AEC definitions
A subcontractor is a firm the prime contractor hires to perform part of the work under the prime contract. The subcontractor's contract is with the prime, not the owner. Flow-down clauses pass schedule, safety, and document duties to the sub. Suppliers who only deliver materials are not subcontractors, and the difference matters for bonds and liens.
Definition
The general contractor remains responsible to the owner for the subcontractor's work. The owner does not direct the sub's crew, except through the prime, unless the contracts say otherwise. A sub-subcontractor is hired by a subcontractor. Payment follows the chain: owner to prime to sub, which is why pay-if-paid and pay-when-paid clauses are negotiated, and why lien and bond rights exist. The subcontract should incorporate the drawings, specifications, and the scope sheet that was leveled. A one-line purchase of 'electrical' is how exclusions reappear.
In depth
Attach the trade package, the relevant spec sections, the schedule, and the flow-down. Exclusions accepted at bid leveling should be written in. Exclusions that were rejected should be gone.
Separate primes, used on some public jobs, contract directly with the owner. They are not subcontractors of each other, and someone still has to coordinate them. The owner often holds that risk.
The superintendent directs means and methods inside the contract. The architect does not direct the subcontractor's labor. An architect who does can create a claim and a safety problem.
Design questions go up as RFIs. Field coordination among subs is the prime's job.
Pay-when-paid ties timing to the owner's payment but may still require the prime to pay eventually. Pay-if-paid, where enforceable, shifts the owner's nonpayment risk to the sub. Many states limit those clauses. Know which sentence is in the subcontract.
Lien waivers travel with each payment. Retainage should match the prime contract's retainage, or the prime will finance the difference.
The prime's safety plan applies. A sub who arrives without orientations, competent persons, or the required insurance can be removed. Removal does not delete their scope. It means someone else performs it, sometimes by back charge.
Multi-employer sites still have individual duties. Flow-down does not erase a sub's own safety obligations.
Subcontract default clauses allow the prime to supplement or replace a crew that falls behind, after notice, and to back-charge the cost.
The clause is not a license to starve a sub of information and then declare default.
Examples
The mechanical subcontractor signs a subcontract that incorporates the mechanical drawings, Division 23, and the leveled scope sheet.
A supplier drops off fixtures and does not install them. They are a supplier. The installing firm is the subcontractor.
The owner asks a subcontractor's foreman to move a wall. The foreman sends the request through the superintendent so the prime can price it.
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