The Malaysian construction industry is commonly practicing a subcontracting. Due to improperly managed the relationships between main contractor and subcontractors, the performance of construction projects will be adversely impacted. Hence, the relationships between main contractors and subcontractors are becoming crucial to the success of construction projects. Therefore, the aim of this study is to recommend the practices to maintain smooth relationships between main contractors and subcontractors in the Malaysian construction industry. The practices were identified from the literature review and confirmed through a questionnaire survey. Questionnaire survey were distributed to 279 respondents with 26% of questionnaire returned rate. The results were analysed using SPSS version 28. The findings of this research revealed that the most recommended practices to maintain smooth relationships between main contractors and subcontractors was to select the subcontractors based on past experiences and reputation, followed by prepare a detail plan and schedule at each stage, payment allocation is on-time for progressively work done, consider and plan the financial expenses carefully and make a daily monitor to subcontractors' progress. The outcomes of this research expected to provide valuable references for local main contractors to have a better understanding of their relationships with subcontractors in order to improve the performance of construction projects.