. On a typical Dallas remodel that means we:
- Turn the design into a build sequence, so demolition, framing, rough mechanicals, inspections, drywall, and finishes land in the right order and nobody’s work gets torn out to make room for someone else’s.
- Hire, schedule, supervise, and pay the trades. You don’t negotiate with 9 different companies or wonder whose fault a delay is.
- Pull the permits, meet the inspectors, and close out the permit at the end so it doesn’t show up as an open item when you sell.
- Hold the budget. Every allowance, every selection, and every change order runs through one ledger you can read.
- Own quality. If the tile is out of level or the paint shows roller marks, that’s our problem to fix, not a debate between two subs.
When you need a GC, and when you don’t.
Here’s the honest breakdown we give homeowners at the first call.
Call a handyman when the job is small, needs no permit, and takes one person one visit: patching drywall, swapping a faucet, hanging doors, fixing a fence gate. Handymen are good at this and cost less than a GC’s overhead for it.
Call a single trade when the job lives entirely inside one discipline: a new water heater, a whole-house repaint, replacing carpet with hardwood in 3 bedrooms, a new electrical panel. A licensed plumber, painter, flooring installer, or electrician can contract directly with you.
Call a general contractor when the job crosses trades, touches structure, moves plumbing or electrical, requires a permit, or runs longer than a couple of weeks. Opening a kitchen to the living room involves a framer, an electrician, a plumber, a drywall crew, a tile setter, a cabinet installer, a painter, and a city inspector. Someone has to sequence all of them, and if that someone is you, you’re taking on a second job with no training and full liability.
One more Texas-specific point. Texas has no state-level general contractor license. Cities register contractors instead, and the City of Dallas requires it. The individual trades are different: electricians, plumbers, and HVAC contractors are licensed by the state. So when you vet a GC, you’re vetting the company’s registration, its insurance, its references, its contract, and the licenses of the trade partners it brings, not a state GC number that doesn’t exist.
How design-build works at MASACO.
Design-build means one firm carries the project from the first sketch to the final punch list. You’re not hiring an architect, then bidding the drawings to 3 contractors, then discovering the design costs more than anyone told you.
Our process runs the same way on every job, and you can read the long version at /process/:
- Consultation and site walk. We meet at the house, walk the spaces, and look at the things that decide feasibility: foundation type, panel capacity, plumbing runs, roof framing, and lot setbacks.
- Design with 3D visualization. Our design team models the proposed layout so you see the finished rooms before anything is demolished. Revisions happen here, where they’re cheap.
- Fixed-scope proposal. Written scope, itemized allowances for selections you haven’t made yet, a draw schedule tied to milestones, and a change-order procedure that requires your signature before work proceeds.
- Permits and engineering handled. We file, we coordinate the engineer when the design needs one, and we meet the inspectors.
- One project manager, weekly written photo updates. You get a written summary with photos every week: what got done, what’s next, and what decisions we need from you.
- Walkthrough and punch list. Room by room, in writing, closed before final payment.
- Care guide. How to maintain what we built, in plain language.
Permits, inspections, and Dallas’s neighborhood overlays.
In the city proper, permits run through City of Dallas Development Services. Most remodels that move walls, add square footage, or relocate plumbing, gas, or electrical need a building permit plus the associated trade permits, and each of those gets inspected at rough-in and at final. We handle the filing, the plan review comments, and the inspection scheduling.
University Park and Highland Park are separate cities with their own building departments and their own review standards, so a Park Cities project follows a different process than one 2 miles east in the M Streets. We work in both, and we build the review time into the schedule.
Many Dallas neighborhoods also sit inside conservation districts or historic overlays. Parts of Lakewood, the Swiss Avenue Historic District, the M Streets, Hollywood Heights, and the Winnetka Heights area near Bishop Arts all carry rules about exterior changes, and those rules add a review step before a permit issues. Additions, front-facade work, and window or roofline changes in those areas need to be designed with the overlay in mind from day one, not discovered at plan review.
Insurance, lien releases, and the paperwork that protects you.
Two documents separate a professional GC from a risky one.
The first is a current certificate of insurance. We carry general liability coverage and we require our trade partners to carry their own. You can ask for certificates at any point and we’ll send them.
The second is the lien release. In Texas, a subcontractor or supplier who doesn’t get paid can, in some cases, file a lien claim against your property even if you paid your contractor in full. We prevent that by collecting lien waivers from every trade partner and supplier before each payment draw, and we give you copies. When the project closes, you get final releases from everyone who touched the job. It’s unglamorous paperwork that protects your title.
Every change order follows the same discipline: written, priced, scheduled, and signed by you before the work happens. No verbal approvals, no surprise invoices at the end.
Dallas housing stock we work in, block by block.
A GC who knows the neighborhood knows what’s behind the drywall before opening it.
M Streets, Hollywood Heights, and Lakewood. 1920s and 1930s Tudors and cottages, mostly on pier-and-beam. Plaster walls, original framing that rarely matches modern dimensions, early wiring in homes that haven’t been rewired, and cast iron drains. Conservation district review applies to many exteriors.
Swiss Avenue and Munger Place. Historic district homes where the exterior is protected and the interiors are often ready for a full mechanical update.
Kessler Park, Oak Cliff, and Bishop Arts. Hills, mature trees, 1920s to 1940s Tudors and Prairie-style homes in Kessler, craftsman bungalows closer to Bishop Arts. Pier-and-beam is common, and the slopes make drainage and foundation work part of the conversation.
Lake Highlands, Casa Linda, and Lochwood. 1950s and 1960s ranches, many on slab, some on pier-and-beam. Low ceilings, closed kitchens, and cast iron under the slab that’s often at the end of its life. These are prime candidates for opening up the plan.
Preston Hollow. Larger lots with 1950s ranches next to new construction. Additions and whole-home remodels are common here because the land justifies the investment.
University Park and Highland Park. Separate cities, their own building departments, high standards for finish and for process.
Uptown. Townhomes and condos where HOA rules and shared walls shape what’s possible.
Far North Dallas. 1970s and 1980s two-stories on slab, with original kitchens, original baths, and mechanical systems that have reached the end of their service life all at once.
Most DFW homes sit on slab foundations, and the older core neighborhoods run pier-and-beam. That single fact changes how we plan plumbing relocation, and it’s one of the first things we confirm on the site walk.
How we price it.
We don’t bid off a napkin. After design, you get a fixed-scope proposal that lists every item of work, room by room. Things you haven’t selected yet, like tile, plumbing fixtures, or lighting, are carried as allowances with a stated amount per item, so you can see exactly where your money is going and adjust before we order anything. If a selection comes in above or below its allowance, the difference is reconciled in writing.
Changes during construction happen. Someone opens a wall and finds a rotted sill plate, or you decide the pantry should be bigger. Every change gets a written change order that states the cost, the schedule impact, and what’s being added or removed. You sign it before we proceed. That’s how a project ends with a final number that matches your expectations.
Payments follow a draw schedule tied to visible milestones, and each draw comes with lien releases from the trades paid on the prior draw.
One accountable contractor across Dallas-Fort Worth.
General contracting is the hub of everything we do. From here, most Dallas projects branch into whole-home remodeling, home additions, or commercial construction, and you can see the full category at general construction. Finished work is at /projects/.
We’re headquartered in Plano and run the same process across the metro. If you’re outside Dallas proper, start with our Plano and Fort Worth pages, or go straight to general contracting in Plano and general contracting in Fort Worth.
Our founders, Sara Bannat and Mahmoud Abu Saad, also founded Roof Raiders & Co., a Plano roofing company, in 2022. MASACO doesn’t do roofing. What carried over is the habit of running a job with permits pulled, inspections passed, paperwork in order, and a homeowner who always knows what’s happening.
Think Massive. Build Smart. If you’re weighing a project that’s bigger than one trade, book a consultation and we’ll walk the house with you, tell you what’s feasible, and show you how the process works before you commit to anything. Book a consultation.
What's included.
- Design-build remodels, additions, and interior build-outs under one contract
- Consultation, site walk, and measured drawings of existing conditions
- 3D visualization of the proposed design before you approve the scope
- Fixed-scope proposal with itemized allowances and written change orders
- Permit applications and inspections with City of Dallas Development Services
- Structural engineering coordination for load-bearing and foundation work
- Licensed electrical, plumbing, and HVAC trade partners scheduled and supervised by us
- Certificates of insurance and lien releases collected before every payment draw
- One project manager with weekly written photo updates
- Final walkthrough, punch list, and a written care guide at handover
How the project runs.
- Consultation and site walk. We meet at the house, walk every room the project touches, and listen to what isn't working. We check the foundation type, the panel, the plumbing runs, and the roof line, then tell you honestly whether the idea fits the structure and the budget you have in mind.
- Design and 3D visualization. Our design team drafts the plan and builds a 3D model so you can see the new layout, ceiling heights, and finishes from where you'd actually stand. We revise until it's right, because changing a wall in the model costs nothing and changing it in framing costs real money.
- Fixed-scope proposal. You get a written proposal that lists exactly what's included, what's carried as an allowance, and how change orders work. Nothing is priced as a vague lump sum. You sign the scope, not a guess, and the schedule and draw plan are attached to it.
- Permits, engineering, and build. We file with City of Dallas Development Services or the Park Cities building departments, coordinate any engineering, and schedule inspections. One project manager runs the trades in sequence and sends you a written photo update every week so you always know what happened and what's next.
- Walkthrough, punch list, and care guide. We walk the finished work with you room by room and write down every item that needs attention. The punch list gets closed before final payment. You leave with a care guide covering finishes, fixtures, and the maintenance that keeps the work looking new.
